Chapter 9: Arrivals

Rhys's POV

Hugh told me she would rather not hear from me, and I believed him.

I'd known Hugh for fourteen years, since we shared a flat in Bristol with one bathroom and a broken boiler.

He had lent me money when I had none.

He had stood up at my father's funeral and read the lesson because I couldn't.

So I sat at my desk and read it as it was meant, that a woman who had given me one night had decided it was a mistake.

After the third call, I stopped.

I did not stop thinking about her.

I thought about her at my desk, and on the Tube, and at two in the morning with the ceiling lit by passing buses.

I thought about her in my jumper, going out of my hotel door without looking back.

I told myself it was a good thing she hadn't looked back.

It was twenty-five past one in the morning, a month after the wedding, when my phone rang with a New York number I didn't know.

"Mr. Mercer?" a young man said, very fast. "I'm sorry. It's Teddy Cadwalader. Estelle's brother. The younger one."

I sat up in bed.

"Teddy. What's happened?"

"She left tonight. She's on a plane to London, she lands at seven."

"Go on."

"I found the house phone log an hour ago. You called, and Hugh told you she didn't want to hear from you."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Fiancé Chose My Brother, So I Chose My Brother's Best Friend from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.