Snow Going Back

Chapter 42

FORTY-TWO

Looking down at the delicate gold necklace Sam had given her just two days before, Kate felt a hot prickle at the back of her eyes. Sitting on the bed, she blinked it away angrily and snapped the box shut, turning it around in her hands. How had she been so stupid? She should have known it was just another elaborate prank. She should have been more suspicious of it all from the start. Sam had proven himself to be an awful person several times over before he’d swooped in and pretended to save her from Aubrey, so why had she believed him so easily?

Because he’s hot , the devil on her shoulder whispered.

No, because she’s a nice person who looks for the good in people, the angel countered.

‘No,’ Kate whispered furiously. ‘I’m just a fool.’

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she pulled it out with trepidation. Seeing it was Amy, she felt a wave of relief and swiped to answer the video call.

‘Hey! Merry Boxing Day, you gorgeous thing, you!’ Amy cried with a cheerful smile.

Kate had thought she had her emotions under control, but suddenly seeing her best friend’s face after the last two awful days seemed to break through the dam holding them in. A hard lump formed in her throat, and tears filled her eyes.

‘Kate?’ Amy’s smile dropped, and she leaned in closer to the screen with a deep frown. ‘Oh my God, Kate , what’s happened?’

Kate shook her head as the tears began to fall. ‘I, ugh… I don’t know. Everything .’

‘OK, lovely, I’m going to need a little more than that,’ Amy said. ‘Where’s Lance? Is he with you? What’s happened?’

Kate closed her eyes for a moment and wiped the tears off her cheeks, more replacing them a second later. ‘Just so much .’ She sighed, wondering where to start. ‘I’ve called off the wedding.’

There was silence on the other end of the phone as Kate took a deep breath and waited for Amy to shout at her.

‘Good,’ Amy responded, nodding seriously through the phone.

Kate blinked, surprised. ‘ What ?’ she asked slowly. ‘That wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I thought you loved Lance? And why don’t you sound surprised? Did he already tell you?’

‘No, he hasn’t told us,’ Amy said, then stood up and crossed the room. ‘And yes, I do love Lance, but you don’t. Not enough to go through with this, anyway. And it’s all going to be fine. I have a wedding escape plan ready to go. A built-in back door to most of the arrangements that I didn’t tell anyone about. So don’t worry, OK? I’ll sort everything.’

‘ What ?’ Kate asked, unsure whether to feel amazed or horrified by this.

‘Yeah.’ Amy rifled through a drawer and pulled out a notebook. ‘I had a go-bag ready for you, for the day, too.’

‘That’s…’ Kate shook her head incredulously.

‘Kate?’ Amy sat back down and looked at her with a sad smile. ‘I stayed quiet about the engagement because I thought you’d want to marry Lance. It was only at the party afterwards that I realised things weren’t right. You looked so, I don’t know… trapped .’ She shook her head. ‘You flew out the next day, and the only time I’ve seen you since, we’ve had other people around and we’ve been running around sorting this wedding…’ She sighed. ‘So I planned the wedding and just made some room for an exit in case you needed one.’

Kate nodded miserably. ‘It’s just been crazy, you know? And it all happened so fast, and everyone was really happy about it?—’

‘Just not you,’ Amy said quietly. ‘So what’s the situation now? Have you postponed it or…?’

‘No.’ Kate shook her head with quiet resolution. ‘We’re over.’

‘Oh!’ Amy’s eyebrows shot up, this part surprising her.

‘Lance and I just want completely different things,’ Kate explained, running a hand back through her long dark hair. ‘He wants the perfect house, the two-point-four children, the stay-at-home wife…’ She trailed off with a grimace. ‘That just isn’t what I want.’

‘And what do you want?’ Amy asked.

Snippets of the last two months flickered one after the other through her mind. The things she’d learned about Cora, and about life. The things she’d planned as she lay awake contemplating life on Christmas Eve. ‘I want to make a difference. I want to wake up every day and feel like I’m helping other people. Like I’m making things better.’

Amy nodded. ‘Yeah, that sounds like you.’

‘Does it?’ Kate asked.

‘It does. You’ve always wanted to save the world, remember? That’s why you got into law. Do you remember when we were kids, you’d agree to play weddings with me, but only if I played heroes with you after?’

Kate laughed at the memory. ‘I do. I wanted to fly so badly.’

‘You made me call you Super Kate, the bad-guy hunter ,’ Amy reminded her.

Kate tilted her head with a look of appreciation. ‘Not a bad play on words.’

‘Meh, it could use some work,’ Amy countered. ‘But the point is, you wanted to save people even then. And fly all round the world on adventures. But then life happened, and you got all caught up in contracts.’

‘Thanks, Amy,’ Kate said.

‘What for?’ she asked.

‘Just being you,’ Kate told her.

Amy shrugged with a nonchalant smile. ‘Anytime, Supergirl. Being me is what I do best.’ She winked. ‘Anyway, what else is going on?’

Kate’s expression darkened as she was reminded of Sam. She told Amy everything, leaving no detail out, and watched as her friend grew more and more angry with each word.

‘That pig !’ she seethed. ‘I can’t believe this! What do you think they’re plotting? It’s obviously to do with getting hold of the company, but I can’t work out the angle. It doesn’t make sense.’

‘Yeah, I don’t know, either…’ Kate felt the pain gnaw at her insides again and bit her bottom lip to ward off the tears. She felt so betrayed. She’d truly trusted him. But she couldn’t share that with Amy right now. Not over the phone. ‘Look, I need to go. I’m packed up and booked into a local hotel. I want to get out before he gets back.’

‘Alright, but call me later, OK?’ Amy asked.

‘Sure.’ Kate looked away, knowing she wouldn’t. It was too painful. ‘See you soon.’

She ended the call and stood up, looking around the bedroom she’d lived in for the past two months one last time. She cast her eyes from the freshly made salmon-coloured bed to the diary neatly laid on the table beside it to the picture of Cora on the wall and finally to the scissors still next to the sewing machine on the desk. She smiled sadly, feeling a tug in her chest.

‘Goodbye, Cora,’ she whispered. ‘It was really good getting to know you.’

She picked up her suitcase, pausing only to place the boxed necklace on the bed, then turned and left for the last time.