Page 56 of My Husband’s Wife

Fifty-Five

Madison

As Madison pulls up at the Clifton House Hotel, the car park is virtually empty.

She swallows the lump in her throat as she takes a moment.

She and Theo should have been cutting their cake and soon would have been thinking of slipping off to the honeymoon suite to make love while Emily shared a room with Camille, Neil and the kids; but that dream is over.

For the first time that day, she allows herself to sob for the loss of her future.

She heads back over to the weeping willow to escape the rain and leans against the tree trunk.

Her engagement ring glints in the moonlight – another reminder of what she’s lost. She pulls it off and throws it in the bushes.

After wiping her eyes on the sleeve of Camille’s hoodie, she stands and jogs across the car park.

She hasn’t seen Eva’s car, which means that Eva didn’t go missing at the mess of her wedding that never happened.

There’s more parking space alongside the building.

As she walks towards it on the pea-gravelled surface, she catches sight of a car that looks like Eva’s.

She uses the torch on her phone to peer through the window.

A keyring containing a photo of Eva’s son lies on the passenger seat.

Eva never left the hotel. She has to be inside.

Madison peers in through the windows, searching the bar.

A woman sits alone but it’s not Eva. She turns around, her bag in her hand as if she’s about to leave, then she frowns as she catches sight of Madison.

Tammy has spotted her. A long chat about the disaster of her big day is the last thing Madison needs, but maybe Tammy has seen Eva.

‘Madison?’ Tammy appears at the end of the road holding her tiny bag over her head. She struggles to balance in her stilettos. ‘You look…’

‘Like crap, I know.’

‘I’m so sorry. Orla and I have been worried about you.’

‘You’re both at the hotel?’

Tammy nods. ‘Orla went to bed and I was just about to go up. We’d both had a drink earlier so decided to stay. How have you been? Actually, don’t answer that. What a stupid question.’

‘It’s fine. I’m okay, honestly.’

Tammy raises her brows. The rain starts to pour down. ‘Why don’t we go inside. You’re soaked through.’

Madison is so used to looking after Orla and Tammy, it feels odd for Tammy to be looking out for her. She gently leads Madison into the reception area. ‘Have you seen Eva?’

‘Eva?’ Tammy shrugs. ‘Do I know her?’

‘The woman who came in for a haircut the other week. You booked her in.’ Tammy looks blank so Madison calls up Eva’s Instagram.

‘She came here to speak to me earlier. She’s the wedding planner at the Sea Horse Hotel, the place we cancelled to come here.

’ She holds a photo of Eva up for Tammy to see as they both sit on a couch.

‘Ah, I saw her earlier. She dashed in while we were having canapes. What was she doing here?’

‘I haven’t got time to explain. You’ve been here all day, haven’t you? Have you seen her since?’

Tammy shakes her head, her wonky fascinator falling into her lap. ‘No.’

‘I saw her.’ The receptionist pipes up from behind them, coat in arms as she was just about to leave. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.’

‘It’s okay.’ Madison stands and thrusts her phone at the receptionist.

‘Some angry, drunken woman came in, knocking the flowers over earlier.’

‘Was this before the wedding?’

‘You mean the wedding that wasn’t?’ The receptionist suddenly recognises Madison and clears her throat.

‘I’m sorry, that was your wedding. Err, the woman in that photo told your wedding planner that she was your sister and that she had something for you.

Next thing, the other woman, long brown hair down to her waist, knocked the flowers over.

We told her to leave. She clearly wasn’t dressed for a wedding, and you had the place booked out for the day.

The woman in your photo went outside looking for her.

I didn’t see either of them after that. I assumed they’d left. ’

‘And you haven’t seen either of them since?’

‘I’ve been here since this morning and they haven’t been back.’

Madison holds the photo up. ‘This woman is called Eva. Her car is still in the car park and the police are looking for her. Do you have CCTV on the car park?’

The woman frowns. ‘The camera out the front only reaches the terraces. It doesn’t cover the car parks.

There is another camera alongside the building but it’s out of action.

You could ask the day staff a few questions if you come back tomorrow.

They might remember more. Could the woman in your photo have got a taxi?

She might have had a drink while she was here.

That’s what normally happens when people leave their cars overnight. ’

‘I guess. Do you know why the woman with the brown hair was here? You said she was angry.’

The receptionist swallows. ‘I feel really awful having to say this.’

‘Please, I walked out on my wedding today. Whatever you have to say, say it.’ Madison’s stomach begins to turn.

‘She said she had to stop your wedding. Your partner was angry at her presence, and he asked us to get rid of her. He said she’d been stalking him.

He also asked us not to say anything to you as he didn’t want the day ruined, then he left us to deal with her.

I nearly called the police to get her off the premises, but she left.

When you ran out at the altar, we thought that someone else had told you about the incident and that you were upset or that maybe he was having an affair with her.

’ The receptionist pauses. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. You’ve had a horrible day.’

‘It’s okay.’

Tammy places a loving arm around Madison’s shoulder.

‘Again, I’m sorry,’ the receptionist says.

‘It’s okay. It’s not your fault.’

The receptionist flashes a sympathetic smile and leaves.

Madison thinks back to the day that the brown-haired woman and Zach had their meeting with Theo.

She stared at Theo, and Madison remembered thinking that it was strange at the time.

What if all this time, Theo had been stalked?

She thinks of all the phone calls, the messages, his rising stress levels.

Theo said it was all down to his mother, but now Madison doesn’t believe him.

She thinks back to that night she was checking out the shed, when someone had been watching them.

Emily did have brown hair clasped in her tiny hand, not Madison’s red locks like Theo had claimed.

He’d tried to cover for his stalker, but why?

He should have told her if she and Emily were under threat.

Primal anger rises within her, the type of anger that would definitely result in an explosion – and there is only one person in the world she wants to release that bomb on. Theo.