Francesca smirked as if she’d won. Over thirty years had passed, and she still knew how to get a rise out of Catherine.Why am I here?Catherine uncrossed her legs and clapped her hands to her thighs. “Right, well, your food will be here soon, so…”
As Catherine rose from the sofa, Francesca’s smirk fell away, and a deep line appeared between her eyebrows. “You’re leaving?”
“I came to check that you’re okay, and…” she waved a hand in Francesca’s direction. “You’re obviously fine, so there’s no reason for me to stick around.”
Francesca sat up, an emotion registering on her face which, if Catherine didn’t know better, could have been mistaken for vulnerability. Her voice came out small, and almost unrecognisable. “Don’t go.”
“I don’t see how my being here is helping you. I came to see if you wanted to talk and whether there was anything I could do to help, but it was clearly a fool’s errand.”
Francesca’s shoulders hunched. “I have this constant pain, right here.” She pressed her hand to her breastboneand rubbed it in a way that made her look fragile, like a tiny bird fallen from a nest.
Despite everything she thought she’d feel seeing Francesca like this, Catherine felt the urge to hold her. She shook that thought away and tried to focus. “What sort of pain?”
“It hurts to breathe sometimes.”
Catherine moved closer, peering into her face as if it might help make sense of the symptoms. “Does it hurt to breathe now?”
Francesca nodded. “You’re not going to make me do those silly breathing exercises from your little blog, are you?”
“Well, that might… wait, you read my blog?"
Ignoring the question, Francesca continued to knead a clenched fist into her chest. “There’s a constant ache right here… and I want to cry all the time. I’ve never been a weeper, but I can’t help myself lately; the tears keep coming.”
“And did these…symptomsstart when things ended with Alice?”
Francesca drew another ragged breath and nodded. “Jeremy took me to the hospital before I asked him to bring me here. They hooked me up, did some tests, but everything came back normal. The pain hasn’t gone away, though.”
Catherine sat back and crossed her legs. “The problem isn’t in your chest,” she said with quiet confidence.
A long time ago she’d worked out that Francesca had all the hallmark traits of a personality disorder. After someback and forth, she’d settled on psychopathy. Francesca’s constellation of behavioural traits seemed like a textbook case — with enough charm to snap a snake into a coma, she sparkled like a rare gem when she was the centre of attention, but she was also alarmingly manipulative, entirely self-absorbed, and prioritised her own needs above all else.
But, no, she could see it now.Catherine chuckled lightly and picked a piece of fluff from her trousers.
“What?” Francesca twisted around, her anguished look from before replaced by a narrowed gaze. “What are you laughing at?”
After all these years, Catherine realised she’d got it wrong. Unlike someone with purely psychopathic tendencies, Francesca was capable of forming genuine emotional attachments. And the keen sting of rejection would always bite hardest for a narcissist.
“I think you’re suffering from a broken heart.”
Francesca blanched. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You were in love, but it was unrequited. You’ve had your heart broken.”
“It wasn’t unrequited. Alice loves me. She needs me, but I wasn’t prepared to give my lifestyle up. I thought she’d see sense and compromise, but no?—”
“Did you ever compromise for her?” Catherine asked, but already knew the answer from her own experience.
“I was willing to look past all the silliness and carry on as we were. That’s a compromise.”
Catherine threw up her hands. “You need help; real psychological help.”
Francesca sniffed. “I’m married to a therapist, the last thing I need is help.”
“Jeremy is blind to how you are. You’re capable of causing real hurt, Francesca. You hurt Alice, don’t you see that?”
“I offered her things she could never afford. She hurt me when she threw it all back in my face.”
Catherine laughed and shook her head. “Oh, Francesca, not everyone has a price tag.”
