Prologue

"Mummmmmyyyyyyyy!" My niece left my side ran the length of the driveway and threw herself into my sisters' arms, who stood in the archway to the little village hall with a broad grin.

"You two aren't very brown!" my pregnant little sister yelled as I walked up the road with a poorly-wrapped box in my hands, and then passed it to her.

"Yeah. Funny that. Given I've been in Reykjavik not the Maldives for the last two weeks, it's too not much of a surprise," I said as I embraced her, although her head barely reached my chin. My four week Scandinavian tour had been amended by my little sister to include a fortnight looking after her Kafkaesque daughter but I had enjoyed taking her around the Atlantic island, although I wished Rhea could have joined us.

"You said it had a beach," she replied as we broke still commenting on our lack of appropriate brownness.

"It does but, oh never mind, it's good to see you again. Iceland's great but it isn't home. How are you?"

Rhea looked up at me. "Fine. Had my twelve-week scan last week. It's all good."

"What did they say? A boy or girl?" I asked and she rolled her eyes.

"Not until twenty weeks, but I'm telling you it's a girl," she reminded me and I stretched an arm over to her partner to shake his hand.

"You OK?" I asked the anxious, tall, gangly man next to my sister.

"OK thanks. Good flight?"

"Of course! Always is in Business Class; you get the sexiest stewardesses," I joked and the gentleman smiled weakly. "Although that might just be true of Icelandair. Gorgeous, shapely..."

"Yes spare me the details," Rhea interrupted and I gave her a grin.

I looked around my diminutive sister. "Where's Mum and Julie?"

Rhea looked up at me. "Julie is still in Japan and is staying there; Mum isn't happy," she replied quickly and then showed me inside the little village hall, leaving her partner outside.

"So you and Simon, still together?"

"Yes," Rhea replied smarmily.

"And is he still in the spare room?"

Rhea sighed and giggled. "No. He is in my room as of last night." I giggled at her and she raised her eyebrows. "No sex, well not last night. But the spare room is full now as I took the liberty of inviting someone you've not seen for awhile," she admitted as we got to the second set of double doors.

"Who?" I asked and then froze. There were more than a couple of people she could have chosen to invite, but I had guessed who Rhea would have brought down before I saw her sat on her own at the back of the hall. She brought back plenty of vivid good memories but a ton of dark recollections came flooding back instantly at the same time, and I felt my stomach lurch the moment I clapped eyes on her.

"What is she doing here?" I asked the moment my eyes saw her. Obviously the years had changed her slightly but she was still the same person who had hurt me and I had callously and deliberately upset out of pure spite, all those years ago. I felt a spasm of guilt like I always did when I was reminded about that fateful day.

"She is here because I invited her," Rhea told me firmly, "to my daughter's fifth birthday party and she's come from the other side of the country to be here today. She should have been with Angela but rearranged it at the last minute."

"For Izzy's birthday? I don't think so, Rhea," I replied as dismissively as I could. "Well at least..."

"She's come for you too and is very nervous and scared. She took some tracking down but Simon helped, obviously. She's single too. And, like you, I think she's unhappy in life"

"I'm not unhappy in life, Rhea, what a..."

"You are. Everyone knows it. You have a string of failed relationships; you drink too much. You are always miserable."

"I do not drink too much and she is not single. You might have forgotten, my little sister, but she got..."

"Yes, I know she did, but it didn't work out," she interrupted me and she put her arm around my waist.

"Now that's a surprise." I said coldly. "Out of all the people who I've ever loved, Rhea, why her?"

Chapter 1 »