The CEO(49)

‘I don’t think I understand …’ Lulu’s voice trailed away but the expression on her face told Ava she knew. She came and sat down opposite her sister.

‘I’m here for the truth, Lulu, and that means I have to tell you my truth as well.’ Ava clutched a hand to her stomach. She wanted to vomit. Five years of secrets came spilling out. ‘I’m in love with Callum.’

Saying it out loud after so many years wasn’t as liberating as she thought. If she was wrong about this fool’s errand to her sister for the truth, it would poison their relationship as quickly as weed killer.

‘You are?’

‘I’ve been in love with him for years.’

‘Years?’ Lulu gasped. ‘What do you mean years?’

‘Five years. One year while you were engaged. Three years while you were married to each other and the year after that, since you’ve been divorced. Which pretty much takes us up to today.’

‘Oh my God,’ Lulu whispered. ‘But … but you hate him!’

Ava shook her head. ‘I pretended to because of you. I saw the way he loved you. His heart was yours. But it’s not now and … we’ve just had sex. And it was the best sex of my life.’

‘Oh, Ava,’ Lulu said.

‘And the thing is, all this time, I’ve felt so guilty. So horribly, humiliatingly guilty. First, because he was your husband and then, after you two broke up, because he had hurt you so terribly. I couldn’t believe I still had these raging feelings for a man who’d treated you so badly. All he’s told me is that I should talk to you. He hasn’t told me anything, Lulu. He’s much too decent a man for that. And on the way over here, I thought back to every conversation we had about your break-up and I realised you never actually told me what happened. I thought you were being private because of how much he’d hurt you. But was it the other way round, Lulu?’

Lulu startled and burst into loud sobs.

And then Ava began to cry, too. ‘Lulu, don’t.’

Her sister’s shoulders shook and she sniffed. ‘He really didn’t tell you anything?’

‘Nothing, Lulu. He’s not the bastard you think he is.’

Lulu looked across the table at her sister. ‘God, Ava. He’s not a bastard.’

Ava was in turmoil. ‘Tell me, Lulu. Please.’

‘It was me,’ she cried out. ‘It was my fault. You see … I’m the one who cheated. I’m the one who fell in love with someone else.’

‘Oh no,’ Ava said, only half believing what she was hearing.

And then, after so many half-truths and silences, it all came blurting out. ‘It was Michael. We fell in love and I wanted to be with him. I didn’t set out to betray Callum, you’ve got to believe that. But it happened and the minute I summoned up the courage to tell him the truth, I left his house and I left that marriage. I’m not proud of what I did. In fact, I’m ashamed. He didn’t deserve it. We should never have got married. I … I got swept away with the fantasy of it all. With the fantasy of him. He was one of those men who wanted to rescue me, you see? Rescue me from the restaurant and from that life. Men take one look at me and think they have to save me. Michael was the first man who didn’t. That’s why I know it’s real with him.’

‘You left Callum?’ Ava gasped.

Lulu nodded and sobbed again.

Ava had hated him for what he’d done to her sister. She’d been so wrong.

‘Don’t hate me, Ava.’ Lulu reached out a hand to her sister.

‘Of course I don’t hate you.’

‘Things happen in marriages that you can’t see from the outside.’

‘I get that but … all this time you let me believe it was him. That it was his fault.’

Lulu wiped her eyes into streaks of smudged mascara. ‘I couldn’t tell you, Ava. I knew after a year that I’d made a mistake. It happens, you know? But when you’re not happy, it eats at you and you start searching for happiness somewhere else. Because everyone deserves that, don’t they? To be happy?’

Ava felt winded. Her pulse was pounding in her forehead and she pinched the bridge of her nose to squeeze it away. She took in a deep breath and let it out. Six more times.

She’d been utterly and completely wrong about Callum.

She’d said terrible, hurtful things to him. And he’d let her, instead of revealing Lulu’s secret. Out of loyalty to a woman he’d once loved. Out of respect for Ava’s relationship with her sister. Because he was a good man. Because he was the best of men.

Lulu gripped her sister’s hand tight. ‘Does he love you?’