Page 40 of My Husband’s Wife

Thirty-Nine

Madison lies in the bath while Theo is putting Emily in her cot. To help her relax, he’d added one of her jasmine bath bombs to the water and left a huge glass of alcohol-free wine. The flickering candles make the mildewy old bathroom look quite charming.

‘Emily’s fast asleep,’ he says. ‘I’m going to head to the cabin for a bit so I can do some work.’

She yawns as she finishes the pretend wine and lies back in the steaming hot water. ‘Okay.’

‘I’m also going to head into the woods to see the badgers and record some sound of the owls if I can.’

Before she gets the chance to answer, he’s already gone.

She’s glad to be alone with her thoughts after such an intense evening.

She has her upcoming appointment with the wedding dress sewers soon, to make final adjustments.

Everything is moving at breakneck speed.

At the back of her mind, she’s mentally preparing for Millie and Deepak’s upcoming wedding and the fact that it’s at the Sea Horse Hotel, where Eva works.

A sense of dread washes through her. Maybe moving is the only option.

Her phone rings. ‘Camille.’

‘Hey, sis. You called earlier. Sorry, Francesca hasn’t been well. Nothing to worry about, just a twenty-four-hour thing so we’ve mostly been in the bathroom. Things calmed down and I fell asleep. I think you and Emily should stay away for a couple of days.’

‘Thanks for the warning. What a shame. Poor Francesca. I just wanted to talk but if it’s not a good time, I can call tomorrow.’

‘No, now is perfect. I’m lying in bed with a hot chocolate so I’m chill now.’ Camille laughs.

Madison loves how Camille takes everything in her stride. She’s sure she’ll be a panicking mess when Emily gets poorly for the first time. ‘You know I mentioned Scotland, and possibly moving in the future?’

She hears Camille inhale before speaking. ‘Yes.’

‘We’re going to look at a place soon.’

‘Really? Have you thought this through?’

‘Yes, we both want this.’

Camille goes silent. It’s like she can read Madison’s mind and sense her doubts. ‘You know you don’t have to go. You could stay here for a bit longer, think about it.’

‘We’ve thought about it and we’ve found a lovely house. You and the family can stay anytime. There’s an annexe.’ She can’t let Theo down, not after they spoke about his mother.

‘I don’t want an annexe; I want my sister.’ She pauses again. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know you have your own life to lead but I can’t imagine not having you here, especially as Mum and Dad aren’t close.’

Their parents moved to Penzance in Cornwall several years ago, leaving her and Camille living alone in Ilfracombe.

Camille continues. ‘You were here for me when I had Eden and Francesca, and I wanted to be there for you with Emily. I want to see her grow up…why so soon?’

She clears her throat. Maybe she should confide in Camille. She always has done before. ‘Theo has been in touch with his mum. She’s not dead, like he said.’

‘If that’s not a huge red flag, I don’t know what is. How could he lie about something so huge?’

‘It’s more complicated than you think.’

‘Really,’ she replies. ‘You spent years being lied to by that prick you married and you kept going back to him, and now this. You’ve put me through a lot of heartache, sis.’

‘It’s not the same.’

‘Isn’t it?’

The problem with Camille is she always thinks she knows better and that annoys Madison.

She hasn’t even told her about the conversation she had with Theo earlier.

She wanted to say so much more, like about seeing those photos and how Theo had been looking at Eva’s social media.

As she begins to speak, she hears Francesca talking to Camille.

‘Mummy, my tummy’s bad again.’

‘Look, I have to go. Just promise me you’ll think things through properly, Madison. We love you loads.’

‘I promise,’ but it’s too late; Camille has already ended the call.

Madison sinks into the bath, her ears submerged while she tries to calm her racing thoughts but it’s not working.

Instead, she grabs her phone from the window ledge and searches for Eva on Instagram.

Her profile isn’t even private. She scrolls through the photos of Eva’s dog and house until she stops at Eva’s wedding photos again.

After pressing the photo, she pinches it to zoom in.

Eva looks so pretty in her ivory dress, and he looks quite brooding and handsome.

She refers to the man she loves as Zach in the description but she hasn’t tagged him.

Madison stares at him for longer this time; she’s seen him before but she can’t work out where and when. He wasn’t at the Sea Horse Hotel when they went for the meeting, and he didn’t pick Eva up from the salon; she drove herself.

Maybe she has got baby brain? How could she have ever met Eva’s husband?

That’s it. She remembers. She saw him with another woman around Christmas. They came to speak to Theo about setting up a computer system for their new business.

Madison scrolls on and sees a photo of Zach with Eva, and underneath Eva calls him The best plasterer in the world .

There is no mention of the other woman, the one with the little boy.

Maybe he’d been helping her out. No, she remembers Theo describing them as a couple who had a business selling something.

They’d been holding hands when they arrived.

As soon as she’d made them a coffee, she’d left them talking with Theo in the cabin.

She scrolls down further, seeing if she can see the woman on Eva’s posts, but she can’t.

There is the back of a woman at a café and it could be the same woman, but she can’t be sure.

All she can see are her long, wild brown curls caught under her coat.