That thought kept returning during the two bus journeys it took him to return to said residence. There was mail waiting for him, but any hope that there might be a job interview amongst it was soon dashed; it was all junk. He slumped into the lone armchair. The flat was hotter than ever, but the clatter of traffic outside reminded him that opening the window would bring its own unpleasantness.
‘Fuck,’ he muttered.
He stared blankly across the room for several minutes. This wasn’t how he’d expected his life to turn out after leaving the SAS. Then he’d been newly married and in love; now, he had a table strewn with divorce papers, and whatever his own feelings for Sophia, they were not mutual…
Cliff Richard squalled tinnily from his phone. Speak of the devil.
He flipped it open. ‘Hi, Soph.’ At the back of his mind he still had hope as he waited to hear her voice. Maybe her tone would have changed, maybe she would want a reconciliation…
That hope was impaled by a stiletto heel. ‘Eddie,’ Sophia said, her crystal accent filled with impatience and disdain. ‘Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to get hold of you all morning.’
‘Turned my phone off,’ he replied. ‘Had a… job offer.’
She expressed no interest. ‘Well, I need to talk to you. Can you come round to my house?’
‘Not sure I know where that is, Soph,’ said Chase. ‘Is it anywhere near our house?’
He expected a sarcastic retort, but got only a huff of irritation. ‘You know exactly what I mean. Come over as soon as you can.’
‘That could take a while, seeing as I don’t have a car any more.’
‘Then take a cab.’
He could no longer hold in his own exasperation. ‘Fucking hell fire, Sophia! I guess you forgot what it was like when your dad cut you off. Remember, when you had no money? When your credit cards might as well have been cream fucking crackers for all the good they were? I can’t just hop in a taxi and cruise over to Chelsea, because I can’t. Fucking. Afford. It. You get that?’
Another huff, this time overflowing with undisguised disgust. ‘Oh, very well. If it’ll get this sorted out, I’ll come to you. Where are you?’
He gave her the address, then closed the phone with an angry snap. ‘Fuuuuuck…’ he said, kneading his forehead.
Sophia arrived a mere twenty minutes later; considering London’s traffic, Chase imagined she had driven at Formula 1 speeds through the city’s rat-runs. Not wanting to give her any further ammunition, he went down to meet her on the street rather than letting her inside the dismal apartment. ‘Nice car,’ he snorted on seeing what was parked on the double-yellow lines, hazard lights flashing. ‘Which Hooray Henry did you get to pay for that?’
‘No one you know,’ Sophia told him, giving the brand-new Maserati Coupé a casual glance through her sunglasses before curling her glossed lips at the surroundings. ‘So, this is where you’re living now? I’m not impressed.’
‘Can’t say I am either, but needs must. What do you want?’
She took off the glasses and shook out her long black hair. ‘My solicitors told me you haven’t replied to their last letter yet. I thought I’d see if a personal visit would prompt a response.’
‘I didn’t reply to it ’cause I don’t agree with it. You’re asking me to say something that isn’t true. I wasn’t the one who was sleeping around.’
Sophia bared her teeth. ‘We’ve been through this, Eddie. It’ll make things much simpler if you just bite the bullet and go through with it.’
‘You mean it keeps your name clean while I get shat on.’
‘A crude way of putting it, which I suppose I should expect by now, but yes. You have to admit, the financial settlement we’ve offered is more than adequate.’
‘The financial…’ Chase shook his head. ‘You make it sound like a fucking business deal. It was a marriage, Sophia! Maybe that doesn’t mean anything to you, but it does to me. I made a promise.’
‘Sometimes promises have to be broken.’
‘Not by me. If I give someone my word, I move heaven and fucking earth to keep it.’
‘Ah, the knight in shining armour rears his head again.’ Sophia looked away, taking a breath before rounding on him once more. ‘Eddie, I’m sorry to be so blunt, but clearly I have to in order to penetrate that armour — I don’t want you any more.’ Chase felt as if he had been kicked in the chest, but she kept talking. ‘We were in love once, but that was the past. Things change. I changed.’
‘I didn’t.’
‘Maybe that’s the problem. You have all these noble, romantic ideas about true love and how marriage should last for ever… but this is the real world. It didn’t work; it’s over. The best way for you to avoid any more pain is simply to sign the papers and finish it, quickly and cleanly. I’ll expect my solicitors to hear from you soon.’ She returned to the Maserati, hesitating as she opened the door to give him a slightly softer look. ‘I’m sorry, Eddie, but we just weren’t right for each other. Maybe someday you’ll meet the right person for you. I hope you do.’
Chase wanted to reply, but found his throat clenched tight by a torrent of emotions. By the time he managed to force them down, Sophia had climbed into the sports car and started the engine. The Maserati carved out into the traffic with a V8 bellow, leaving him standing uselessly on the pavement. He stared after it, hoping it would turn around and bring her back to recant, but it was quickly lost to sight.
Numbed, he headed indoors, collapsing once more into the armchair. The solicitor’s letter was still on the table, taunting him. Just sign, and it will all be over…
His clenched fist thumped down on the chair’s arm. ‘Fuck that!’ he snarled. Mac’s words echoed in his head: fight to the end. His SAS unit’s unofficial motto, but one that he lived by. He knew now in his heart that he would never get Sophia back, but he wasn’t just going to surrender meekly to whatever she wanted.
And he wasn’t going to roll over and die in his own life, either. He was going to do something.
Chase took out his phone and thumbed back through the recent calls to return one. ‘Mac,’ he said on getting an answer. ‘What’s Hugo’s number?’
3
‘Eddie, get up,’ said Nina, coming back into the bedroom to find her husband still in bed, the covers crumpled back to expose his muscular, if scarred, body from the waist up. ‘It’s nearly time for work.’
Eddie didn’t move. ‘You’re the boss — tell everyone we’re having the day off. It’s not like the planet will explode if we don’t turn up.’
‘You’re jinxing it again!’ She went to prod his side. ‘Come on, move your—’
Fast as a snake, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her on to the mattress beside him. She yipped in surprise. ‘Move my what?’ he said, smirking.
‘Your ass.’
‘Arse.’
‘Ass.’
‘Arse.’
‘Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, you still have to move it.’
The smirk widened. ‘I was planning to. Only in a sort of repeated up-and-down motion. ’Cause if we are going to have kids, after what you said yesterday we need to get cracking on it.’
She laughed. ‘I know, but I wasn’t thinking in every available moment.’