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Come on, stop this You're over the worst, you don't do post mortems on Keith any ht she couldn't ste in

They'd had a low-key wedding Keith had wanted it that way and she had been so gloriously happy she'd have got married in sackcloth and ashes if he'd asked her to As it was, she'd worn a powder-blue suit and large hat, and everyone had sad she looked radiant

Keith had whisked her off to the Bahamas for teeks sad they had returned to live in his inal plan had been to start looking for a house straight away, but as the weeks and months had slipped by it had never happened Keith had said there was plenty of tireed with hi for a baby in the future, they would tank about a house Until then they were happy as they were

And then one terrible night her sister and brother-in-law, Michael, had turned up at their apart from head to foot, Catherine had told her their reserved parents had been killed in a head-on collision Two eighteen-year-old joyriders in a stolen car had veered across thesc the lorry driver had lost control of his vehicle and her parents had ploughed into it The lorry driver had cuts and bruises and the joyriders not a scratch Neither had they any remorse The news had attracted nationwide publicity, as much because one of the joyriders had a fa else

A day or two after she and Keith and Catherine and Michael had been interviewed by the press on the steps of the court¬house at the finish of the trial, the joyriders having received the maximum sentence possible, she had returned ho outside the apartment

The recent past, as she and Catherine had battled to come to terh, but nothing could have prepared her for what had followed The young wo-terether for seven years On the nights he had been 'away' on business he had, in fact, been on the other side of London with Anna And there were girlfriends too, Anna had told her in a bitter rage There always had been Anna had turned a blind eye to Keith's women because she loved hiirls, but when she had seen him on the neith a wife Only the day before he had left theht in her arms She'd had no idea he had actually married someone else

Beth had stared at the distraught young wo down about her ears She had believed Anna instantly Later she'd questioned why and had come to the conclusion that as Anna had spoken a thousand and one little things had suddenly co twelve months before And a couple of days before Christmas he had sup¬posedly had to fly up to Scotland on business and had been unable toDay Of course he had spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Anna and his children Wheels within wheels and so cunning

The more she and Anna had spoken, the more she had realised just how devious Keith had been He had walked in cm them some time later and if ever she'd needed confir the truth, the look of horror on Keith's face was it

She had walked out that saone back except to pick up a few personal belongings with Catherine when Keith had been at work She had refused to see or speak to him and once he had realised she was deadly serious he had not contested the divorce But then he couldn't have, not with her evidence

Catherine and Michael had been wonderful, insisting she say with thenant with their first child she had only stayed a short while As soon as she was able she had found a sht with her half of the inheritance from her parents' estate It had taken every last penny but she had needed to mow she had her own home The day after she'd moved in Catherine and Michael had turned up on the doorstep with Harvey, who had been nothing ue

'A housewar present,' Catherine had announced 'And I've left work I can look after him on the days when you're in the office You need coht OK?'

She had protested she didn't want a dog and that it wouldn't e practical, but she knew Catherine orried to death about her and convinced she'd sink into a bog of despair once h was alone and it had been that which had persuaded her Id take Harvey As it was, it had turned out that Catherine was absolutely right She didn't kno she would have got through the last tortuous eighteeniht and taking him to some of the more isolated sites she had to visit He was so fiercely protective of her He was also as good as gold with Catherine and the baby on the days she was confined to the-office