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now?’
    ‘I—look, Jade, I can’t even say I’m sorry. Sorry doesn’t begin to describe how I feel. I can’t even say I made a mistake, because what I did goes beyond that. All I can say is you and I were going through a rough patch, and I …’
    ‘So is this what I have to live with now? The knowledge that every time I’ve ever pissed you off or done something you’ve disapproved of, you’ve run off and jumped into bed with yoursupposedly separated partner? Why? If you’d slept with Naisha every time you and I had had a rough patch, you could have fathered a whole bloody soccer team by now.’
    David buried his face in his hands.
    ‘Jadey, it was just that once. Just that one damn time. I thought it was over between us. I regretted it as soon as it had happened, and I’ve felt bad about it ever since. And when Naisha told me she was pregnant …’ His voice sounded very small.
    ‘And there’s nobody else in her life? She hasn’t been screwing you around again? It’s happened before, in case you’ve forgotten. You told me that was why you originally separated.’
    A shake of the head.
    ‘There’s nobody else. That I do know.’
    ‘Well, you’re an idiot.’
    ‘I am, Jadey.’ The way David said her pet name made her feel as if her heart had been ripped from her chest. Finally he looked at her. ‘Whatever you want to tell me now, whatever you call me, it can’t be worse than what I’ve been telling myself and calling myself. I’ve screwed up more badly than I ever thought would be possible. I made a crap decision that night. The worst mistake I could ever have made. I betrayed you, and that’s something I’ll feel guilty about forever. I’ve had sleepless nights deciding what I should do. But I can’t walk away from this. I’ve tried to convince myself that I can, but it’s impossible. I cannot let Naisha bring up two children as a single mother. I won’t abdicate my responsibility like that.’
    ‘So this is the end for us, then?’
    He stared at her, his pale eyes gleaming in the dimming light.
    ‘I don’t want to lose you forever.’
    ‘Why did you come along on this holiday? Why didn’t you cancel before you left Jo’burg, and tell me all this over the phone?’
    ‘Because I only found out after you’d already booked the trip. Dammit, Jade, I didn’t want to disappoint you. And perhaps it’s good that we’re both here now, to have some time and space to think this through. I’ll sleep on the couch. Please, I know it’s hard for you now, but I’m hoping that you can try to forgive me. That you can offer me your friendship.’
    Friendship?
    Jade sprang to her feet, a white-hot surge of fury goading her into physical action. With a supreme effort, she restrained herself from smashing her fist straight into David’s eye-socket.
    His eyes were closed now, in any case, as if he couldn’t bear to witness her anger.
    If she’d known this would happen, she would never have organised the damn holiday. What had she gained from it, apart from a lasting fear of deep water and having to suffer the humiliation of David’s news? For Christ’s sake, here she was, faced with an issue that she’d never even dreamed could happen. ‘I got my wife pregnant while I was having an affair with you.…’
    She wanted to shout her feelings to the rooftops, but she couldn’t find the words to express the immensity of her rage, the bitterness of her disappointment.
    Instead, Jade opened the fridge and grabbed the bottle of champagne. Her first impulse was to lift it above her head and hurl it to the floor as hard as she could and watch as it shattered in a deafening explosion of glass and gas.
    But at the last moment she stopped herself. Still holding the bottle, she yanked open the door and marched outside, slamming it so hard behind her that the bang could probably have been heard in Port Elizabeth.

8
    Bradley’s second-floor flat was in a crummy area in the poorer part of Richards Bay that