Splintered Memory - By Natascha Holloway Page 0,13

days. If this was the case, then she knew that he wouldn’t have had the chance to notice that she’d been away. Yet as she thought this she felt awful. She hated keeping the truth from him, she’d always hated keeping the truth from him, but she was in an untenable situation. She was torn between her best friend and her husband.

Her friendship with Claire had always been a cause of dispute with Matt. The two of them just didn’t see eye to eye on anything, including her. They’d always bickered, but somehow she’d always been able to remain neutral. That had all changed though when Claire had started dating Nick. Somehow it seemed that their fledgling relationship had been the catalyst for all of her arguments with Matt, but it had only been recently that she’d realised just how much of a toll her friendship with Claire had and was having on her relationship with Matt.

She couldn’t remember a time when they’d ever argued the way that they had been recently, and she knew that she owed it to him to address this with Claire. Charlie knew that Matt was the most important person to her, and that if something had to give in her life it’d never be him. Yet at the same time she owed Claire more than just a call to tell her this.

There was also another issue. Charlie had never once broken a promise to Claire, and she’d promised her on her birthday to go with her when she went for her abortion. That had been today, and Charlie hadn’t felt right going back on her word. If she was honest she also hadn’t wanted to, despite knowing how angry Matt would be if he knew where she’d been today.

She pressed her foot down harder on the accelerator and glanced at the time again. She was running late, and she knew that if she wanted to avoid having another argument with Matt about Claire then she needed to hurry. She’d told him to meet her in town at eight as they were going to their favourite Chinese restaurant, and she knew that she needed to go home first.

She wanted to get back, unpack, shower and change. She wanted to look good tonight, because she knew that when she told Matt her news they’d be celebrating. She also knew that he was going to be shocked, but equally delighted when he heard what she had to tell him.

Charlie had initially booked the table hoping to be able to tell him that she’d been made a senior associate at work, but she’d found out a few days ago that she hadn’t been promoted. To her surprise though, she hadn’t felt downcast about this news. It just hadn’t seemed to matter quite as much to her as she’d thought it would, although she had wondered if her reaction might’ve had something to do with her having found out only hours earlier that she was pregnant.

She knew that Matt was going to be ecstatic when she told him. He’d wanted to start a family for a while now, but she knew that he hadn’t wanted to push her. He understood the demands of her career, just as she understood his, and he knew that she was devoted to making partner.

Charlie was still devoted to making partner one day, but now she didn’t feel that there was quite so much of a rush about it. She’d also started to wonder if she might like to change roles. She’d been at her current firm since she’d left uni, and of late she’d started to find the daily grind less and less enjoyable.

She’d thought that maybe she’d like to move away from a large firm and go in house with a company, or perhaps just move to a smaller firm. Yet after seeing everything that Claire had been going through recently, she’d realised just how much she wanted to have a family with Matt. She’d known that she hadn’t wanted to put it off anymore, especially not just for the sake of her career.

Charlie hated that she’d been lying to him about work, about Claire, and about being pregnant. She felt guilty that he didn’t know but Claire did. They’d never kept secrets from each other, but until she’d made the decision about her career for herself she hadn’t wanted to discuss it with him. She’d known that he’d worry that she was giving up something that she’d always wanted in order