Sam nodded. ‘Right.’
She had the weirdest feeling that he’d guessed what was going on. Was that possible? Even her mum and Mac knew nothing about it, so how could Sam?
She watched him as he sat there, his gaze steady and open. There was no guile in Sam. No hint of slyness or duplicity. He was one of those people that you just felt you could trust with anything. However dark the secret.
‘He’s having an affair,’ she burst out. ‘Mum doesn’t know. I don’t want her to know. I don’t want anyone to know. The twins…’
Sam’s teeth nipped his lower lip and his gaze lowered for a moment. Then he met her anxious gaze calmly, with a hint of concern in his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, Jenna,’ he said.
It was enough.
Without any further prodding, she found herself telling him all about it – everything. From the affair Joel had before their wedding to the time he’d left her when she was pregnant with the twins, and all the other times she’d suspected he was seeing other women but hadn’t wanted to prove it for fear he would leave her again. And now this. This ultimate humiliation. His secretary.
Sam listened without interrupting. He let her pour it all out – and out it came. But strangely, there was little emotion attached to her words. It was like she was telling him a story that had nothing to do with her. Someone else’s life that she’d been observing, but which had no emotional impact on her.
‘So I just wanted to see her,’ she finished. ‘Ineededto see her. To see what she looked like. Know your enemy, isn’t that what they say?’
‘Issheyour enemy?’ he asked quietly.
‘Of course she is! She took Joel away from his home, his marriage – his children!’
‘Right.’ Sam said nothing but it looked as if he was thinking. A lot. ‘So you didn’t get to see her after all that?’ he asked eventually.
Jenna sighed, feeling stupid. ‘No. But,’ she added, sitting up straight with purpose, ‘I’ve decided to go back. Tomorrow evening is my night off, and the twins are sleeping over at Kendra and Niall’s place. I’m going to drive back to the block of flats.’
Sam frowned. ‘To do what?’
‘To watch the flats! To see if they go in or out. To get a glimpse of them at the window. Anything!’
‘You know, if you carry on like that, you’ll drive yourself mad,’ he said gently. ‘It’s not making things any easier for you, is it?’
‘So what do you want me to do? Just put it out of my mind and forget it? Is it too much to ask that I know what she looks like? This bloody woman has taken everything from me and my children! Don’t I at least deserve that much closure?’
‘I’m just not sure it will give you closure,’ he said. ‘What will you do if you see them together? Have you thought about how much that will hurt?’
Jenna wrapped her arms around herself and stayed quiet. Of course she’d thought about it and she knew it would kill her. Even so…
‘I need to see her,’ she repeated. ‘I need to see them together. I need to know.’
Sam studied her closely for a moment then he ran a hand through his dark hair and sighed. ‘Okay, well in that case I’ll come with you.’
‘Wh-what?’
‘I can’t let you go through that alone. If you do see him…’ He broke off and shook his head. ‘No, it doesn’t bear thinking about. Let me come with you.’
‘But you have this place!’
‘Cathy and Briar will be here. The pub can do without me for once.’
‘You’d really do that?’ she asked, astonished.
‘Yes, of course. Look, why don’t we take my car?’ he suggested. ‘That way, if your husband happens to be gazing out of his window, watching the street in case of random lunatics sitting outside spying on him, he won’t see your car, and he need never know that you were there.’
Jenna managed a smile. ‘Random lunatics?’ she asked, raising an eyebrow.
‘Well, let’s face it, it’s hardly the act of a sane, well-balanced person, is it?’
‘You don’t think I’m sane or well-balanced?’
