Proof of Life by R.J. Ellory

Author:R.J. Ellory [Ellory, R.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2021-02-04T07:00:00+00:00

35

‘I was the world champion at making promises,’ Stroud said. ‘Current title holder for breaking them too.’

Nina smiled as if she knew precisely what he meant.

‘I guess I just tried to be normal in every way possible, but none of it stuck, you know? Regular job, settling down, being a parent, all that stuff. I gave it a good try, but this other life just kept pulling at me. I had to keep moving, keep throwing myself into the most dangerous situations I could find. And that, just so you know, is not the best way to keep a marriage together.’

Stroud moved his legs. They ached relentlessly. He leaned back on Nina’s couch and looked over at her. She’d tied her hair back, had her knees tucked up under her on the armchair. She looked less worn out, and very beautiful in that moment. Was it true that the more you got to know someone, the more you saw who they really were, and thus your perception of them changed? He remembered an Italian journalist in Cyprus. She was there with some TV station. She got drunk with him and Raphael the night before she left.

‘Men,’ she told him, ‘fall in love with bodies. Woman, however, fall in love with minds.’

He knew there was nothing between himself and Nina, but he had surprised himself with the change in his feelings towards her. She was no longer a colleague. Shared experience aside, he now considered her a friend, someone he could confide in, someone he could trust.

‘What’s she like? Your ex-wife.’

‘Well, if she’s the same as the woman I lived with, she’s smart, funny, good-looking, but she’s tied to her family, her father especially, in a way that prevents her from ever really being completely herself. Of course, I have only understood this in hindsight. The basic problem is that she’s never had to work, and I think that’s very destructive for a person. They get into a thing where everything comes too easy, no challenges, and then when things don’t go the way they want and money can’t fix it, they’re buggered.’

‘Rich family?’

‘Self-made father. Knows what he knows and nothing else. Has an opinion about everything, and it’s a problem if you don’t see things his way.’

‘And you never got the papal blessing.’

Stroud smiled. It was a good way of putting it. ‘I was about as far from the plan as you could get. I don’t know what he wanted for her. A banker, maybe. Suits, ties, hand-made shirts. Cambridge rowing blue, drives an Aston Martin. Christ knows, Nina. Someone who could elevate the family without diminishing his status. That game is all about how things appear, not how they are.’

‘Tell me about your daughter.’

Stroud looked down at his reflection in the glass of wine in his hand. ‘Eva,’ he said. ‘She turned fourteen in May.’

‘Did you see her for her birthday?’

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘Did you send her a gift?’

‘I sent money in her birthday card.’

‘How much?’

‘Enough that she would know I cared.

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