Page 85 of Escape to the Sun

There was more rustling of material, or maybe shifting of people, as Hannah shook her head.

‘Are you going to make me say it out loud, Ian? After everything you promised, I’m hearing you—’ A wave of nausea flooded over her, and Hannah turned away, the hand holding her phone dropping to her side.

By the time she put the phone back to her ear, Ian was partway through an excuse.

‘Don’t. Please, don’t. I don’t deserve any more of your lies, Ian. Just be honest with me, once and for all.’

A long moment of time passed before Ian sighed, resignation in his voice. ‘I thought it would work. I love you, Hannah – nothing about that has changed. But I met Melissa a while ago and, I don’t know, we just couldn’t ignore what we were feeling. It was a compulsion, an itch that absolutely had to be scratched.’

‘Wow. That sounds lovely. So why don’t you just be with Melissa?’

‘She’s married. They have a little boy. She doesn’t want to wreck her child’s home life.’

Hannah’s eyebrows, already arched, did their best to lose themselves in her hairline.

‘How thoughtful of her. But she’s happy to wreck mine?’

There was a huge pause, a silence which felt to Hannah like a reckoning, a final hammer dropping.

‘You were hoping I would accept it as a mistake, and wouldn’t look any further, weren’t you? That I’d believe your feelings for me were genuine and then you could carry on shagging her even after we got married?’

‘The thing is I love you so much, Hannah. I always have. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you.’

‘Wow. And somehow you thought this would be a good compromise?’

‘We could have had everything we wanted; none of that would have changed…’

‘Apart from the fact you’d be living a complete lie, that is?’

‘But I love you. That’s what makes all this so difficult for me.’

‘Difficult for you? You unbelievably awful fucker,’ Hannah said, aware her words had caught Ruth and Millie off guard, while Nathan smirked in embarrassment. ‘You low-life piece of shit. How stupid am I? I should have known. Well, Ian, you and Melissa can ride off into the sunset for all I care. Or be there for her whenever she gets itchy and needs to be scratched…’ Hannah’s voice oozed with the disgust she could no longer hold at bay. ‘But whatever you need to do, leave me the fuck out of it, will you?’

She ended the call before he could hear her sob, then ran blindly away from Ruth and the kids, needing to be alone, staring into the middle distance as she tried to make sense of what had just happened.

44

For once in her life Ruth didn’t have the first clue what to say. She trailed after Hannah as they headed for the ship, hushing Millie who was desperate to know what was going on.

‘Not right now, Mils. I’ll explain later,’ Ruth whispered.

Hannah must have heard, she swung around and stilled.

‘No, Ruth. No need for that. Millie, I apologise for swearing. Just know that whoever you end up inviting into your life, it’s their character and their honesty that matter more than anything.’

‘Yeah, like I wasn’t expecting to meet someone like Keisha on this trip – I mean she’s really pretty, but she’s also the easiest person to be around. She’s funny and kind and her family are all really close…’

It was Nathan’s turn to blush with colour so furious his face clashed in the best way with his hair. Maybe out of the wreckage of this trip one of them might have found someone special.

‘But she lives hours away from us, so I don’t know how we’re going to keep in touch…’ Nathan added.

‘If you like her enough, Nathan, you’ll find a way,’ Ruth said, turning her attention back to Hannah, who was walking on. ‘Hannah, I’m so sorry. I feel responsible.’

For a moment, Ruth thought Hannah was going to blast her with exactly how badly she’d meddled with her life. Instead, Hannah frowned and shook her head.

‘Well, don’t,’ she said. ‘You were right. I needed to find out for sure about Ian.’

‘Yes, but… finding out like this is brutal.’