The Sisters by Nadine Matheson Page A

into a vest and shorts before returning downstairs where she drunk her wine in the quiet and coolness of the living room. Jessica only realised that she had dosed off when she heard the sound of footsteps on the staircase.
    ‘Andrew,’ Jessica called as she rubbed her eyes and walked out into the hallway. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Andrew standing in the middle of the staircase with a mulberry holdall in his right hand.
    ‘I didn’t think that you were home,’ Andrew said.
    ‘Why would you…?’ She stopped when she noticed two suitcases and his suit bag on the bottom of the staircase, waiting to be claimed by their owner.
    ‘What’s going on? Why are all these bags downstairs?’ She had no idea why she was even asking the question. It didn’t take a genius to work out that he wasn’t just going on a business trip.
    He walked down the rest of the stairs and placed his bag on top of a suitcase before taking a breath. He was 10 years older than Jessica and from their early days of dating had been almost regimental in his approach to his appearance. She had never been able to read him. In the beginning that made him dark, mysterious and attractive and it made her immune to the other features of his personality, such as the arrogance and the vanity. He didn’t look like a man who was trying not to hurt his wife’s feelings, but he had an excellent poker face.
    ‘I’m leaving you.’
    ‘You’re doing what?’
    ‘I’m leaving you.’ He said it as though he was merely telling her that their online food shop was being delivered at three o’clock instead of two. Jessica felt her legs begin to shake. She had trained herself not to be shocked by anything but this was about her. Not some soap star that had been caught freebasing cocaine off her personal trainer’s chest.
    Jessica stood there dumbfounded. She knew that their relationship had changed. She had lost count of the times Andrew had returned home late from work or simply not all. There had been more weekends away where he said he was playing golf than she cared to remember. The facts that he was always shopping and had just splashed out on a Porsche were no surprise to her. Andrew was larger than life. Whether it was shopping, drinking or gambling these were all parts of his personality, but how did he have the audacity to leave her?
    ‘You can’t leave me. We’ve just done a photo-shoot for Living magazine for Christ’s sake. You can’t leave me Andrew,’ Jessica said not knowing where the strength or the desperation in her voice had come from. Andrew just laughed; a bitter but pitiful laugh that immediately made her regret saying those words.
    ‘You’re so absorbed in yourself. This isn’t even about you.’
    ‘Self-absorbed. Me? I’m not fucking self absorbed,’ Jessica said as she uncontrollably shook with rage and tears formed in her eyes. This shouldn’t be happening. If anyone was to end this marriage it should have been her.
    ‘Who is she?’ She’d wanted to sound strong but the words came out choked and weak.
    ‘What makes you think that it’s another woman?’
    ‘Because I know you. You wouldn’t be leaving me if you didn’t think you were off to bigger and better things. Who is she?’ Jessica shouted.
    ‘It could be that you just bore me Jess.’ The coldness of the statement struck her more than when he’d told her that he was leaving her a few minutes earlier.
    ‘I bore you? No, no. That can’t be the reason. It has to be another woman.’
    ‘Think what you like. I’m not going to stand here and argue with you,’ Andrew said as he pulled his car keys out of his pocket and walked to the front door.
    ‘Where are you going?’ she said as she followed him to the front door.
    ‘That’s really no concern of yours. The next time you hear from me will be from my solicitor,’ Andrew said as he walked out, slamming the front door behind him.
    She stared at the front door as though it would be able to give her