Free The Model Wife by Julia Llewellyn Page A

wham.
    ‘Oh my word,’ said Jan, looking over her shoulder. ‘It’s Luke.’
    ‘Yes,’ Thea said. Blood was drumming so hard in her temples, she could hardly hear herself.
    ‘He is a handsome man, isn’t he? Mind you,’ continued Jan bending over her daughter and peering at a second, smaller photo, ‘that Hannah is very attractive as well. Do you know her at all?’
    ‘Mmm. Vaguely.’
    ‘I must say, I do enjoy her column. It makes me laugh. Cry sometimes too. I mean, it was a terrible thing Luke did leaving his family for a younger woman. Pretty as she is. But Hannah seems to have really pulled herself back up again. She’s becoming quite a celebrity. She was on Loose Women the other day and she did make me laugh with some of her comments.’
    ‘Don’t call them Luke and Hannah, Mum. You don’t know them.’
    ‘Sorry,’ Jan said reproved. ‘You’re right. I don’t. But I feel as if I sort of do. After all, I see Luke on the telly most nights and you worked with him for years, so…’
    ‘But you don’t know him.’
    ‘You’re right. I don’t. I’d better get back to the sandwiches… Oh. Telephone. Hello? Dumberley six nine oh two seven. Oh, hello, Faye. Yes, Thea’s back. Yes, lovely… Yes, I’ll tell her Emma Waters really shouldn’t wear those Peter Pan collars. I know, it does nothing for her…’
    While her mother babbled away, Thea studied the photographs. There was Luke. Of course in New York she’d still seen him on screen virtually every day, so no big shock there, but she couldn’t stop herself from studying those high cheekbones, that firm mouth, those wide shoulders.
    But what about Hannah? Last time Thea had seen her she’d been a pretty, but worn woman with sensible hair framing a tired, round face. But the woman who smiled out at her here was a vixen with a feathery hair cut that showed off high cheekbones and sparkly eyes. So much for the woman who’d confided in Thea that when Luke left her she thought she’d die of the pain. If Hannah had died, she had quickly resurrected herself as something of a siren.
    Greedily, like a dieter left alone with a bowl of M&Ms, Thea devoured the article. Bloody hell, Hannah. It was an out-and-out attack on Poppy and all her kind. For the first time that morning, Thea’s mouth widened into a smile.
    ‘Are you going to visit your gran?’ Jan asked, as she hung up.
    ‘Very soon.’ Leo’s mother was senile now and lived in a home that Thea paid for. Guilt about not seeing her enough had been one of the main reasons she had wanted to come home.
    ‘You are a good girl.’ Jan leant over Thea’s shoulder again. ‘What are you looking at? Oh, still reading Hannah. What’s she on about this week? The Demise of the Trophy Wife. I’m sure that will be a laugh. She’s very funny, though I do think she can be a bit unkind to that new wife, calling her a trollop and a bimbo. I mean, I’m sure she played her part, but Luke’s the real villain in the case, isn’t he? I mean, in the end it was him who left his family. The Bimbo didn’t force him to go at gunpoint.’
    ‘You know exactly what happened, do you, Mum?’
    Another metaphorical slap in the face. ‘Well, no. Of course not. But—’
    ‘So Hannah’s been writing a lot of these articles for the Daily Post ?’
    Relieved that her daughter no longer seemed on the attack, Jan smiled. ‘Yes. She has a weekly column. It’s called “Story of a Split Up”, but then she writes other stuff as well. Like I say, she’s been making quite a name for herself. I’m surprised you didn’t know.’
    ‘I haven’t been reading the Daily Post . I’ve been in New York, remember?’
    ‘You could read it online.’
    Thea looked up, as astonished as if her mother had revealed she and Trevor were founding members of the Dumberley devil-worship society.
    ‘ Online? You read newspapers online?’
    ‘Of course. You know I know how to use Dad’s computer. How do you think I send you all those