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Chapters (45)
  1. The Man With No Face
  2. Also by
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Epigraph
  7. Contents
  8. INTRODUCTION
  9. CHAPTER ONE
  10. CHAPTER TWO
  11. CHAPTER THREE
  12. CHAPTER FOUR
  13. CHAPTER FIVE
  14. CHAPTER SIX
  15. CHAPTER SEVEN
  16. CHAPTER EIGHT
  17. CHAPTER NINE
  18. CHAPTER TEN
  19. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  20. CHAPTER TWELVE
  21. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  23. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  25. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  26. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  27. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Sally heard the catch in his voice.

‘And still, all I could think about was me. My feelings, my confusion, my hurt. She would rather go through the pain of being a single mother than marry me. The mist was gone from her eyes and she saw me for what I was. A liar and a coward.’ He shook his head. ‘And then once I’d got over my injured pride I realized I was free. I didn’t have to marry her. There’d be no paternity suit. She didn’t even want my money, because that would have given me rights.’ He snorted his self-contempt. ‘It lost me my job, though. Word got around. My editor called me in and told me he didn’t want someone like me on his staff, and that I’d better start looking for another job. I was pretty sore at the time, but I did get another job. In England. I heard later she’d had a baby girl, and then I lost contact. It didn’t seem to matter then. I was just glad to have escaped.’

He turned to see Sally’s dark unreadable eyes gazing into his. He couldn’t meet them, and turned away.

‘Then,’ he said, ‘well, then I had time to think about it. The years pass. You get a little older, a little wiser, and you become more aware of consequences. I find it difficult now to reconcile myself with who I was then. I ruined two lives. Stole a girl’s innocence, and robbed a child of her father’s love. I didn’t discover my own wounds until later. Perhaps not until now.’

In the silence that followed, he felt no better for having told her. What had he expected? And suddenly he was embarrassed at having opened his soul to her. This was only making the moment of parting worse.

He rolled away and climbed out of bed, crossing to the window, standing naked in the darkness with his back to her.

‘Neil . . .?’ Her voice trailed after him.

‘You’d better go,’ he said, his voice muffled against the glass, breath misting it.

She rose and dressed slowly. He heard her moving about behind him. Then he heard the bedroom door opening and closing. From out on the landing came the sound of a door shutting, and footsteps echoed distantly on the stairs.

When he could no longer hear them, he let his face rest against the cold glass and whispered, ‘Goodbye.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

He woke with a bad taste in his mouth. It had been a restless night and the sheets were wrapped around him like a shroud. He was cold, but didn’t get up immediately. He lay staring at the rectangle of blue sky he could see through the window.

She was gone. All that remained was the lingering traces of her perfume.