Page 12 of The Whole Package

‘Hi.’ I smiled at the receptionist as I entered the bustling salon. ‘Running late as usual.’ I rolled my eyes, but the usually bubbly receptionist seemed stiff and unresponsive.

‘Agh. Right, babe. I’ll let Jay know you’re here,’ she replied.

‘Harriette!’ Jay came around the corner, wrapping his arms around me tightly. ‘I didn’t think you’d be coming in. I texted you to say if you wanted to cancel, we could . . .’

I tittered a laugh of complete confusion. ‘Why would I cancel my hair? Wait – I haven’t got any texts.’ I pulled out my phone, realising I had left it on Do Not Disturb after the morning’s live stream.

‘You don’t know?’ He gasped dramatically, hands flying to his face.

‘Know what?’ I glanced around the busy salon, only now noticing that every set of eyes was focused on me. ‘Jay?’ I felt my bottom lip tremble. ‘What’s going on?’

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and guided me through to a unoccupied makeup room at the back, closing the door behind us.

‘Babe,’ he sighed, rubbing his forehead. ‘Check your Insta.’

I took out my phone and watched my hands tremble with fear.

65,000 notifications.

10,000 follow requests.

I glanced back at him. ‘Jay . . . What the fuck is going on?’

He stopped biting his nails to point back at my phone.

‘Go to twenty-two minutes into your live this morning, babes . . .’

I scrunched my face up and clicked on the video from this morning, scrolling to the twenty-two-minute mark – right as I’d headed through to wash my hands. Yeah, I thought, so what? But then the kitchen door burst open, and Rupert and Penelope stumbled in, giggling.

Instantly, my stomach dropped so hard it felt like I’d missed a step on the stairs.

Fuck.

He had both hands on Penelope’s face like she was the most precious creature in the world.

Then he kissed her.

I turned the volume up full.

‘When will this be ours, Pen? I can’t stand another night next to her. I need you . . .’

I shut off my phone. I was dizzy. Hot.

I started wrestling myself out of my stupid fur coat, suddenly feeling my blood boiling under my skin. I must’ve looked like a traumatised yeti having a panic attack.

Jay crouched down in front of me. ‘I’m so sorry, Harriette,’ he said, his brown eyes full of tears. ‘I know your husband is your life.’

I gulped, feeling foggy and furious and hollowed out all at once.

It wasn’t even the cheating. Fuck, I’d known about that for months. It was the way he looked at her, like he wanted her. Like she wasn’t just some stupid young fling he occasionally pumped between meetings. And worse than all of that was he’d unravelled our perfect life in front of millions of people, who until that point had genuinely believed we had it all.

‘What do you want me to do, babe? I can drive you home—’

‘No!’ I interrupted. I couldn’t go back there and risk this being final. I needed time, I needed a place to hide. I needed to think.

‘Just do my hair as planned, please,’ I said, warm, salty tears streaming down my face.

‘Babe, I don’t think that’s a good—’