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Frankie tried to ignore the warmth in Jay’s voice. She pulled her dressing gown tighter around her body.

‘Feeling rubbish. I think I’m coming down with something.’ A serious case of broken heart.

‘Oh no. Can I get you anything?’

‘No, I’m going to go into quarantine. I can’t risk spreading it to anyone. Especially not Valentina. Was Toffee okay when you got in?’

To avoid any risk of seeing Jay, Frankie had dropped the little dog off at Ivy Cottage before Jay’s flight was due to land.

‘Yes, although I think she’s missing Storm and Gilbert.’

Frankie did an impressive fake cough down the phone.

‘You sound rough.’

‘Yeah.’

‘I’ll call you tomorrow.’

‘I’ll probably be sleeping all day.’

‘Let me know if you need any medicine or anything.’

Damn. Why did he have to be nice?

‘Sure.’

‘How was the baby shower?’

‘Good.’ Frankie took a deep breath. It was time to cut ties as quickly, if not as painlessly, as possible. She couldn’t bear it if he kept calling, or worse, popping round to see if she was okay. ‘I saw your texts to Valentina. I didn’t open them, but I saw them pop up on Valentina’s phone. And I read enough.’

‘Oh.’

‘So, it’s not a secret anymore.’

‘Right.’ Was that relief she heard in Jay’s voice.

‘Have you been to see her?’

‘No, she made it pretty clear in her reply she doesn’t want to see me.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘There’s not much I can do. I can’t force her to talk to me.’

Frankie was speechless. How could Jay just let Valentina carry on going through everything on her own? Wasn’t he going to step up, now he knew?

‘Do you not want to try? Surely you feel some sort of responsibility!’

‘Well, maybe a bit, but…’

A bit!

‘…it’s complicated.’

Jay clearly wasn’t the man Frankie thought he was or hoped he was.

‘I’m going to go. I’m really not feeling well.’ Frankie wasn’t lying, she’d started to get a headache.