A Perfect Cornish Escape by Phillipa Ashley Page 0,115

felt briefly afraid of being alone in the station.

To her relief, he shrugged and nodded. He moved a few feet away and ran his hands over the radar equipment. ‘I can understand why you’re so angry. I owed money, I’d let people down, I was worried that some of them would come after me … after you. It felt cleaner to just vanish.’

After her? How could he have known they wouldn’t still pursue her after he’d gone? Or now …

‘So I took the kayak out and let everyone think I’d be back within a couple of hours. No explanations. I didn’t have much of a plan other than to get to SA and get a job. This guy said he could get me a new identity, but it came at a price, so I borrowed some money. I knew I would never have to pay it back.’

She wished she could throw him out, but now he was here, she had to know every last detail, no matter how much it cost to hear it. ‘How the hell did you come across someone who could get you a new identity?’

‘I asked around in the pubs in Newlyn and Falmouth. I found someone on a fishing boat in Newlyn – some Russian passing through – and he got me a passport and a new ID. Then I came up with the kayaking plan: I thought it would mean you could get a divorce and be rid of me.’

‘Rid of you? I never asked for that. I never made you feel I wanted to be rid of you. Don’t put that on me.’ She was shouting. She was dimly aware that she hadn’t been doing her duty and watching. But she couldn’t take her eyes off Nate.

‘After I ran away, I suppose I could have told you I was OK, but the longer I stayed away, the worse it seemed. I felt guilty and ashamed. In the end, I figured you’d have got over me and met someone else. I am sorry I left. I regret the debts I left you with, but I couldn’t pay them off. I knew you had a good job and you’d be OK, but I guess it was tough on you at first.’

Not as tough as thinking you were dead, she wanted to scream, but she let him carry on, shocked at the glibness of his explanation, at the planning, the deception.

‘It was hard for me too when I first got to Jo’burg. I found some bar work and then moved to work at a vineyard in Stellenbosch and worked my way up to manager …’ he said.

‘Is that where you met your new partner?’ Marina said acidly.

‘Yes. That was a couple of years ago now. Not straight away.’

‘Oh well, that’s OK then,’ Marina snapped, but Nate seemed immune to the irony.

‘How much did she know about me?’

‘I said we were divorced.’

Marina was speechless at his sheer audacity. The ease with which he’d lied again and again, not only to her but to everyone he came into contact with, was mind blowing. She’d never known him at all, not ever.

‘Stef is my girlfriend and business associate, or so I thought until she started asking me questions I didn’t want to answer. I think her parents tried to turn her against me because I wanted to expand the business. Stef didn’t like the way I was investing money. It turns out she was checking up on me behind my back – she found a card from a pub in my wallet and a photo of us up here on the cliff.

‘I’d kept the picture among a load of others … sentimental reasons, I suppose. It had your name on it. You’d written on the back, “with love from Marina”. I should have thrown it out but …’ He shrugged. ‘I did love you,’ he said, his tone desperate. ‘I still do, in my way, but it was my undoing. Stef used the card to track you down to Porthmellow on Facebook. You must have had the shock of your life when she contacted you.’

‘That’s the thing, Nate,’ Marina said, astonished that he could claim to love her after the agony he’d caused. ‘I didn’t see the message. Lachlan read it and he went looking for you.’

‘Lachlan?’ His eyes widened. ‘You let some bloke read your private messages?’ he said contemptuously.

‘Lachlan’s a friend,’ she said, wishing she hadn’t told him and wary of his reaction; this stranger she’d once