“Maybe disappear for a while.”

“Fair enough.” He wandered back into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.

Carla nibbled her thumbnail as she called her fiancé back.

“I see you’re with your ex-husband,” Tom said coldly when he picked up. “Where are you now? Still in Amsterdam? Or is it Portugal, or perhaps Spain?”

“Ah, um, Paris,” she murmured. To her, it made perfect sense how she’d come to be here, the various paths she’d taken. To Tom, it must come as a surprise, and an unnatural one at that. She heard him take a sharp breath.

“Care to explain what’s going on, Carla?”

She dug her fingers into the cushion. “It’s not how it might seem...”

“Really?” He barked a laugh. “I don’t think you’re looking at things from my perspective. I encouraged you to take a break in Spain and didn’t say anything when you moved on to Portugal or Amsterdam without telling me first. Now I find out you’re in Paris with your ex-husband. Isn’t that where you went on honeymoon together?”

Carla swallowed away a lump in her throat. “Yes.”

The silence that followed was packed full of disbelief.

“I’ve been stuck in the back of beyond, viewing paper recycling factories with strangers and watching the machines rumbling,” Tom said. “I couldn’t take in a word anyone said to me because all I could think of was you and our baby.”

“I’ve been thinking about that, too,” Carla jumped in. “But it’s been days since we last spoke and you told me you’ve never wanted children... You made us sound like a mistake.”

“I’ve never seen kids as being part of my life, and the news came out of the blue. To be honest, I was stunned, shocked. Then images began to emerge in my head, and I started to picture us pushing a stroller together, and building sandcastles on the beach, and eating fries from the paper in a bus shelter in the rain. They’re all the things I loved doing as a child with my parents and I wanted to tell you all this, without being hampered by time zones and schedules and problematic phone lines.”

“And your ex-girlfriend?” Carla couldn’t help adding.

“Well, yes. I didn’t want Sara around when we spoke. I can’t understand why you’re with Aaron after everything you told me about your relationship. Why Paris?”

Everything he said was true. She hadn’t been very complimentary about her ex-husband and had blamed him for many things. Carla hugged the cushion with her free hand, picking at a stray thread as she tried to think of what to tell Tom. “You know how I went to see the fortune teller? Well, Myrtle told me someone was waiting for me overseas, a man I’d met two decades ago, and I’ve been trying to find him...”

“Is that why you met Adam? And now Aaron? You’ve been catching up with your exes?” Tom’s voice sounded strangled.

Carla screwed her eyes shut. “Yes, though it sounds more deceitful than it actually is. A relationship curse does exist in my family, and I’ve seen actual proof.”

Tom fell quiet for a long time. “Are you kidding me?” he said eventually.

“No. I think I believe in it.” Carla’s cheeks turned red. “This hasn’t been a romantic trip, even if it sounds that way.”

Tom’s breathing was hoarse and he took a long time to reply to her. “Despite everything, I want to believe you...”

“I still want us to get married,” Carla said, afraid what his response might be. She gripped the cushion even tighter.

Tom swallowed and cleared his throat. “I think I still want that, too,” he said quietly.

The words lay delicately between them, as if they might break if either of them said anything else.

“I’m going to fly home in a few days. What about you?” Tom asked.

“I’m ready to come home now.”

“Okay. Well, let’s talk properly when I get back, so we can try to sort everything out. But, Carla...” he added.

The firmness of his voice caused her to gulp. “Yes?”

“We need to look forward and focus,” Tom said. “Nothing else can go wrong or come between us. I don’t think we can survive any more drama or issues before we get married. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” she said, and meant it.

Tom hung up without saying goodbye or that he loved her.

Carla’s whole body wilted as she surveyed her overpolished surroundings. As she peered out of the window, the skies over Paris looked lemony and faded.

Aaron sidled into the room. “Well, that seemed to go well,” he said, performing an exaggerated shrug.

Carla threw the cushion at his head.

“Hey. I was just saying.”

“I need to leave for England. I want to go home,” she said.

“Okay. Sure.” He paused. “I actually have some urgent business there...”

“Aaron,” she warned. “I need to be with my family, be with Tom. I want to get married without any more problems.”

“You’re also pregnant and we’re going to the same place, so doesn’t it make sense to travel together?” When she didn’t answer, Aaron tried again. “Come on, Carla. Can’t we agree on one little thing, just this once? Will it really hurt us so badly?”

Despite fighting against it, Carla found a small smile. She was tired and didn’t want to face wandering around Charles de Gaulle Airport on her own. “Okay, then, I agree,” she said. “Let’s go back home.”

Twenty-Eight

Crows

Despite all of Carla’s efforts, and the physical and mental exhaustion from the past couple of weeks, she could not fall asleep on the plane back to England. She was glad Aaron was seated at the front of the aircraft, so they didn’t have to converse.

Questions whirled nonstop in her head. What was going to happen when she saw Tom? When exactly would he arrive home? Their wedding was only eight days away and Carla wanted to make sure everything was going to be perfect from now on. She would get her nails done, source blankets, perhaps even make her own sugared almonds as a gift for guests to take away from the reception. She would catch up with friends and visit the house she and Tom were going to move into. The more she could involve her fiancé in her plans, the closer they could become again. They could put all this behind them.

The flight from Paris to Manchester took only ninety minutes, and in that short space of time, the golden light of France fell away to the misty gray of the English skies.

She met up with Aaron again after they’d disembarked. He claimed Lucinda’s bungalow was on the way to his office, so they took a taxi together away from the airport.

In the back seat of the cab, Carla clamped her knees around her backpack as they sped along the highway. Her thoughts zoned out as Aaron remarked on the drizzly weather, how it was cold for late May and about some of the properties he was developing in England. He eventually realized her attention was elsewhere and they sat together staring ahead, watching as the road signs counted down the miles until they reached Lucinda’s place.

The taxi turned a corner and Carla leaned forward when she saw a small group of people gathered on the pavement outside the bungalow. When she recognized several of her relatives in dark clothing, her heart started to race. “What’s going on?” she said, feeling something acidic rising in her throat.

“It doesn’t look like a garden party,” Aaron commented, straining his neck for a better look. “I’ll get out with you, to see.”

He paid the driver, and Carla exited the car, her bones stiffening as she drew closer to the members of her family. They nodded slightly when they saw her, their faces somber and their eyes filled with sadness.