Why Resist a Rebel - By Leah Ashton Page 0,50
side, Ruby’s fingers brushing against the hand rail.
‘I was supposed to be an accountant.’
‘No!’ Ruby said, and it was such an exclamation that Dev had to grin.
‘That’s what I thought, too. I wasn’t as good at school as my brothers—Dad said it was because I didn’t apply myself, and he was probably right. I just didn’t like sitting still, I didn’t like being quiet and studying in my room.’
‘I believe that,’ Ruby murmured. ‘I bet you were a troublemaker, too.’
‘Yeah,’ he said, smiling fondly at a million memories. ‘Dad didn’t like that, either.’
To their right, greenery and grass reached up to the road above them. Tiny painted totem poles decorated the slope—but Dev wasn’t really paying any attention.
‘So, yeah, earning my first pay cheque meant something. A lot.’
She nodded. ‘Your dad must have been pleased.’
‘I doubt it. I’d moved out by then.’
She looked at him, with questions in her eyes—and as they walked he found himself telling her everything. About that night when his dad had been waiting for him; when he’d been drunk—and arrogant; when he’d felt the crunch of his father’s fist against his cheek.
How he’d never gone back.
Ruby just listened, letting him talk.
‘You were right the first time,’ he said, after a while. ‘About your surprise that a wealthy kid would appreciate a pay cheque so much. Six months earlier, I wouldn’t have. I was spoilt. I did take my life for granted. I’d never have admitted it—maybe because I didn’t even realise it—but deep down I knew I had a safety net. I’d subconsciously given myself the option to fail.’
The footpath ended, and grassy flat parkland spread before them. Large pieces of abstract art—some whimsical, some just bizarre—attracted groups of people. A pride of lions made out of what looked like straw; a delicately balanced collection of chairs topped with two metallic acrobats, and even an oversized mixer tap.
‘But you didn’t fail,’ she said.
‘I couldn’t,’ he said.
No way would he let his dad be right.
‘So you did achieve what your father wanted for you: a career, financial security.’
‘Not the way he wanted.’
They’d left the park, the footpath leading them to another cove, the blue-green waves splashing across tiers of huge, smooth rocks.
‘Did that matter?’
He didn’t know. That was the problem, his problem.
And now it was too late.
So he didn’t answer the question. They just walked, and Ruby didn’t ask again. They followed the edge of the ocean, in silence, until they hit the white sand of Tamarama beach. Ruby quickened her pace a little, and led him between sculptures—finally flopping cross-legged beside a giant turtle constructed of tyre rubber.
He sat beside her, his legs stretched out, the sand warm beneath his skin.
‘A miscarriage,’ she said, out of the blue.
‘Pardon me?’
She was looking at the ocean. Surfers bobbed just beyond the cresting waves.
‘Yesterday you asked what happened. And that’s it. What made me take my life in a less scandalous direction.’
There was a deliberate lightness to her words that she didn’t come close to pulling off.
‘I’m sorry, Ruby.’
She nodded. ‘Thank you. I’d been seeing this guy—a nice guy. From a good family, very smart, very handsome. He had his choice of anyone. I wouldn’t say he chose me, though. Or at least, he didn’t mean to.’
Dev held his tongue, although it was near impossible.
‘It was an accident, me getting pregnant. I hadn’t meant it to happen, although of course that isn’t what people said.’
People. People gossiping about Ruby, judging her.
She shifted a little on the sand, so she faced him. ‘But I was so happy. I didn’t expect it, but it was like—’ she bit her lip, looking down for a moment ‘—like finally I’d have a family. I didn’t care if it was just me and my baby, but then the father surprised everyone and decided to stay with me. He was a good guy.’
She was tracing a hand through the sand, drawing illegible scribbles that instantly faded away.
‘So I had everything: my baby, a guy. It was perfect. Finally I felt like I had a purpose. That I belonged. I wasn’t the girl who people whispered about, I was going to be a mother, and I had a boyfriend who said he’d stand by me. A family.’
Her hand moved from the sand, to her stomach. Somehow Dev knew she was unaware of what she was doing, the way her fingers lay across the perfectly flat line of her T-shirt.
‘I was stupid, and I told people as soon as I knew. I was showing off, I