Until I Met You(102)

“As you know, long before you were born, we lived in Kent. We were all happy there and thought we were going to raise a family. We met Thomas and Melissa at a party one night and we all just hit it off. Your mum and Melissa became best friends and Thomas and I used to shoot pool and watch some matches together. We were all pretty inseparable. The problem being was, your mum and Thomas became a little too inseparable. I started to notice something was wrong when she would disappear for hours on end and tell me she was in places I knew very well she wasn’t.

“To cut a long story short, Melissa and I found out about the affair and we cut our friendship and moved to Cornwall, never to see them again. I could have left, but I loved your mother too much. It killed me for a while, but we got counselling, and very soon after we moved, we found out we were having you. We both knew that you may not be my daughter, but it wasn’t until that night in hospital when you lost all that blood, that we realised you couldn’t have been.

“At the end of the day, we got on with it, and life seemed to get better after we moved. We soon forgot all about the Delaney’s and what had happened. I assume they’re now called Jacobs because of what happened all those years ago?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said solemnly. Of course he knew about that. They must have seen it on the news when it all happened.

My dad shook his head and closed his eyes. “Oh, God, that means Seth was the little brother who—”

“Yes,” I interrupted. “This is all such a mess. How could Mum do this? I was so happy. I had finally found someone, Dad, only for it to get ripped away from me. Is this really something she wanted? I was fine until I met Seth. Now I’ll never be able to recover from this.” I buried my head in my hands just wishing and willing for it to all go away.

“Angel, please. You can’t blame your mother for this. It’s just the most extreme coincidence I have ever known. She wasn’t to know you would fall in love with—”

He hesitated, causing my head to snap up with the pain of almost hearing that word. “Go on, say it—my brother.” I stood up, not wanting to hear anymore. I wasn’t angry at my dad, how could I be? He was just as much a victim in all of this as I was. I just needed to get away as fast as possible. I needed to be alone.

I ran out of the café and just kept running. I could still here Robbie Williams singing to me from my bag, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t hear his voice. If I did, I knew I would break down and I didn’t know whether I would be able to get back up.

I must of ran a mile until I spotted my saviour from across the road—a taxi firm. I ran across and asked them to get me a taxi back to London as soon as possible. I needed away from here and fast.

The journey was long and my mind was a flurry of exhaustive activity. Once I was back, I was relieved to find that Seth wasn’t at the Penthouse yet, so I went to work, packing some things. I was being cruel to Seth and I knew I was, but I had to rip this like a band aid. We can’t be together, not now. What’s the point in prolonging the agony? I was doing it more for my own selfish reasons. My heart was breaking and the thought of seeing the same in Seth, would break me even further. My self-preservation was kicking in big time. I knew I had to get away.

I packed as much as I could and fled. I was scared that Seth would be back at any moment and wouldn’t let me leave. If he asked me to stay, I wasn’t sure whether I would have the strength to say no. How sick is that?

I said my goodbyes to Jerry and Lucy and ran for the lift as fast as my feet could carry me. Luckily for me the lift was still up on Seth’s floor. It would seem not a lot of people had moved in as yet, so Seth had the building virtually to himself.

I ran like the wind down the King’s Road, seeking my little flat for shelter. It was the one place I knew I could feel safe. It always was my little sanctuary and I was hoping that it would be that for me now.

I rushed into the flat and threw my suitcase onto the bed. I lay in the darkness wanting it to swallow me whole. I daren’t put on the lights as I knew this would be the first place Seth would look for me after he realised I wasn’t at home.

About an hour or so later that’s exactly what he did. I could hear the buzzer downstairs and my phone was constantly ringing. He was desperate and I was abandoning him.

My despair grew deeper as the sound of the door grew silent and so did the calls. Now started a life of complete torture.

A life without Seth.





Chapter 19





It was four weeks later and I was still no better off. The week that I was back at the flat I called in sick and stayed in bed the whole time. I hardly ate, I hardly did anything. Everything was meaningless to me now.