'Where are you going?' Francesca demanded, standing up and then sitting back down when she was overcome by a wave of nausea and dizziness.
At once Jack was by her side. 'I'll stay if you want, Els.'
'Was he very angry?' she asked in a small voice and the slight hesitation provided her with an answer. 'God,' she moaned, curling into him, forgetting the fact that he had become the bad guy.
'Talk it over with him. He was pretty angry, yes, but I did tell him that you had wanted to say something. You can sort something out … at least then your conscience will be clear … ' Philosophical pearls of wisdom had never been his forte and he lapsed into silence, stroking her back until he felt she was calm enough for him to pull back.
'I suppose you thought you were doing the right thing,' Francesca said grudgingly and Jack breathed a sigh of relief at this little crumb of conciliation. Before she had any opportunity to resume her attack, he decided to take advantage of the temporary laying down of arms.
'Let me get you something to eat before I go,' he suggested. 'I could whip something up. Some good old-fashioned eggy bread, maybe?'
Francesca made a face. 'I can't stomach the thought of fried food. I'll grab myself a few crackers when you've gone.'
'What about this job tonight?'
'I went shopping yesterday and everything's in the fridges.' She looked at him despairingly and he nodded.
'Okay. But no running away when my back's turned. Fair enough if he doesn't get in touch … '
Shying away from the thought of a vengeful Angelo, Francesca clung to this nonsense possibility like a man clinging on to a lifebelt in high seas. The thought that Angelo might decide to walk away from the horrendous situation confronting him was very appealing.
And if he did contact her …
She would deal with it. She could spend the rest of her life running but in the end she wouldn't be able to hide and, even if she did succeed in disappearing, what good would it do in the long term? Sooner or later the baby would grow into a child and the child would grow into an adult who wanted answers to questions.
It was almost a sense of relief to know that the decision had pretty much been taken out of her hands. All she had to do now was wait.
Not long, if Angelo had his way, but he knew that he had to curb the urge to drive over to her house immediately and lay into her.
His phone rang for the third time that morning, even though it had only just gone nine and, knowing who it was, he snatched it up and said, without bothering with formalities, 'What do you want?'
There had been five messages on his answering machine when he had returned the night before. All from Georgina. Then three calls this morning, all of which he let the answering machine get. He certainly didn't feel inclined to be civil to anyone, least of all his ex-girlfriend, who had disappeared only to resurface just when he needed no distractions.
Pregnant.
Angelo had barely been able to take it in when Jack had launched his bombshell. In fact, it had initially crossed his mind that it might have been some kind of ruse to extract money from him, even though he knew her well enough to know that that would not be her style. The self-delusion hadn't lasted long. The man had been utterly serious. There had been no mistaking his body language and there had been no mistaking the simple truth, which was that he had not come to see him with Francesca's permission.
Which meant that she had had no intention of telling him about the pregnancy. The treachery involved in her silence had rendered him speechless. He had listened to Jack stutter out one or two excuses on her behalf but he had barely heard them. He had left rather than be fed with further rubbish along those lines. Had returned home to find his answering machine blinking at him.
'I wondered whether we could meet, Angelo. There's something I have to talk to you about.'
Meeting Georgina was the last thing he wanted to do. Nor did he care for the barely hidden smugness in her voice. Had she found out about his affair with Francesca? More than likely. London was a big place but not so big in certain circles that word might not have got round. They could have been spotted at any time and the grapevine in the city was as lush and vibrant as any grapevine anywhere else.
And if she had known about the relationship, then it was also possible that she knew of its demise. Was she planning a comeback? Angelo's mouth curved into a grim smile of contempt. He could barely remember that faraway time when he had been contemplating marriage to her, content to let common sense dictate his judgements. In fact, he could barely remember a time before Francesca had exploded once again into his life, bringing back all the confusion he had thought well left behind.
'I have nothing to say to you, Georgina.'
'Oh, but I have something to say to you.' The smugness was right out in the open now and Angelo allowed his feelings to get the better of him. Damned if he was going to let her have free rein to gloat over things that were none of her business.
'Do you now?' he enquired coldly. 'Well, I'm not interested and, in fact, I'm on my way out to see Francesca. So if you'll excuse me … ' He hung up, almost expecting to hear the insistent ringing of the phone as she tried to reconnect, but the house was silent.
He left before the silence could be broken and forced himself not to drive like a madman over to her house. The situation felt almost dreamlike, surreal. With the ease of habit, he began thinking about the consequences of the situation. She would have kept this baby to herself because, at the end of the day, whatever good sex they had shared, it wasn't enough. It hadn't been enough three years ago and it wasn't enough now. But she was having his baby and her feelings would have to be secondary, whether she liked it or not.
His jaw clenched in anger and he breathed in slowly and deeply, taking his time in the Saturday morning traffic.
It was mid-morning by the time he reached her place and he almost expected to find that she had gone out, but no. He rang the doorbell and heard the sound of footsteps behind the closed door.
Francesca took a deep breath, hand on the door knob. She had been dreading this moment, knowing it would come, and knowing, as well, that he wouldn't give her any advance warning. No time for her to prepare herself. It wouldn't have mattered at any rate. She was as prepared now as she would ever be.
She opened the door and her courage failed her at the sight of his grim, implacable face.
'Come in.' She turned around and began walking towards the sitting room. She only faced him when they were both in the room, at which point she had no choice, but that didn't mean that she was any less afraid. Her heart was thumping inside her and she felt sweaty.
'Would you like something to drink?' she asked, clasping her hands together on her lap and leaning forward.
Angelo's mouth twisted. 'Bit late in the day for polite exchanges, don't you think? Bearing in mind that you were going to disappear off the face of the earth with my baby?'
Francesca blanched. 'I … I … wasn't going to disappear off the face of the earth … '
'No? Just duck out of sight? Call it whatever you want to call it, Francesca, but you had no intention of telling me, did you?' He clenched his fists to stop himself from hitting something. 'How dare you,' he said coldly, 'think that you could keep my child away from me?'
'I did intend to tell you, Angelo, but, if you recall, you weren't exactly receptive when we last met!'
'And you didn't think that the information was important enough to make a stand!'
'I didn't think that it would do any good telling you!'
Angelo stared at her as though she had taken leave of her senses, stared at her until a soft pink glow invaded her cheeks. 'Run that by me again,' he said with silky threat. 'I'm struggling to understand how having my child and keeping it a secret would benefit me.'
'Look at your life, Angelo! You know where you're going. You like to be in control. What happened was my fault. I got swept away that first time we … Well, anyway, I wasn't using any protection on that one occasion, I lied to you when I said I was, and now I'm pregnant. I didn't think it was right for you to spend the rest of your life paying for the mistake.'
'And it didn't occur to you that I should have been given the choice?'
'Yes, of course it did! Which is why I went to see you, to tell you, but you wanted me out and I realised that leaving was probably the best way.'
'Handy conclusion, wasn't it? Any time you had a struggle with your conscience you could always remind yourself that you had tried, after all, given it your best shot.' He moved to stand in front of her, his towering anger sheathing his body like a steel glove.
But fighting the anger. She could tell from the way his jaw clenched. He was forcibly biting back what he wanted to say. Her mind played with the pleasing fantasy of how peaceful life would have been if she had really just run away. At least for a few years. Then she remembered the stress that had been eating away at her.