‘Yes.’ Anna fiddled with her thumbnail. ‘It’s something I bitterly regret…’
‘You don’t need to explain yourself to me.’
‘No, but it’s important to me that you know I realise I made a mistake.’
‘I’m not here to judge you. Giannis is the one who is married, and a father. He should know better.’
The girl’s eyes started to water.
‘I really thought he loved me.’
She looked so young.
‘How old are you, Anna?’
‘Twenty-three.’ A strangled laugh came out of her mouth. ‘Old enough to know better.’
Grace got up and passed her a box of tissues from the bedside table.
‘Why did Charlie suggest you came to speak to me, particularly?’
‘He said you were kind and wouldn’t judge me.’
That was nice of Charlie, although she still wasn’t quite sure what he’d landed her with.
‘What wouldn’t I judge?’
The girl took a deep breath.
‘I found out a couple of days ago that I am six weeks pregnant.’
So, the affair with Giannis had been going on a while then, since before they’d started working together at the language school.
After she’d got the words out, Anna broke down sobbing, and Grace couldn’t help but move to her side and envelop her in a hug. Anna was still a young woman in trouble.
‘You poor thing. Let it all out.’
Anna’s body shook with the force of her tears, and Grace held her tight until it stopped.
‘I swear it’s all over with Giannis. I was honestly about to end it before I found out about the pregnancy. He told me his marriage was over, but I now know that’s not true, and I also know that he would never leave his wife. We rowed about it many times.’
Grace recalled the scene in the restaurant at the works dinner.
‘That’s a painful lesson to learn.’
Her eldest daughter, Lottie, had had a fling with a married man in her twenties, and been distraught when his promises came to nothing.
‘Does Giannis know you’re pregnant?’
‘I told him yesterday when he returned from his trip.’
Giannis must have had quite a day of it then. Finding Elena in that state, and then hearing the news from Anna about the baby. He deserved everything that was coming. No wonder he’d been so angry earlier. It was like a plot from a Greek soap opera that she’d unwittingly got herself caught up in.
Anna twisted a piece of tissue round and round her finger and stared at the bedspread.
‘I also told him that I don’t want to have the baby.’
Anna met her eye.
