Free Three Weddings and a Baby by Fiona Harper Page B

infatuated with his own success to notice that Becky wasn’t coping with being a barrister’s wife.
    ‘The hectic nature of Becky’s life meant she hadn’t got many qualifications, and she was suddenly thrust into a world of high-flyers and overachievers and she struggled to fit in. But she’d seemed so happy and together for such a long time by then that I didn’t realisejust how many scars she still carried from her past.’
    Jennie’s gaze drifted down to her hands, splayed on the balustrade. He took her silence as an invitation to keep going.
    ‘A few minor faux pas at some important functions only worsened matters. When she finally came to the end of her tether, she flung it all at me—how they all looked down on her, how alone she felt when I was always having to cancel nights out for a last minute meeting or was “obsessed” by a case for days, if not weeks, at a time.’ He held a breath and then let it out slowly. ‘After that she got really low. The doctor said she was suffering from depression.’
    What he remembered most about that time, apart from the week-long silences, was the anger. The way Becky had looked at him as if he was something she’d scraped off the bottom of her shoe. Becky had blamed him.
He’d
put her in this situation. He’d wanted this life, so in her eyes it was all his fault.
    And, yes, there’d been some blame to lay at his door, but not for doing what most people did. It was normal to want to make a success of yourself, to try to have a nice life. But he’d understood that Becky hadn’t had much
normal
in her life. He’d tried to understand, tried to help the only way he’d known how.
    ‘We got her help. We both went to counselling sessions. She saw a psychotherapist on her own. And for a while things seemed to get better.’
    He stopped. Well, things had
seemed
better. Becky had been smiling again. He’d encouraged her to make new friends to widen her support system, and had been pleased when she’d taken his advice. He hadn’t felt quite so guilty about all the times his job demanded he work into the evening or be away overnight. Okay, yes, he’d sensed an odd kind of distance between him and Becky, but he’d put it down to the aftermath of her breakdown. They’d even started trying for a family. He hadn’t been sure they’d been ready for it, but Becky had seemed so set on the idea he’d gone along with it, hoping that having a baby to care for would give her something positive, something life-affirming to focus on. He’d known she’d make a good mother. Yes, she had her problems, but she had a heart of gold underneath.
    At least, that was what he’d thought at the time. The things that had come to light after her death had put a huge question mark over that. He’d never imagined she could be so cruel or so selfish.
    ‘Alex?’
    Jennie’s soft question brought him back to the present. He stood up and opened the balcony door. She must be freezing. Jennie nodded and walked back inside, rubbing her arms with her hands. He wanted to offer her his jacket, but it felt too intimate a gesture—an imposition rather than a courtesy—so instead he picked up a chenille throw that he spotted draped over the back of one of the chairs and handed it to her. She draped it over her shoulders and sat herself back down in the same chair.
    ‘But things obviously didn’t
stay
better for you and Becky,’ she said, looking at him from under the sweep of her side parting.
    He couldn’t quite bring himself to cosy back down on the sofa. He needed to walk, to think. ‘No. Things got quite a lot worse.’
    There must have been something in the hoarseness of his voice that got to her. While he’d been talking he’d got the impression that Jennie had been adding layer upon layer of distance between them—something he found ridiculously easy to identify second time around—but she turned her head to look at him and he saw unexpected warmth in her eyes. This couldn’t be