The Great Christmas Breakup (24 page)

‘
Then just t
ell me the truth,’ I said,
sotto voce
.
‘
Have you been with another woman?’

He didn’t even blink. Did that make him a pathological liar?
‘No, of course not.’

I revved the
accele
rator, engaged the clutch and
released the brake
a little. The car lurched forward.
Luckily
it was Christmas Day and
nothing in front of me.

‘Scarlet!’

‘Tell me the truth!’

‘I am.’

‘Last warning, Carson.’

‘Scarlet, there is no other woman, I swear on our children’s lives.’

The complete and total prat!
To li
e on our children’s lives was beyond acceptable.

Depressing the accelerator
,
the car began moving.

Fast.

And making a loud, horrible noise.

‘Change gears. Up to second, push the clutch in,’ Carson instructed.

I did as I was told, an
d the car satisfyingly sped up even more.

In front of us was the park, with the gates open.

‘You can’t go in there, it says
park vehicles only!’

‘Then tell me the truth.’

Carson tried
to steady
my steering.
‘I told you. Do you want me to lie?’

A red mist washed over me
and putting p
edal to the metal, I zoomed towards the park, using the
pond
inside as a marker
,
ignoring Carson’s pleas for me to stop.

My plan was to stop at the last minute at the edge of the water, and demand the truth.

But that never happened.

Instead,
the car hit a tree, and everything went black.

CHAPTER
THIR
TEEN

Christmas Day, December 25, P.M.

‘Giving up is not an option. Tell yourself that,

then
watch
how
things improve.’

Jocelyn Priestly

WHEN WE WERE
released from
hospital, things only got worse;
especially as
we were presented with the huge bill.

I tried not to think what had happened to my insurance since I had been fired from Flindes. Carson may be a cheater but I would be the one who made the kids homeless.

Carson put the invoice
in his
pocket without a second glance, groaning slightly with the effort.

Obviously
the knowledge that his indiscretion had led to even more debts
was keeping
his anger at the cost at bay.

And this only served to
induce a
n even greater
fury
in me; far
greater than that of the night before.

We went home and opened the presents
. There was no present at all from Carson to me. I had given him
Jocelyn Priestly’s new calendar, discovered in a clearance at a local market.

‘At least it is not
a re-gift,’ he commented dryly, moving tenderly to the table and taking a seat. He had bruised rips and nothing more. The car was totaled, but Carson and I were intact. Physically, at least.

My arms, fractured but not broken, were throbbing with the effort, but I mad
e
the Christmas dinner the kids
deserved, and once it was
eaten,
they
asked if they could go up to Hammertro’s.

‘Why?’ Carson grimaced at the mention of the name
.

‘He’s got a nicked
virtual computer device thing that’s worth a mint. Said we would use it before he sells it on.’

After the spending
most of
Christmas in a hospital waiting room, I couldn’t refuse them, could I?

The moment the door creaked closed
I confronted Carson.

‘Now, the truth. Or I leave.’

‘Scar, listen.’

I couldn’t t
ake any further prevarication.
‘You’ve been cheating on me! While I’ve
been working on my windows
and looking after the kids
, you’ve been cheating with some Harvard smartarse.’

I didn’t think that my
brief infatuation with Robert Simpson
deserved mention or clarification
.

Technically, I hadn’t actually
gone
there.

Carson had.

‘No, I haven’t,
’
he said evenly.

Then the buzzer rang, indicating
that someone was waiting
downstairs.

‘That better not be Cecily 2,’ I warned Carson, as he got up to answer the door.

‘Why would it be?’

‘Why wouldn’t it be?’

Carson peered at the videophone, then opened the door and dashed out.

Where was he going? I raced after
him and followed him downstairs t
o
find
him standing in newly fallen snow, talking to a pretty, slim, dark-haired woman
dressed simply in a black wool coat and shiny, expensive-
looking camel-colored
patent
boots.

This must be her. The nerve!

It’s Christmas. Tis the season not to break up families! Didn’t they teach basic decency at law school?

I wanted to sink into
the snow and weep at the sight of her crisp loveliness, a dire c
ontrast to
my blobby frumpiness.
I might have
done
too
, if my throbbing arms
hadn’t stopped me.

‘You still deny it?’ I
half-
pointed
at Miss Perfect, who was staring
uncomfortably at the ground.
‘You still deny the affair, even though she is standing right here?’

Carson looked at the woman apologetically.
‘Yes,
Scarlet,
because it is not true.’

‘Then wh
at the hell are you doing in that hotel room, on Christmas Day
, with
her
?’

‘What
are you talking about
?’

‘
That wasn’t what you think,’ the woman said quickly, looking up at Carson for direction.

‘So you admit it?’ It was freezing outside but I felt as if I was burning up.

Carson tried to placate me. ‘Scarlet, please listen . . .
’

‘Come on Carson, confess. The gig is up.’

‘
The gig is up?
Who are you? Charlie’s newest angel?’ He had the nerve to smile.

I began screaming,
‘
JUST TELL ME
WHAT ARE YOU UP TO!’

The woman told Carson it was time to fill me in. ‘She doesn’t look well, you know.’

Bitch!
We don’t all earn
the
hundreds of dollars a day it takes to look like you, do we?

Carson took my arm. ‘Scarlet,
calm down,
I’ll tell you.’

Here it comes, t
he end of my marriage.

I braced myself.

‘I was s
tudying for my State bar exam.
Laura was helping me, as I’ve been offered a job in her firm.
If I passed, I start
2nd January.
And this morning Laura confirmed that I’ve passed. That’s why I went to Manhattan.
’

The world began to spin. Carson was
studying
. And he was studying
law.

Hang on!

‘Why did you buy her something from
LollyBliss
, then?’

‘A
s a
thank you, for Laura.
’

‘Why from there?’

‘Why not? You showed me that magazine
cover with your window
– it’s very trendy, apparently. And I don’t know where to buy stuff for women, do I? It was the easiest way to buy Laura something – plus I knew Lolly would let me in if I came after closing.’

It was a r
easonable enough excuse.
But he was a clever guy.

‘You want some proof, hah?’ His strong, lean arm was around me now.
And Laura was smiling.

‘Actually, yes.’

‘Here’s your Christmas present. Laura brought them around so I could give you one today.’

He presented
me
with
a business card. It declared that he was a junior associate at somewhere called Wider, Locke and Brimskate.

I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing
or seeing
. Carson was a lawyer? He had a job . . . as a lawyer?

Did this mean m
y life of penury was over?

That w
e would be able to pay the hospital
bill? And buy some decent food?

And another car.
One with decent brakes and airbags?

‘I don’t know what to say?’
I told him.

‘Say that you love me, and not the other guy?’

His deep
Caribbean blue eyes, the ones
I’d fallen in love with, se
arc
hed my
own.

‘Carson, I was working for Robert Simpson, that’s all.
He is a complete freak. You have no idea how unlikely it would be for me to run off with someone like him.
’

‘You promise?’

‘Yes.’ I sighed. ‘H
e didn’t
even
pay m
e for the windows I did for
Chocolato
.
’

Laura the lawyer put a hand to her mouth. ‘But those windows a
re incredible.’

‘You saw them?’

‘There is a shop near the office – I couldn’t miss it. Loads of people at work have noticed them, too.’

‘Mom says she wants to see them, you know,’ Carson told me.

I had to shake my head to clear the fuzz.

‘Really?
Cecily?’

‘Says if they’re good you can
do up the mobile home anytime. And
if
you do well at window dressing that
maybe
you can
buy her a proper present next year.’

I grinned at that. Taking his hand, I told him that
at least now we could afford something semi-decent
for Cecily next Christmas.

‘Only semi-decent?’

‘Your mother would expect nothing more.’

Laura, uncomfortable with the cozy banter, told Carson she’d see him at work in a week or so, and told me that it had been nice
to meet
me.

‘Nice, or horrifying?’ I smiled.

‘A bit of both,’ she replied honestly. ‘But we can work on that.’

Carson led me indoors.

‘How much do they
pay a junior associate, anyway?
’ I asked, as we trudged up
stairs.

‘About three times what I’m earning now.’

I thought
about my own short-lived career
and losing my job at Flindes. Now was as good a time as any to tell Carson I’d been fired.

‘I’d take you out for a celebratory dinne
r if Dan Phillit hadn’t fired me.’

‘What? No?’ Luckily, the shine from his new job made it difficult for Carson to be more than a little concerned.

‘I thought the window money might make up the balance until I found another job, but then
Robert bloody Simpson refused to pay me.’

‘Why?’ His eyes searched mine.

‘He wanted me to make up a threesome. I refused.’

‘Ahhh.’ Carson wrapped me in his strong arms.
‘
Then l
et’s make that
one of my
first assignments as a practicing lawyer
, shall we?’

I didn’t understand what he was saying.

‘I’ll pay Robert Simpson a little visit. Tell him my firm will sue him if he doesn’t pay up.’