Little White Lies (Summer Reading Book 2) by Ella King

Author:Ella King [King, Ella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-16T22:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Nine

At the time, Nicola didn’t think she could cope, let alone be expected to help Dan through it, when she couldn’t even help herself.

It was as though a dark cloud had descended on their marriage since ... since she lost the baby.

She remembered what the doctor had told her afterwards.

“You’re young, leave it a few months and then you can start trying for another one,” he had said after performing a D&C. She had wanted to kill him then. She had wanted to catch him and strangle him and make him feel some of what she was feeling.

Try for another one? How could he even suggest that? She and Dan had been so happy, so thrilled about it all. She should have known, though. She should have known that it was bad luck going into MotherCare picking out bits and pieces ‘for the baby’.

What baby? Now those purchases were locked away up in the dark attic, never to see the light of day. Much like Nicola’s feelings.

Would she ever be able to look into his eyes again without seeing blame and sorrow reflected in them?

Because she knew Dan blamed her. She knew that he thought she should have gone straight to hospital when the pain started, instead of ignoring them and hoping it would go away. But to be honest, she didn’t really think that anything was wrong. How could she possibly have known?

The medication helped her get through it, helped her sleep at night and admittedly, sometimes during the day, thank goodness. And because of those pills, Nicola had been able to let it go, to come to terms with it all – eventually.

But Dan couldn’t. Instead, he worked all hours of the day and often long into the evening.

“The practice is still in its infancy,” he had said. “I need to put the hours in.”

Yet the practice had been going great long before any of it had happened. Work had been important, sure, but never as important as their relationship had been. Dan didn’t need to work late – at least not for the sake of the practice. He needed to work late because he couldn’t face her.

She knew he was spending a lot more time with Shannon Fogarty these days too. She could smell Camel cigarettes on his clothes every time he walked into a room.

Maybe Shannon was helping him.

Work was her only refuge, and Nicola spent as much time at the leisure centre as possible, albeit in a world of her own, until one day her manager challenged her bad humour and unhappy disposition.

“Nikki, what’s wrong?” Ken asked, his face full of concern. He was the only one who ever called her Nikki and normally she hated it. This time though, it sounded comfortingly familiar. “I know you, and you haven’t been the same since … well you haven’t been your usual bubbly self for a while.”

“Sorry.” She looked away.

“Hey, I didn’t mean it like that,” He put an arm around her and led her away from reception towards his office.

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