The Silent Fountain. Victoria Fox

much for the hospital. Why were his lights on? Why was there a gleaming Chrysler parked on the drive? Vivien knew. He wasn’t at work at all. He was in there, with some other woman he deemed special enough to bring home. They’d be making love right now, on the sheets Vivien had never slept on. They’d eat a meal at the table she had never sat at. They’d shower in the bathroom she had never stepped into.

      How could he? How could he do this to her?

      Even with the evidence as plain as day, Vivien couldn’t accept it. Gio was in love with her. He wasn’t like the rest. They were lovers but they were also friends.

      Friends didn’t do this to each other – did they?

      Minutes ticked by and turned into an hour, maybe two, she lost track.

      Still, she continued to watch. Until eventually, at around ten, the payload appeared. In one of the upstairs windows, a woman could be glimpsed, a fleeting sight before she vanished in shadow. Vivien’s knuckles whitened. Her tears turned to fury.

      She swung open the car door.

       I’m going to catch them together and then I’ll punch his fucking lights out.

      In a rage she stormed up the drive, past the gate, past his precious car, tempted to scratch it with her keys but there would be time for that on the way back, and pounded her fist on the door. In her mind, she rehearsed all she would say and do to the traitor. Who is it? Who is she? Someone I know?

      But nothing could have prepared Vivien for the truth.

      Nothing could have prepared her for who the woman was.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN