The Good Husband by Abigail Osborne

Author:Abigail Osborne [Osborne, Abigail]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books
Published: 2022-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Three

The pain hit Jack before his brain could understand what had happened. He jumped up, rubbing at the hot liquid spreading like a flame, burning the skin beneath his trousers. He cried out as coffee stains bloomed across his beige pants, making it look like he had fouled himself. A shattering sound filled the café as his mug fell to the floor and crashed to the ground, an explosion of white pottery. Everyone in the café seemed to take a collective breath and turned to look in unison. The woman seemed oblivious to his cries of pain and anger. Her bag had fallen to the floor and she scrabbled around, ignorant to everything except sorting herself out. Her hair was raven black but he could see roots of brown staining the top of her head. She did not look up as she snatched at the lipstick and coins that were making a bid for freedom. He waited for her to apologise, to look at him and offer to make amends. Her daughter looked stricken and reached down to pick up a few more coins that had gone under a different table. The woman threw everything back into her bag and stormed from the café.

He stood staring after her open-mouthed. The woman’s sister came over to him. She sneered as they watched her walk down the street.

‘I’m sorry about her. She’s always been selfish and rude. Can I get you another coffee?’

Jack sat back down with a fresh coffee, still dabbing at his trousers uselessly. He hoped the stain would come out. They were his favourite pair. Elsie had got them for him in a bid to encourage him to ‘join the twenty-first century’. He could remember her smile when he had tried them on. Exclaiming he had never looked so handsome. Jack pushed away the memory and focused on his anger instead.

The woman’s face came into his mind’s eye. The way she had gloated that she was paying her staff to clean houses whilst she sat back and did nothing. Jack could just picture her, sitting in a fancy office, reaping the profits her staff brought in. It made him nauseous. He recalled the swagger in her voice as she reeled off all the things she was going to buy her daughter. Eight iPads?

The daughter was a beauty. Long dark-brown hair that glittered in the lights of the coffee shop. An angelic oval face with large brown eyes. His heart filled with sympathy and concern. What chance did this young girl have when she was being raised with such a materialistic monster? She couldn’t even stop to apologise for knocking over his coffee. The thought struck him like a bolt from the blue. He could save her. Jack could eradicate the evil from her life. She was better off being raised in foster care or with lovely adoptive parents instead of that woman. He had the power to do that.

God had a new plan for him. Why else was he in this coffee shop at this time? It had been a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.