Page 14 of Barging In

Clem meanwhile forged ahead. “There was someone else there with him. A woman.”

Victoria’s heart skipped a beat. She forced a smile, casually replying, “He probably invited a friend to dinner.”

“Upstairs?”

Her smile faltered as she sat back down. “Maybe he was showing her around.”

“While she kissed his neck?”

Victoria blinked, her mouth suddenly dry. A sharp pulse throbbed behind her eyes, but she kept her tone even.

“Are you sure that’s what you saw?” she asked calmly, though the weight in her chest told her she already knew the answer.

Clem nodded. “Yes. I saw enough to know. She had short hair. Like a pixie cut, if that helps?”

“How would that help exactly?” Victoria barked, suddenly unable to contain her rising anger.

It did help, but she wasn’t about to reveal that her husband’s secretary, Hannah, had a pixie cut. It was none of Clem’s business anyway, and it had been some time since Victoria cared what Drew got up to.

Clem stared blankly at her, making Victoria bite her lip. This wasn’t Clem’s fault; she was doing what she thought was right, even if it did leave Victoria feeling naked, shaky, and nauseous.

“Believe me or don’t.” Clem shrugged. “It’s no skin off my nose. I don’t like seeing other women get shat on, that’s all. I should have made an exception… for you.”

Victoria groaned internally at the fact that once again their conversation was spiralling.

“I came to apologise, which I’ve done,” Clem continued, her voice clipped, previous agitation gone. “I’ll leave you to mull it over. But I know what I saw,” she added, heading towards the door.

Anger surged through Victoria, more at herself than anyone else. “You can tell those builders to keep the noise down,” she snapped, her words sharper than she’d intended.

Clem opened the door and turned back. “Suck it up. My great-aunt put up with your renovations for a year.”

Jasper appeared, fist ready to knock when Clem swept past him. She looked back and winked at him.

“Everything okay? You two aren’t off for another swim, are you?” he asked Victoria, his mouth quirking as though the idea amused him more than it should.

A mixture of embarrassment and uncertainty kept her from speaking the truth. She’d never told anyone about her marital arrangements before, and she wasn’t about to start now — not even with Jasper.

“No,” she said, forcing a smile. “Everything is fine. She returned my jumper. Why did she wink at you?”

“She must have recognised me from the other day. ”

Victoria raised an eyebrow. “She recognised you from one visit?”

Jasper squirmed. “Perhaps she has an amazing memory?”

She pressed onwards. “Jasper?”

He let out a long breath as his shoulders slumped. “Okay. I’ve been over there a few times. Her cakes are so much better than ours. I can’t help it. I’m an addict; I freely admit it.”

Victoria glared at him. “If we can’t even get loyalty from the staff, we’re fucked!”

Jasper drew back and winced. “Sorry.”

“It at least explains your eagerness to get over there and sample her cake. You sat there eating it like it was your first time. You’d make a great actor, you know.”

“I would.” He grinned.

Victoria sighed and spun her chair around to the window. “I can’t stop thinking about her lemon drizzle either.”

“Ha! See?”

She levelled a sceptical brow at him. “Not enough to go over every day. I have some restraint, even if others don’t.”

Jasper bit his lip and joined her by the window. Clem was crossing the bridge, and Victoria’s eyes tracked her automatically.

“I like her,” Jasper said, his eyes following her, too, “even if she is causing us grief.”

“There’s something about her,” Victoria murmured.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” she replied, realising she’d spoken the words aloud.

“We should get her to bake for us. Stop Christine buying that rubbery, plastic shit.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Victoria said before realising it was a good idea, albeit an impossible one. “What did you want, anyway?”

“I came to see if you wanted to go out for lunch today.”

She did, but she had too much on her mind to enjoy it. “Not today. I’m a little snowed under. I think I’ll work through it.”

“Okay, but make sure you eat something.”

She acknowledged him with a vague ‘mmm’, her eyes still fixed on the boat.

“You should follow her on Instagram,” Jasper quipped, heading for the door. “She puts a post up at the end of the day with a discount on any leftover cake. You might be able to bag that lemon drizzle at fifty per cent off!”

She turned, narrowed her eyes, and chucked her pen at him. Jasper skipped out the door, laughing.

Even so, Victoria thought, following Clem on her socials might not be such a bad idea. It was another way to monitor the competition, and she might even steal some of her marketing tactics. Clem clearly had a few up her sleeve.

The room felt suddenly empty, as did Victoria. Empty and frustrated. Why couldn’t she and Clem hold an adult conversation without sparks flying? Why did it have to be Clem who was lurking around her house at night to witness such things?

She pressed her hands to her stomach and swivelled her chair back to the window to watch the wharf’s comings and goings.

At least she had her jumper back; that was a small win.

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder if it had been meant to soften the blow: Here’s your jumper back, and, by the way, your husband is having an affair.

If so, it wasn’t necessary. She was no stranger to Drew’s antics; she just preferred not to think about them, let alone have someone shove them in her face uninvited.

It at least explained Clem’s restless manner when she had arrived.

It couldn’t have been easy to come over to her office and tell a relative stranger such news.

Drew hadn’t mentioned he’d be staying at the house whilst she was at the spa. She realised she shouldn’t have told him she’d be away. The rules had been clear: No one else was to come to the house. That had been non-negotiable.

They got on well enough — were cordial, even — but she wasn’t foolish enough to believe she and her husband still loved each other.

Not in the way they had when their lives were full of hope and ambition.

A divorce would have made more sense, but with neither of them suggesting it, their marriage had settled into something more like a financial arrangement.

The rot solidified when he refused to relocate with her, saying he needed to be permanently based in London for work.

Renovating the house was her domain, and he’d shown little interest in the wharf either once the apartments were finished and sold off.

When he asked for an open marriage — logical, he’d said, given how much time they spent apart — she’d known their romantic relationship was over.

She suspected the only reason he hadn’t already filled the ground floor with apartments and sold them off, even with the lack of profit, was because it kept her out of London — out of the way so he could do whatever he wanted.

So, she was sceptical about his threats, but she couldn’t rest on her laurels and potentially lose the place.

The wharf meant everything to her and to Jasper.

It wasn’t simply a business; it was a dream they’d built from nothing but hope and a shared vision.

She couldn’t imagine not working with him anymore.

He was the only person who understood her mission to create something lasting.

He’d worked tirelessly alongside her to bring it to life.

Movement on the stern of Clem’s boat pulled Victoria from her thoughts.

Clem was tying up a rubbish bag. She glanced towards the wharf, and their eyes seemed to meet.

Victoria froze, hoping Clem was merely looking in her direction, not directly at her.

Getting caught spying from the window wasn’t on her to-do list for the day, but the deliberate twist of Clem’s head and the intensity of her stare before turning back to the bin confirmed it: She’d been spotted.

Could this day get any worse?

Thankfully, it remained uneventful, and by the time Victoria arrived home later that afternoon, she mustered enough energy to scrub all surfaces, strip the sheets, and wash every glass like she was exorcising something.

She opened a bottle of wine and filled a glass, sinking into her chair.

The calm they both brought her was much needed, but the moment she looked out her window, she remembered: Her view was now compromised, shifted by the arrival of a stranger; a woman who’d been in her life for less than a week and had already upended everything.