as he listened to his daughter explain what had happened earlier that evening at the restaurant. Keith was a solid, dependable, loving family man, who found it beyond him to understand why anyone would shun their responsibilities in such a way. His private opinion of James had never been high – he thought the young man rather pompous and full of himself – but he believed that if his daughter was happy, he had nothing to say on the matter, until now.
‘What sort of a man would behave like this?’ Eleni added, glancing at her husband.
‘Incredibly selfish,’ Keith repeated. ‘And with no soul,’ he muttered under his breath.
‘What really hurts me after all these years of being together,’ Calli told them, ‘is that at no point did he ever stop to think about me . . . about what I might want.’ She looked at her parents. ‘I guess it’s my fault for always going along with whatever he wanted, always trying to please.’
‘None of this is your fault, my girl.’ Her mother reached for her hand. ‘Remember what I told you once? What matters is that you are now pregnant. Provided you are happy about it that is all that counts, because it means you know that you want your baby and that the time is right for you regardless of James . . .’ Eleni got up from the table and with open arms walked round to where Calli was sitting. ‘Your father and I and your brother will be here to support you and love you and the baby, no matter what.’ She bent down and took her daughter in her arms. ‘And if James is fool enough to turn his back on you both, then he is not worthy of our love. It is his loss.’
3
Calli returned to their flat just once, to collect her possessions with her father’s help when she knew James was at work. She could never share a home with him again, she considered his behaviour unacceptable. It was true that they had both spent years rejecting the notion of a child but then they were both in agreement. Now there was neither a choice nor a decision to be made by her about the baby, the choice was James’s. From now on, she promised herself, she would face this alone; as far as she was concerned the relationship was finished.
‘I know you have always been independent, Calli mou,’ Eleni had said, ‘but while you are pregnant it will be good for you to stay here with us. Later on you can decide what to do.’
Returning to the bosom of her family temporarily suited Calli well. She needed their support, not only because of the pregnancy – she was healthy and robust – but also to recover from the blow of James’s rejection, which had left her reeling emotionally. She had always been good friends with her mum, and her dad was a good listener. When her younger brother Alex, a martial arts instructor, first heard what James had done, he offered to go and punch him on the nose.
‘He’s an idiot,’ he said. ‘Someone needs to teach him a lesson!’
‘Thank you, Alex, but I don’t need you to teach him anything.’ Calli laughed at her little brother’s demonstration of solidarity. From as young as five or six he had declared himself his sister’s protector even though he was four years her junior. Everyone rallied around Calli, not only her family but friends too, her own and others she had shared with James as a couple.
‘I know he used to say kids weren’t his thing,’ Nick, a mutual friend, said, while trying to fathom how a man could turn his back on his partner at such a time, ‘but I never really believed him. I know I wasn’t so keen on the idea at first but as soon as Sarah fell pregnant, I came round to the inevitable.’
‘It’s true,’ added Sarah. ‘Nick was pretty shaken at first but as soon as Lucy was born he was over the moon and wanted another one straight away. I’m truly surprised at James’s behaviour.’
‘Well, I’m not surprised at all,’ Josie had told Calli when she first heard the news. ‘I always thought of him as a supremely selfish person, but then I wasn’t the one living with him.’
‘I guess for a long time we were both selfish together . . .’ Calli replied. She paused before continuing, ‘It’s when one person changes and the other