My Husband's Wife (32 page)

Forget the pain in my chest, making it hard to breathe.

It's nothing, compared with the agony of waiting.

My body is tense. Stiff with apprehension.

I can hear her now. She's coming.

The pains started the following day, when Carla was in the office, going through her post. There was always something, thank goodness. A letter, a contract, a phone call, a meeting with counsel. Anything to block out the image of Ed waiting for her at home, his eye on the clock, his hand on the bottle.

‘Got another one here,' announced Lily's old secretary, popping her head round the door. ‘Just been delivered by hand.' Carla's heart quickened, although there was no need. Many letters were hand-delivered. Couriers were nothing out of the ordinary. Yet she could see as she took the envelope that her name hadn't been typed, but written by hand in spidery capital letters. She opened it.

YOU AND YOUR CHILD WILL PAY
.

Carla felt the baby launch another kick, far bigger this time. ‘Who dropped this off?' she heard herself say in a strangled voice.

The woman had made it clear that she didn't care for Lily's successor. ‘A motorbike courier. Didn't say which company he was with.' Flouncing off, she left the door wide open.

Getting up to shut it, Carla suddenly felt a trickle of water running down her legs.

How embarrassing! She had wet herself. Was this what her body had come to? Stuffing the letter in her bag, she scuttled past a partner in the corridor and dived into the Ladies. To her horror, the same secretary was there, drying her hands.

The woman gasped. ‘Have your waters broken?'

Of course, she knew that waters breaking was a sign of labour. But the teacher of her antenatal class had described it as more of a flood than a trickle.

‘This happened to me too with my second,' said the woman. Her tone was grudgingly kind. ‘Sit down while I call the ambulance.'

Carla felt as though the walls were coming towards her. ‘But it's too early. I'm not due for another six weeks.'

‘Even more need to get you into hospital.' The woman was already on her mobile. ‘Ambulance, please. Urgent.' Then she turned round to Carla. ‘Shall I call Ed? I've still got his number in Lily's old address book.'

Lily … Ed … Would they never go away! Was she destined to be trapped for ever in this marriage of three?

‘I am sorry,' she called out as the ambulance sped its way through the streets.

‘No need to apologize, love,' said the voice next to her. ‘It's our job.'

It's not you I'm apologizing to
, she tried to say.
It's the baby who's coming into this terrible mess we've created. Go back. Go back to where you came from so you are safe
. But strange pains had started in her belly. Wave after wave of pain, each one beginning almost as soon as its predecessor had finished.

‘We need to slow her down,' said another voice (female this time).

The urgent yet calm tone reminded Carla of the time she had been taken into hospital as a child.
You could have died
, the doctor had told her strictly at the time, as if she and not her mother were responsible for failing to react to her symptoms fast enough. Maybe she was dying now. Perhaps that would be best. What kind of life would the baby have with parents who were already fighting before it was born?

‘Carla, can you hear me?' The first voice was hovering over her. ‘We're just going to give you a little injection to try and keep baby inside for a bit longer. All right?'

And then it went black.

‘Let's go for a walk,' Joe said after we'd won the appeal, all those years ago. Such innocent words.

We began to stroll across the Heath, breathing in the cool night air after the tension of the court.

‘Do you remember,' he said, his eyes straight ahead, ‘when our hands touched in the prison?'

How could I forget? He had made it seem that the advance was all mine, rather than the other way round.

‘You know,' he continued, without waiting for an answer, ‘there are very few people in this world whom I can bear to touch. I've always been like that, even as a child.'

And then I found his hand – strong and firm – taking mine as we continued to walk into the dark, leaving the pub lit up behind us.

Of course, I should have withdrawn it. Made my excuses and gone home, right there and then. But I was on a high after our victory. And a low because of Ed. I had to face it. My new husband wasn't interested in me. He and Davina had been much better suited. It was her he should have married. Not me.

There was something else too. There are very few people in this world whom Joe could bear to touch. That's
what he said. Yet I was clearly one of them. And I was flattered. Why not? This was a man whom I believed had been wrongfully imprisoned. A man who was to be pitied and also admired – not least because he had decided not to press for financial compensation. Nothing, he had told the court, would bring back his ‘poor' girlfriend, Sarah Evans. All he wanted was justice. And his freedom.

‘You're crying,' Joe said when I found my hand squeezing his in return.

And that was when I had told him. Told him everything about my marriage. Let down my guard. I'd like to say it was because I don't normally drink a double on an empty stomach. I'd like to say it was because of the flush of success at winning my first big case. But the truth is that Joe was someone I could talk to.

As I had discovered, prison can do that to you. It creates a common bond. The very act of being in a place where most people fear to be makes you feel different. It creates some unlikely pairings. The fraudster and his rapist cell mate. The teacher and the murderer. The solicitor and her client.

And of course there was also that one thing that you can't impose rules or laws upon. That physical energy which sizzled between us. An electricity I'd first felt in the visitors' room below that
HOPE
poster. Something that should never exist between prisoner and lawyer. Except Joe was no longer a prisoner. He was a free man.

We were both free to do what we pleased.

I can't even say it was rape, although I did try to resist for a few seconds. All I knew was that suddenly I was
lost. I didn't even try to pretend to myself it was love, because it was far better. Why? Because love is too fragile and can be broken too easily. Lust is more robust. Immediately gratifying. Hadn't my past taught me that all too well?

As Joe pushed me roughly to the ground and unbuttoned my blouse, I remembered how ‘wrong' and ‘lust' could give you an inexplicable million-volt charge that was like nothing else. So strong that it made you melt and burn at the same time. It's an exhilarating feeling when someone gives you permission to break all rules – especially when that person is yourself. Finally I felt free.

‘Quick,' said Joe, soon after we'd finished. ‘Someone's coming.'

I scrambled to my feet.

Only then, when I saw the disgusted look on the face of the approaching dog walker, did I feel the shame I should have felt before. Shame that might have saved me from this situation had I felt it sooner.

‘Go away,' I said, my fingers trembling over my buttons. ‘Go away and never come back.'

Then I ran. Ran across the Heath, aware that I must have looked a mess. Ran down pavements and into the Tube, pressing myself against other sweaty bodies, conscious that I was smelling of ‘wrong'. Desperate to get back home for a shower. A long, hot shower to wash Joe Thomas away.

‘We must celebrate!' Ed said when I got in. ‘Open a bottle.' His face tightened. ‘Then we can have that talk you've been promising.'

The very sight of my husband's face had filled me with
such guilt that I insisted on going out for that bottle, just to get away.

Then there was the argument with Tony and Francesca outside in the corridor. That's why I was so hard on him. Of course I felt sorry for Tony's poor wife. But I lashed out at Tony because I recognized my own frailties in him. I despised him just as I despised myself.

The following night when I couldn't put off that talk with Ed any more, I sat in the bathroom and tried to decide whether to leave him or not.

If I opened on a page with an odd number, I'd leave.

If it was even, I'd stay.

Page seventy-three.

Odd.

The page showed a picture of a happy family sitting round the table. The picture and the print swam before my eyes. Sunday suppers. Normal life. The kind that my parents and I should have had. The kind that Ed and I could still have if we stopped lying.

I don't have to take the odd number fate has given me. Just as Daniel often rejected the heads. ‘You know deep down what you want, before the coin comes down,' he used to say. ‘That's why it's such a great way to make a decision.'

And I knew, deep down, that despite Ed's behaviour and mine, I still loved my husband. Joe had been lust. I shouldn't have let myself go so far. Ed was my chance to turn my life around.

Yet sometimes you have to do something wrong before you can make things right.

That's what I had to do now, today, just in case Joe's tiny seed was already growing inside me.

So I came out of that bathroom and took Ed's hand, leading him to our bed.

The following month I found I was pregnant. With a child that might belong to either man.

‘Carla? Can you hear me?'

It only seemed like a few minutes since someone in the ambulance had asked her the same question. But this was a different voice. This was Ed's.

Carla's first thought was that he had discovered the note with the spidery writing. She had put it in her bag, hadn't she? But he might have gone through it. Ed had done that before on the pretext of ‘looking for change'.

‘It's all right, Carla. I'm here now. And we've got a beautiful baby girl.'

A girl? Please no. If she had a girl it meant she might make the same mistakes that she and Mamma had. It would never end.

‘She's very tiny, Carla. Just a few pounds. But they say she should be completely fine.'

How was this possible? She couldn't even remember giving birth. Ed was lying.

He'd done it before to Lily. So why not to her?

His face was coming into view. He was bending over her. Kissing her cheek. His touch made her skin crawl. ‘You gave us all a terrible fright, darling.'

‘It wasn't my fault,' she managed to say.

There was an edge to his voice. ‘I could have lost you both.'

‘What happened?' she murmured.

‘Baby decided to come early.' This voice was different. Carla tried to turn round to see where it was coming from, but everything hurt. ‘Just as well for us that she did. Turned out you had a low-lying placenta, dear, so we had to give you an emergency Caesarean. Caused quite a stir, you did! Would you like to see your baby, now?'

What baby? Carla couldn't see one. She couldn't hear one either. She knew it. Something had gone horribly wrong.

‘Intensive Care is just round the corner, dear.' A nurse in green uniform came into focus now. ‘Legs still a bit wobbly, are they? Let's ease you into this wheelchair, shall we? That's the way.'

‘Is it healthy?' asked Carla faintly.

‘
She
,' said Ed firmly, ‘is a fighter.' But she saw the look he gave the nurse. It spelled fear.

‘Here we are, dear.'

That was a baby? Carla stared at the incubator. A little rat lay inside. Its skin was so pale and translucent that it reminded her of a dead baby bird she had once found outside the old flat when they had lived near Lily and Ed. (‘Leave it alone,' Mamma had squealed, before walking her briskly on to the bus stop.)

This ‘thing' was not much bigger than the width of Ed's hand. Wires were sprouting out of it. Its eyes were closed. A mask was covering the rest of its face, if that's what you could call it.

‘She's on oxygen at the moment, dear,' said the nurse gently. ‘Hopefully she'll be able to breathe for herself in the next few weeks.'

Weeks?

‘I'm afraid you won't be able to pick her up for some time, but you can talk to her.'

‘Babies can hear when you do that,' butted in Ed. He sounded so knowledgeable, but at the same time smugly aware that he was the expert compared with her. ‘We used to talk to Tom all the time.'

‘But how can it hear if it's so ill?'

‘You'd be surprised, dear. You can go home in a few days – the surgeon did a nice clean job, although you'll need to rest and not lift anything heavy. You can visit baby every afternoon and evening.' There was a little sigh. ‘We used to have a special place for parents to stay over, but I'm afraid that went with the cuts.'

Scarcely hearing, Carla continued to stare at the rat. Its puffed-up little stomach was rising and falling with a strange steady regularity. The rest of it could hardly be seen with the mask and wires. This was her punishment! This was what she got for taking another woman's husband. And now she was going to be truly trapped – far more than before. How could she go back to work? Ed had already been against that idea, but it would be impossible if her child was sick.

Furiously, she turned on Ed. ‘Why did you get me pregnant?'

‘There, there,' said the nurse, patting her shoulder. ‘You'd be surprised how many of my ladies say that. But you'll change your mind when you get to know baby better.'

Ed was staring at her with a shocked look on his face. ‘Come on, Carla. You've got to be strong for our little girl.'

But this thing didn't look like a girl – or a human being for that matter. ‘I don't want to see it,' she said, hearing her own voice rise in hysteria. ‘Take it away. I want my mother. Why isn't she here? Get me the phone. Now. I need to speak to her.'

‘Carla –'

‘No! Stop being so controlling. Give me your mobile.'

Ed and the nurse were exchanging looks. What was going on?

‘Carla, darling, listen.' He put his arm around her. ‘I didn't want to tell you until you felt stronger. But your grandmother rang when you were in labour. I am afraid your mother has been ill.'

Carla stiffened. ‘How ill?'

‘She's been treated for cancer for some time now. Your mother didn't stay with an aunt that Christmas. She was actually in hospital. In fact she's been in and out since then too.'

Her mouth went dry. ‘But she is better now? She is coming over to see her granddaughter?'

Ed tried to hold her but she pushed him away. ‘Tell me. TELL ME.'

His eyes were wet with tears. So too were the nurse's.

‘Your mother died, Carla. Just after you gave birth. I'm so sorry.'