Page 94 of All For You

But the sight of Lizzy’s distraught face flashed into my mind. If I could do anything to alleviate her pain, solve this crisis, I would humiliate myself ten times over.

A year ago, I’d deleted both Seb’s and Sophia’s cell numbers, so I’d have to call Seb at work and go through his staff, who might put me in my place before I’d even spoken with him. I checked his company website to make sure he was still working at the same law firm. The photo of him on the partners’ page was charming and trustworthy, his golden hair slicked back, and histanned, boyish face in his brazen, “I know I’m cheeky, but you love me for it” grin.

I called his office before I could back out.

“Could you ask Sebastian Seymour to call me back as soon as he can?” I asked his assistant. “It’s important. Darcy Wainwright.” Seb had my number, but I gave it again in case he’d deleted it too.

My ex-fiancée’s husband.

My ex-best friend.

In the months after I’d been left at the altar, I’d been unable to stop thinking about them. Picturing them together had tormented me day and night, imagining them laughing at me, flying out on what should have been my honeymoon, eating together, sleeping together, moving in together back in London. Eventually, I hadn’t allowed myself to think about them or how deceived and sad and angry I’d been. Talking to Lizzy this week, I’d felt like I was exorcising them for the first time.

But now, faced with what I had to do, I couldn’t help the memories and questions and pain flooding back, dragging me into that same madness that had engulfed me for those months afterward. Reliving the times the three of us had been together, questioning what they’d been thinking then, what they’d been doing behind my back, when it had started. Their betrayal made a sick mockery of everything I thought I’d shared with each of them.

Stop.

Reliving those months before the wedding date wasn’t helping. I couldn’t guess what had happened or when their affair had started. After leaving the Maldives, they’d then shacked up together in London in his flat. They were married within months. That was all the news I ever let myself hear about them.

My phone buzzed. Hoping and dreading who it might be, I pressed Answer.

“Darcy? It’s me, Sebastian.” His voice was wary but excited.

My heart rose at the sound of my old friend, an instinctive remnant from spending some great years together.

But how could this Seb sound like my old friend? How could my spirits rise reflexively with a few words from him? Losing Sophia ended up being for the best. Losing Seb had crushed my soul. The realization hit me again, the way I’d felt waking up the morning after my wedding day.I’ve lost both of them.

The unfairness cracked my barely soldered-over heart.

I took a deep breath.

I wanted to smash him across the jaw for his betrayal. For having to lose him from my life. Push him to the ground, throw myself on him, and pummel him until his face bled. I wanted to rage in his face, call him all the worst things in the world, snarl and drool and spit like a mad dog.

“How could you deceive me like that? How could you lie to my face like that? You made a mockery of all our years of friendship. What the fuck do I do with those memories of us now? You made a fucking fool out of me. I was humiliated.”

But I would never let him have the satisfaction of seeing any of those emotions from me. I would be calm, slightly distanced. As polite as it took to get what I wanted from him. That would be my ultimate revenge. He was going to do something for me that no one else could.

“Sebastian, I have a favor to ask of you.” I struggled to keep my voice even.

“Hello, Sebby, me old mate, how have you been?” His fake-jolly voice had an edge. “Let’s get together for a pint and a bit of a chin-wag. Nah, instead he calls me out of the blue and asks for a bloody favor.”

What the…? Rage boiled my insides, making my skin burn. He’d run off with my fiancée—and now he was making me out to be the arsehole?

I would have given anything to slam one of those old phones onto its cradle to end this conversation. But Lizzy’s lovely face came to mind. Her sister felt like her life was over, and that meant Lizzy felt the same.

I took another deep breath. “Seb, I’m not the one who owes you anything,” I said, grinding my teeth together to control myself. “I’m not the one who betrayed you, and that’s not why I called. I have an issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. And I know you’re the only person who could help me. I’m willing to pay you, of course, however much it takes.”

Even though Seb had gone out partying every night at university, he’d turned out to be a frighteningly good lawyer, going on to specialize in defamation. He’d amassed stacks of high-profile cases with actors and politicians and businesspeople. So, it was not true that I knew nothing about him. It was impossible to avoid his career if you read the news on your phone, in the newspaper, or on TV.

Silence. I waited, my heart pounding.

“Okay. If nothing else, you’ve piqued my curiosity,” he said. “What is it?”

His voice was removed, but I’d expected that.

“A friend’s sister, Jane Bennet, is a famous former model, but now she’s a teacher at a country primary school.”

He grunted, like maybe he’d heard of her. “One ‘t’ in Bennet, right?”