Page 24 of My Husband’s Wife

Twenty-Three

It’s lunchtime and despite trying to call Nicole all morning, she hasn’t answered. She’s meant to pick Aaron up today but I don’t know when. I want to speak to her about that phone call.

‘Sweetheart, stop picking your head.’ Mum gently takes my hand and applies a bit of pressure until I move it away from the clump of scabs that have crusted at the nape of my neck.

Embarrassed, I pull some hair across the back to disguise the patch, realising it’s thinning out a bit too much.

I’ll need to attach the emergency hairpiece I own next time I leave the house.

‘What’s happening? Please talk to me, Eva.’

‘Nothing,’ I snap, and instantly feel guilty. Mum is the one who has been there for me throughout everything. ‘It was just a busy one last night.’

‘I saw.’

I frown.

‘Your clothes in the utility, next to the wash. Looked like you’d been wrestling in a pigsty.

You’ve ruined your jacket, sweetheart. I did take a look, see if I could sew it up but there’s a big chunk missing.

’ She pauses. ‘I woke up at one in the morning when I heard you pulling up. I thought you were going to be home about eleven.’

I blow out a breath, wondering if now is the right time to show Mum that photo.

No, I can’t do that now. If I do, I will start crying again.

It’s too raw. I’ll talk about it when I’ve had chance to process it.

It’s not like it’s going anywhere. I swallow, wondering if Madison or Theo suspect I was there, and I also wonder if he’s found the pushed-out window and called the police.

My fingerprints will be all over his office.

‘It got a bit rowdy which is why I had to stay later.’

‘I see. They don’t pay you to break up drunken fights.’

I hate lying to Mum so I look away. If my gaze meets hers, she’ll see through me. ‘I know, and I’m all right.’ I let out a nervous laugh. ‘You should see the other guy.’ A cliché, I know, but Mum laughs too.

‘Have you heard from Nicole?’ she asks.

‘Yes, she called me while I was working.’

‘I didn’t want to worry you but she came here last night to pick Aaron up.

She was drunk and he was asleep, so I managed to convince her to come back today.

She came in a taxi and could barely walk.

She was in no fit state to take Aaron home like that.

Anyway, she saw sense and said she’d come back today.

I think she’d been crying. I asked her if she was okay and she said yes. She wasn’t though.’

‘She’s been having a hard time with her ex-husband.’ The boys run around upstairs and laughter rains down from above, followed by Freddie’s yapping. ‘I’ll call her when I’ve had a quick shower.’

I feel as groggy as hell this morning. I check my phone.

Zach hasn’t tried to call or message. I’m going to ring him, too, when I’ve freshened up.

I need to get to the bottom of what’s going on between him and Nicole, and I’m going to tell him that I know his brother was murdered.

It’s the anniversary of that horrible incident and he didn’t even mention it.

I don’t know how to tackle both of these issues in the same call.

Maybe a shower will clear my head. As I leave the room, Mum starts prepping some pancake mix.

Ten minutes later I’m lathering up and massaging all the bruises on my arms and legs from that fall out of the window.

I flinch while rubbing shampoo into my hair as it stings the open wounds on my scalp.

Once finished, I turn the shower off and step out, grabbing my fluffy bathrobe before heading back downstairs.

Caiden sits at the table with a pancake and a dollop of strawberry jam.

‘Where’s Aaron?’

Mum sits next to him. ‘Nicole collected him five minutes ago. I didn’t want to disturb your shower, and she was in a hurry. She said she’d call you later. She took the hamster too.’

Damn, I wanted to speak to her.

‘I asked her if she wanted to join us for pancakes, but she said she was in a rush. To be fair, she looked hungover. Poor Aaron didn’t even get chance to put his coat on properly before she bundled him into her van.’

I call Nicole but her phone goes to voicemail. I run upstairs and throw some joggers and a sweater on, my hair still soaking. Running back down, I call out ‘Won’t be long’ to Mum and head to Nicole’s. I have her address but I’ve never been to her house. This can’t wait.

Several minutes later, I pull up outside her home. All the curtains are closed and her van isn’t parked on the road. A neighbour comes out after I’ve knocked for ages.

‘There’s no one in. Mr Burton is still in hospital.’

I have no idea who he’s referring to. ‘I was actually looking for Nicole. Have you seen her today?’ I inhale the stench of stale sweat coming from the bald, stocky man who stands there in a grimy white vest and overshirt.

He furrows his brows. ‘Nicole, my daughter Nicole?’

I pull out a photo I took of Aaron, Caiden and Nicole when we were at the café. ‘This Nicole?’

‘That’s her.’

‘I thought she lived in that house.’ I know I had the right house number but then again, she has never invited me to her house.

She collected Caiden from school a couple of times, took him to hers and dropped him home to me.

Caiden never mentioned her dad being there and from what Nicole told me, I assumed she wasn’t close to her dad.

‘She did but she lost it. Story of my life, picking Nicole up. I persuaded my landlord to let her rent it, but she blew that too and now she’s living with me – again!

’ He shakes his head and tuts. ‘I’m sick of it all now.

I’m sick of being used to babysit while she galivants all over the place, which is why I had to put my foot down the other day.

If you’re her friend, when you see her, can you try to talk some sense into her? ’

I feel sorry for her. Her father shouldn’t moan about her on their doorstep with a stranger. I think of her bringing up Aaron alone and his dad constantly letting him down. Given my past, I should have seen what was going on. Maybe Nicole is having some sort of breakdown.

‘But she’s been through so much with Aaron’s dad. Maybe cut her some slack?’

He huffs. ‘You really don’t know Nicole. That poor man deserves a medal.’ With that, he turns and slams the door before I can ask him another question.