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‘Yes, I do. Emma told me what happened. My father paid you off. He gave you money to stop seeing me and you took it,’ Freya stated through gritted teeth.
It still stung. The memories burned.
‘That isn’t strictly true.’
‘No? Well, what did I leave out? One minute you were telling me you didn’t care who I really was, or who my father was. You said you wanted to marry me. The next minute, you won’t answer my calls or see me. Then Emma is telling me you’re leaving the area,’ Freya continued.
‘It wasn’t because I didn’t love you anymore. It was just complicated.’
‘You mean I was complicated. I was suddenly too complicated for you to deal with. So, it had nothing to do with thirty thousand pounds?’ Freya asked.
How was he going to squirm out of that one?
‘No. It had nothing to do with thirty thousand pounds.’
‘Well, what was it then? Fifty? A hundred thousand? My father is a very rich man, perhaps it was more than that. A million? No, I don’t think he would part with that much just to stop me seeing someone he didn’t approve of,’ Freya carried on.
She was aware her voice had almost hit banshee heights and a table to their left was now paying more attention to them than the food. She didn’t care. She wanted to get this out. She needed him to know how much he had hurt her and find out why.
‘Eric didn’t give me any money,’ Jonathan told her.
She closed her lips, narrowed her eyes and waited for him to say something else. There had to be something else. He took another sip of his wine, his gaze not leaving hers.
If her father hadn’t given him money to leave her, then why had he left her? And why had Emma told her that Jonathan had accepted money from her father to not see her again?
‘I don’t understand. So, you just left because he told you to? You gave up what we had together because my father asked you to?’ she stuttered.
‘I left because my father got a new job on the other side of London. It was a good job, it paid well and it was a step up for us,’ he explained.
‘I don’t believe you. You don’t break up with someone just because you’re moving a few miles away. The whole of London is connected by something called the Tube, for God’s sake. We could have met up; we could have carried on.’
She didn’t believe this. All this time, she had thought everything had come down to money again and he was here telling her something different. What did she believe?
‘I didn’t want to carry on; like I said, it was too complicated.’ There was strength to his tone, finality.
‘Hang on a minute here. I’m old enough to be able to take the truth that maybe you didn’t want to date me anymore, although I find that a little difficult to believe, seeing as you’d got down on your knee and proposed to me, albeit with a ring from Argos. But why tell Emma my father paid you off?’
‘I don’t know. Because I was seventeen and immature and I knew you would believe it. I was scared, Freya. Meeting your parents and actually thinking properly about making a commitment and settling down, it freaked me out. I wasn’t really ready,’ he admitted. He let out an audible sigh.
‘So, rather than tell me that, you made up a story about my father paying you to leave and you had me believe that story for all this time? Wait a minute, this doesn’t add up. I’ve told my father on more than one occasion that I blamed him for making you leave and he’s never contradicted me. Why would he take the blame if he wasn’t involved?’
Her brain was working overtime now. None of this made sense and she was struggling to fit the pieces together.
‘I don’t know. I can’t comment on anything Eric might or might not have said. But I’m telling you now, he did not pay me to leave you. It was my decision, I made it on my own and I apologise if I upset you.’
‘Upset me? I wouldn’t say the house burning was entirely down to you leaving me, but it was a contributing factor. My God, all this time I’ve been thinking it was my evil father at work again and it was just a normal dumping scenario.’
She’d been jilted, plain and simple. That thought had her reaching for her wineglass and pouring it into the mouth.
‘Like I said, it was complicated,’ Jonathan repeated.
‘Sure, whatever.’
She felt sick.
‘Look, surely we can move on from this. I mean we were both young and immature and these things happen. And you’re engaged now. Tell me about Nicholas Kaden,’ he urged.
‘Nick’s the most amazing man I’ve ever met. He’s kind of a male version of me, without the temper and obviously slimmer. But he does have a soft spot for takeaways and I’m teaching him that leftovers really are nice on toast for breakfast.’
