Angel Uncovered (22 page)

'You just want a son!' Angel teased him. 'A mini
Foot balling you!'

Cal grinned. 'I wouldn't mind what we had. And
anyway, if we had another girl, we could just try for a boy
for our third.'

'I'm sure in a couple of years I'll be ready, but just for
now I want to enjoy our little family as it is. I feel like
we've been through so much,' she replied, snuggling
against him.

And although the thought of having another child
made her anxious because she felt she'd only just got over
her post-natal depression, it excited her too, the thought
of her life and Cal's carried into the future by their
children.

'Are you sure I look okay?' Angel asked anxiously, facing
her two friends. Gemma, Jez and she were installed in the
bridal suite and Angel was just hours away from
renewing her vows with Cal.

'You look beautiful,' Gemma reassured her. 'Really
beautiful.'

The dress was as stunning as Angel had hoped. She
wore no jewellery with it apart from her rings and a pair
of diamond earrings. Gemma had done her make up as
natural-looking as possible and Jez had styled her hair in
an elegant French pleat that showed off Angel's graceful
neck and shoulders.

'You look like Venus!' he declared. 'Only way slimmer,
of course!'

'And you're sure Cal will like the dress?' Angel asked,
for what must have been the tenth time already that day.
She so wanted to impress him. Today was so special to
her, she felt as if they were giving themselves to each
other all over again. This was a fresh start for their
marriage and she didn't want anything to go wrong.

'Oh.My.God!' Jez exclaimed. 'He is going to fall in love
with you all over again, I guarantee it.'

'That's what I want!' she replied.

'We should have a glass of champagne. We've got time
before you say "I do" again,' Jez added, reaching for a
bottle of chilled Cristal.

Angel and Cal had chosen to renew their vows at a
small stately home deep in the Sussex countryside.
They had wanted to keep it a secret from the press –
neither of them wanted to do a deal with a magazine
and sell pictures of their special day. But unfortunately
the press had got wind of it, and inevitably the couple
had been forced to take security measures. Now, in the
bridal suite, Jez poured the three of them a glass of
champagne and he and Gemma toasted Angel.

'How are you feeling?' Gemma asked her friend.

'Amazing!' Angel told her. 'It's like me and Cal have
been given a second chance. We've been through so
much and we're still together. I just want to get up that
aisle and tell him how much I love him! Because I really
do, I love him so much!'

Both Gemma and Jez smiled at Angel's smiling, radiant
face, and Jez said, 'I'm so pleased it's worked out for you
both, babe.'

'So am I,' Gemma added, hugging Angel.

Just then there was a knock at the door and then Angel's
mum walked in, holding Honey's hand. The little girl
toddled unsteadily next to her, looking a total sweetie in a
pale pink velvet dress with a wreath of pink roses on her
head, black hair falling in shiny ringlets to her shoulders.

Straightaway Angel went over to her daughter and
swept her up in her arms. 'Oh, Honey, you look so
beautiful!' she cried. 'My little princess!'

Honey beamed, putting her arms round Angel's neck,
and said, 'Mama lovee!' which was her way of saying
'lovely'.

'Thanks for getting her ready, Mum,' Angel said,
turning to Michelle.

'It was a pleasure. We've had fun, haven't we, Honey?
I just wanted to show you what she looked like. We'll see
you downstairs.'

Angel put her daughter down and watched her toddle
out of the room. When the door had closed behind them
she exclaimed, 'I'm filling up now, just seeing Honey!
Can you imagine what I'll be like during the ceremony?
Promise me that mascara is waterproof, Gem?'

'And I never thought I would say this, Angel, but for
the first time ever you've been upstaged by another girl –
your daughter!' Jez declared. 'Did you see her working
the room? She is going to be a stunner!'

'Well, so long as it's my daughter, I don't mind,' Angel
replied. 'She can outshine me all she likes.'

Just then her phone vibrated with a text message. She
wandered over to the dressing table and casually picked
it up. It was from a withheld number which instantly
made her wary as she was careful about who she gave her
phone number to. But she opened it anyway.

In that moment everything changed for Angel. Shock
pulsed through her as she read,
Do you know what your
husband did last summer? Or rather, who he did?

'Oh my God!' she exclaimed, her throat dry, her
stomach in free fall. 'Do you think this is a wind up?' With
trembling hands she handed her phone to Gemma.

Gemma and Jez read the message together. 'It's bound
to be someone taking the piss,' Jez replied, trying to
sound reassuring. But the words were barely out of his
mouth before the phone vibrated again with another
message.

'
You
see what it says,' Angel told her friends, full of
apprehension. She watched them access the message.
Both of them looked horrified.

'What is it?' she asked, her sense of foreboding
intensifying. Her friends were silent, looking anywhere
but at her or the phone screen. It must be something
really bad.

'
Please
, someone, tell me what it is?' Angel cried.

Very reluctantly Gemma handed over the phone. It
took Angel a few seconds to register what she was seeing,
she was so shocked. It was a picture of Cal and Alessia –
the beautiful Italian who had been friendly to her when
she visited Italy. In fact, the one friend she thought she
had made out there.

The couple were kissing in the street, and it was
definitely not the kind of kiss you would give a friend. Cal
had his arms round her waist; she had hers round his
neck, their bodies pressed tight together.

Angel thought she was going to be sick. She put her
hand over her mouth as she gagged and raced to the
bathroom where she threw up the champagne she'd just
drunk.

Gemma and Jez followed her in. 'Maybe it's not how it
looks,' Jez said tentatively.

'Or maybe someone's faked the picture?' Gemma
added. Both her friends were very obviously trying to
come up with innocent explanations, but there was only
one person who could reassure her on that score.

'I've got to speak to Cal,' Angel replied as she walked
back into the bedroom and reached once more for her
phone.

Five minutes later Cal was at the door and Gemma and
Jez tactfully left the couple alone.

'What's wrong?' he asked as Angel let him in. He
seemed worried. Or was that guilt she could see in his
eyes? Angel could hardly bring herself to speak, so she
simply handed him the phone, saying, 'Please tell me this
isn't true?'

Cal looked as if he'd been turned to stone as he saw the
picture. He looked at her, his eyes full of pain. 'I'm so
sorry, Angel,' he whispered.

'So it's true then?' she said, her voice breaking with
emotion. She felt as if everything she had ever believed in
had been turned inside out and upside down. 'You had
an affair with her? Last summer, when I was ill?'

Cal hung his head and said again, 'Not an affair, but I
was unfaithful. I'm so sorry, Angel.'

Suddenly she felt as if she couldn't breathe. She caught
sight of herself in the mirror in the beautiful silk dress.
She was wearing a lie – this whole day was a lie. How
could she renew her vows with a man who could do this
to her?

'Sorry?' she shouted back. 'You shagged someone else
and you're
sorry?
Is that going to make everything all
right? You lied tome, Cal, betrayed me, tried tomake out
that
I
was the one who had cheated . . . and all the time it
was you!'

The shouting had turned to screaming now.

'Please, Angel, we can get through this,' he begged her.

'What! In a minute I suppose you're going to tell me it
didn't mean anything?' Angel shouted back. And then
she flew at him, pummelling his chest with her fists. 'How
could you do this?' Tears were streaming down her face
as he grabbed her wrists, trying to restrain her.

'How could you do this to me? To us? To our family?'
Angel repeated, sobbing.

'It was madness, I know,' he said quietly. 'There is no
excuse, but I suppose I felt rejected because you wouldn't
stay in Italy. I wasn't even sure you wanted me anymore.'

'We're married, Cal,' she said through her tears. 'We
promised to stay with each other forever, to be faithful to
each other
forever.
'

'I know,' he replied. 'I made a mistake, it will never
happen again.'

'How many times did you sleep with her?' Angel
couldn't bring herself to say Alessia's name. She was
prising Cal's fingers away from her wrists as she spoke,
not wanting him to touch her.

'Don't let's do this,' he implored her. 'It's not going to
make things any better.'

'I want to know how many?' Angel repeated, red hot
anger and jealousy taking her over. 'How many times did
you shag that Italian whore who pretended to be my
friend?'

Cal hung his head and mumbled, 'It was just once. I
didn't know what I was doing, Angel, I swear.'

'Your dick did, though, I bet?' she spat back. 'You
bastard, I hate you!'

'I know you're angry but you don't mean that. We can
get through this, we're a strong couple. We love each
other.'

'Do we? And that's what you do when you love someone,
is it? Shag someone else?'

'Please stop saying that. I love you, Angel.' Cal moved
closer to her, but she took a step backwards.

'You'd better cancel today,' she said flatly, numb with
shock.

'No way! We need to do this even more now. I need to
tell you how much I love you. This is our fresh start,' he
said passionately.

Angel felt as if her heart was breaking as she
whispered, 'No, it's not, Cal. I can't renew our vows, not
now I know what you've done. I don't know if I can even
be married to you anymore.'

Cal continued to plead with her, telling her over and
over how sorry he was, how he had never meant to hurt
her. Angel looked at him, the man she had loved for so
long, the man she thought she would be with forever,
now the man who had lied to and betrayed her. How
could she ever trust him again?

'Please, Cal,' she said wearily, cutting across his pleas,
'just go and sort out today. You owe me that, don't you?'

Finally her words seemed to sink in and reluctantly he
agreed. 'What are you going to do?' he asked as he stood
in the doorway.

Work out how to go on living without you,
Angel thought,
looking at the man who had become a stranger to her.
She shrugged. 'I don't know, Cal.'

As soon as he left she collapsed to her knees, sobbing,
tearing at the beautiful dress she was wearing, desperate
to get it off. She ripped it in her haste to unfasten it, not
caring. She couldn't bear to wear it another second. Then
she picked up her bouquet of white roses and
systematically shredded the petals, letting them fall,
crushed and broken, to the floor.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of misery. All Angel
wanted was to be left alone to sort out her head, which
was in a mess. There were so many conflicting emotions
coursing through her. She felt angry, jealous, betrayed,
but above all hurt that Cal could have been unfaithful.
She wanted to lock herself in her room but there were so
many things to be done – telling her mum and dad, then
her close friends. Everyone was shocked and wanted to
know what she was going to do next. All Angel could say
was that she didn't know.

'I'll do whatever it takes to make you realise that I love
you,' Cal was saying. He was leaving for Italy the next
day. Angel had spent the last few days in what seemed
like a pit of despair. She was trying to carry on as normal
but inside she wanted to scream at Cal for what he had
done to her, wanted to hurt him like he had hurt her.
Now the two of them were sitting in the living room.
Honey was asleep, and the idea was that they should talk,
calmly and in a civilised way, about what they should do.

But Angel was feeling anything but calm and civilised.
Cal had suggested counselling but she was too angry and
too hurt even to consider it. Whatever Cal suggested, she
snapped back, wanting to be snide, wanting to make him
suffer. But even as she hated him, she ached for him.

'I don't know what it will take,' she said flatly, hunched
up on a chair opposite him, biting her nails.

'I could try and get a transfer from Italy,' he continued.
'But you know I'm locked into this three-year
contract so it might be difficult.'

'Whatever,' she muttered. 'That's what you say. I
expect you want to carry on seeing your whore.'

Cal gave a heavy sigh. 'Angel! We're not seeing each
other. I haven't seen Alessia for over six months. She's
not interested in me either. She's married as well,
remember?'

'Neither of you remembered that fact when you jumped
into bed together,' Angel said bitterly. 'And she obviously
wanted me to find out or why send the picture?'

Another sigh from Cal. 'She didn't send you the text
and I don't know who sent the picture. It's not a number
I recognise. The question is, who took it?'
'
That's
the question?' Angel shouted back. 'You shag
someone else and
that's
the question? For all I know you
could have put her up to it. Maybe you just want rid of
me.'

'Here's my phone, check all the messages. I've nothing
to hide from you.' He held up his Blackberry for her to
take. But Angel sprang up from her chair and stood in
front of him with her arms crossed. 'I'm not interested in
looking at your fucking phone! I can't be with you at the
moment, Cal. I'm so angry, I feel like you've destroyed
everything.'