Modern Romance November 2019 Books 1-4. Эбби Грин

Lucy felt as if she had fallen down a deep well only to discover there were no footholds to allow her to get back up again. She had expected his censure, yes, and his condemnation, too. Deep down she’d felt as if she deserved both those things. But surely not such an instant and outright rejection, which felt so final and so permanent.

      ‘What did you think was going to happen after this astonishing revelation, Lucy?’ he demanded cruelly. ‘That we would just go back to Mayfair and pretend nothing had happened? That we would make love and carry on as normal?’

      She shook her head as a pair of dark eyes and a silky head swam into her mind. ‘But what about Xander? What’s going to happen to our son?’

      ‘Xander has a nanny—and a father,’ he said coldly. ‘We don’t need you, Lucy. Perhaps we never did. I will arrange to have your stuff sent to the cottage—’

      ‘Please don’t bother. Keep it!’ she said furiously. ‘I won’t be able to wear those kinds of clothes in Milton, anyway!’

      ‘That’s entirely your decision. Oh, and I don’t think I have any further use for this, do you?’ he added contemptuously. She saw him twist his gold wedding band from his finger before letting it fall with a tiny clatter onto an unused side plate and fixing her with a final withering look. ‘Obviously I will make sure your settlement is generous, provided you agree to a swift, no-claim divorce. I don’t think there’s anything else, do you? Other than to say goodbye.’

      He turned and made his way through the restaurant, oblivious to the curious eyes which followed him, and Lucy wondered if she would be able to manage that same degree of insouciance. But most of all she wondered just how long she would be able to keep the hot flood of tears at bay.