The holiday was a chance for Karen to escape her past – but would her secret destroy her future?
Teresa Ashby
Day one, quayside, UK Karen couldn’t believe she was doing this. It was so out of character. She wasn’t even drunk when she booked this holiday, just quietly celebrating her new-found freedom and trying to put the past behind her.
‘Excuse me, are you planning to board or stand there admiring the view?’ an irritated voice said.
She looked up at a tall man with short grey hair and striking steely blue eyes.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I was miles away.’
He gave a long sigh as she got moving.
‘I’ve never done this before,’ she explained and he growled in response.
Something awakened inside her. Her husband had been prone to bouts of sulking. It was only after he’d walked out on her that his mother told her he’d always been like that when things didn’t go his way.
‘He has a way of making you feel that everything wrong in his life is your fault,’ she’d shuddered. ‘I believe they call it gaslighting. I didn’t realise he’d been doing it to you, too. Let’s hope he doesn’t come back.’
Karen had gaped at her mother-in-law in shock. What sort of mother wishes her own son out of her life?
But still, that old crowd-pleasing instinct kicked in, and she felt tearful as she realised she hadn’t changed at all. Clive was still influencing her as if he were sitting on her shoulder whispering in her ear.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said again.
There was a softening in the stranger’s expression, as if he was mortified he’d caused the tears in her eyes.
‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m the one who should be sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. I just want to get this over with so that I can get back home and bury myself in my comfortable rut.’
‘I know the feeling,’ she smiled, cuffing her tears away.
‘You do?’
‘I don’t want to be here either,’ she said.
They moved forward and Karen went through the check-in process and was given her cruise card. No going back now.
She bounced on the bed in her cabin and laughed. She’d always done this when trying out a new bed. She’d done it in a shop once and Clive had reprimanded her as if she were a naughty child. Her skin still tingled when she remembered the pitying looks from other shoppers.
The cabin was surprisingly spacious, but it still felt slightly claustrophobic.
Her friend Steph would have said, ‘I
