Danny’s face was drawn, pale,thinnerthan she remembered it. When was the last time I truly looked at you? she wondered. She didn’t know the answer, but now she felt frightened by what she was seeing.
‘Danny?’ she continued softly. ‘I found the clue. I found all of them.’ She placed the key on the bench between them. ‘This one too.’
He nodded and sighed. ‘I know you did. I knew you would and I’m glad.’ He turned to face her and she couldn’t escape the feeling that he was studying her somehow. Like he was trying to memorise the way that she looked because he would never see her again after this moment. Finally, he spoke again. ‘I have something I need to tell you. Something I didn’t know before I set all of this up.’
Oh God…Beth saw the pain in his eyes and knew that this was it. He was about to confess. She suddenly realized that one of two things could occur. He would tell her that he was leaving her because he was in love with another woman. Or he would confess all and ask for her forgiveness.
She looked down at the bench and studied the key just sitting there. If he asked for forgiveness would she be able to give it? She looked back up at him and saw that he was struggling with the words – whatever he wanted to tell her was just not coming out. So she decided help him. Take the edge off and get it over with. ‘It’s about her, isn’t it? That woman I saw you with.’
Danny’s expression immediately changed, and he looked confused as he tried to determine what she meant. ‘What woman?’ he asked simply.
She bit her lip out of frustration. Here she was, giving him an opening to confess, and he was going to deny it?
‘Danny, please, I saw you with her. Yesterday, going up Park Avenue on my way to the Waldorf. I was in a cab.’ Beth paused and then realized that if he had set all this up, he surely must have been aware of where she was headed. ‘I saw you on the street. With the dark-haired woman. You looked… close.’ Beth’s voice cracked and she turned away from Danny.
‘Adele,’ he said simply.
She turned back, the name slicing through her heart. But at the same time Beth was thankful at least that he wasn’t going to try to deny it, pretend it wasn’t him; that she hadn’t seen what she thought she had seen. ‘Is that her name?’
‘Yes, that’s her name. That’s who you saw.’
Tears prickled at the corner of her eyes and she felt her heart begin to break little by little. So it was true. He wasn’t going to deny it. She couldn’t believe it. At Christmastime, with the snow falling all around them in this picture-perfect scene, he was going to break her heart.
‘Oh. So I see. OK, then,’ she said breathlessly – and then, unable to hold back her emotions any longer, she decided to get it all out in the open. ‘So all of this… dragging me here… it was just to tell me that we’re finished. That it’s over? Well, I hope that the two of you are very happy together, though I have no idea why you put me through all this – sending me all over the place like a rat in a maze – just to tell me it’s over,’ she cried, her words bitter. ‘Why would you do something like this? And at Christmas…?’ But she choked on the rest. She couldn’t say anything more. She had to get out of there.
She stood up and headed off, away from theirManhattanbench, away from Danny. She wanted nothing more than to escape from this entire situation. She needed to get somewhere on her own and try to get to grips with this in peace. Get to grips with the end of her relationship, her seven-year love affair with a man she’d been so sure was her soul mate. Why had he toyed with her like that? It was beyond cruel.
But Danny, apparently, was not finished, and as Beth tried to move away he caught up, grabbing her arm and spinning her round to face him.
‘Wait a minute, Beth, please. Let me explain. You don’t understand.’
‘Idon’t understand?’ she shot back, tears flowing openly now, as snowflakes fluttered across her vision. ‘I understand perfectly. You’re in love with someone else. Adele. Howexotic. But why did you have to put me through all of this, Danny? Why couldn’t you just come out and tell me that you didn’t love me any more – and just break up with me? Why create this elaborate charade, this treasure hunt, only to lead me here to end it.Why?’
Danny ran his hands through his hair and looked at the ground. He took a deep breath and finally raised his gaze to meet hers.
‘Like I said, that whole thing was set up long before… just… before. And yes, I admit I’ve been seeing Adele lately,’ he confirmed quietly. ‘But, Beth, she’s not my lover. She’s my oncologist.’
Chapter 37
Adele was his…?Beth thought but couldn’t even repeat the word in her mind, let alone out loud. Because she understood the significance. Danny wasn’t having an affair, he was—
‘Please. Sit back down. Give me a chance to explain,’ Danny pleaded, taking Beth’s hand and leading her back to the bench. Still reeling at what he had just said, she sat while he put his head in his hands. ‘There’s so much I haven’t told you, and I just want to say in advance that I am sorry for that. It was wrong of me to keep it from you, but I really didn’t know how to—’
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, swallowing the huge lump in her throat. ‘Are you sick?’ It was a stupid question, of course; why else would he need an oncologist, a cancer specialist?
Cancer…All thoughts of an affair – of Danny having fallen out of love with her – had completely left her mind. In their place was concern – and pure and utter terror.
After what seemed like an eternity, Danny finally spoke.
‘Yes, I’m sick, Beth. I’m very sick. I found out about a month ago – not long before Thanksgiving and way after I’d set this thing up. I should have cancelled, but to be honest I’d kind of forgotten about it, until everything was already in motion…’
Very sick. Oxygen seemed to disappear from the air all of a sudden, and Beth couldn’t catch her breath. She felt as if a cold, icy hand was gripping her throat.
His voice broke. ‘It’s pretty bad, honey…’
Beth was desperate, yet at the same time reluctant, to know more.
‘Adele – Dr Rovere – she’s become a confidante of sorts over the last few weeks since I was first referred.’ He took both of her hands in his and turned to face her, his voice soft. ‘I have leukaemia, Beth. A rare form.’ His voice cracked again, and for the first time since she arrived, Beth reached out to make contact with him. She pulled him close and was shocked when she realized he was crying.
