Page 58 of The Girlfriend’s Secret

Joel takes a long glug of his beer, and Frederik implores me with his eyes to not start talking yet. I stay silent, even though I am itching to ask all the questions I have about why Haven has left. I want to know what she said. Why she said it. And where she has gone now. But I follow my husband’s lead and wait until Joel is ready to talk.

‘She said she couldn’t be with me after everything that had already happened between us all,’ Joel explains. ‘She said she didn’t want me to have to choose her over my family because I’d end up resenting her and it would never work.’

I remain silent because this is all sounding good so far.

‘I tried to tell her that we could work it out,’ Joel goes on. ‘I tried to tell her that we could all apologise and this would get better. But she didn’t believe me. She said it would never work. Not when my mother hated her.’

Joel looks at me then and I see tears in his eyes. Does he hate me too?

‘I didn’t hate Haven,’ I say firmly. ‘I was just looking out for my family, like I always do.’

‘Yeah,’ Joel replies quietly before taking another swig of beer.

‘I’m sorry, son,’ Frederik says then, putting a hand on Joel’s shoulder. ‘Break-ups are never easy.’

My husband is speaking from experience there because there have been several times during our marriage that we have been on the verge of breaking up. Each of those times was because of me, or at least that was who Frederik blamed it on. He said I could be a nasty person, that there was a side to me that was getting worse, that I brought bad energy into this house. But every time, I managed to talk him around and keep him here, even going to a useless therapist to show how I was ‘willing to change’. But now I don’t have to worry about him leaving me. He won’t want to go anywhere now that we are rich and can do far more fun things than work all day and argue all night.

‘I’m sorry too,’ I say to Joel. ‘I didn’t want things to end like this. I just want you to be happy.’

I’m not sure if Joel believes that in this moment or blames me for effectively chasing away his girlfriend, but he doesn’t say anything. He just drinks more beer.

‘Where is Haven now?’ I ask then, eager to know her whereabouts. Hopefully she’s long gone, but it’s best to get confirmation.

‘She said she was going to go back to Australia,’ Joel says, which is music to my ears. She couldn’t get much further away than that, although I have to be careful not to show my happiness about that fact.

‘I see,’ is all I say.

There’s a bit of an awkward silence then as Joel stares at the label on his beer bottle whilst Frederik and I make eye contact but don’t have anything verbal to offer. I figure it won’t be long until Joel decides he wants to be alone and goes upstairs to his bedroom and, once that happens, it will likely be a while before he emerges again for a chat. So I decide to say one more thing before that can happen.

‘I know it’s hard right now, darling, but things will get easier and you will meet someone else one day,’ I say, eager to put the thought of another attractive woman in his mind so he forgets about the last one.

‘Just take it day by day, son,’ Frederik adds, slightly more sensibly than me and my hinting at finding somebody new already.

‘Yeah,’ Joel says before he finishes his beer and then does what I just predicted he would do. He says he wants to be alone and leaves the kitchen to go to his bedroom.

‘I suppose you’re happy about this,’ Frederik says to me once our son is well out of earshot.

‘Happy?’ I repeat. ‘Happy is an understatement.’

I’m not even going to pretend, not with my husband. So I don’t. I just let a large smile spread across my face, one that would mortify my son if he was here to see it, before I head over to the fridge and get a beer for myself.

‘Cheers,’ I say, raising the bottle towards my husband. ‘And so long, Haven. Here’s to never seeing you again.’

FORTY

HAVEN

EVENING – VALERIE’S HOUSE

By now, Joel should have done what he was supposed to do and now it’s my turn to do what I need to do. That’s why I take out the stolen key I still have and put it into the lock on Valerie’s front door before going inside the cold, vacant house.

Once inside, I check my phone and see that I have a message from my boyfriend. My boyfriend who just pretended that he is single again.

I did it.

That’s the first part of this precarious plan taken care of, so I message Joel straight back with my appreciation.

Well done. It can’t have been easy.