A Different Class - 20

Chapter 20

Rebecca barely slept that night, the test when she’d finally done it, had been positive - of course. She had a permanent sense of nausea, that she knew wasn’t down to her condition. She'd tried to call Nate, but since he'd left her a message telling her he was literally up to his eyes in hassle, she'd not been able to get hold of him.

She couldn’t work out what to do. She kept thinking back to her mother, the sad and broken character that was her father. It wasn’t just Nate in all this, if he chose his family, she’d be a single parent - that wasn't a place she could imagine, but, if he chose her then there would be no family, no uncles, aunties or grandparents for their child. In truth a life that could at the drop of a hat, be as lonely as hers, or worse with a battle for custody against one of the most influential families in the country.

The next morning, exhausted after hours of tossing and turning in bed, she called in sick. She was rarely ill and she needed to sleep, any surprise in the voices of her colleagues was well hidden.

Just after lunch the phone rang, expecting it to be Nate she answered eagerly, keen to hear his voice. Make that desperate! It had only been three days since he left, but SO much had happened. He was the only one who could help her work that out, as much as she hated to admit the fact.

“Rebecca?” she didn’t recognise the female voice.

“Yes.” Bec felt the hairs on her neck stand on edge with .

“It’s Lizzie, Lizzie Groves, I was hoping that I could come and see you.”

Bec groaned, if she'd have described her idea of hell, then a consultation with Nate's sister was near the top of the list! “Well...I'm...”

“Please? I know we haven’t really got on with each other, and that’s partly my fault. But I really want to talk to you. I’m in the City.”

Rebecca paused for a moment, this wasn't anything she wanted, but she'd repeatedly told Nate they had to deal with things. Lizzie may well be the link to the family. She doubted it, but there was only one way of finding out. “I’m at Nate’s flat. You can come here if you like.”

“Thanks, I’ll be about fifteen minutes.”

With more apprehension than she’d ever known, she opened the door to Nate’s sister and invited her in. She was only a year younger than Rebecca, but in Rebecca's eyes she was so much more immature, but then Bec had been alone and fighting her own battles for more years than she cared to remember. Today, dressed in old fashioned clothing Lizzie looked older than her years, and it gave Bec a little confidence.

“Can I get you a drink or anything?”

Lizzie shook her head, “I want to say what I have to then leave. I just want you to know that my father is planning something. I don’t know what, but I think it’s something sinister. This isn’t me asking you to leave because I feel the same way as him. It’s just; I think he’s so angry he’d do anything.” An olive branch? Rebecca wasn't naive enough to believe that this was as it seemed - Lizzie in some sort of conspiratorial activity, but she wasn't ready to throw her out yet. 

“I’m not sure I know what you’re trying to say.”

Lizzie sighed dramatically, “My father is ruthless and he’ll make things very difficult for Nathaniel, and you," she added as an after thought, "it’ll also impact on us at home. If Nathaniel is disinherited, then responsibility will come to us twins, or rather Henry, and without our brother's calming influence I fear for what will happen. He’s a controller, organised, sensible," she sniggered, "Nathaniel knows he has to take on the estate, and to do that he has to fall in with my father. It’s his dream Rebecca, I can’t see that taken away from him.”

“Dreams change as we grow. He wants to be with me, and if there was a chance that he wanted to change his mind, I’d walk away like that.” She clicked her fingers. "But he wants me, and if your father makes him choose he wants to choose me, I don't like that, but it's the Groves family that is imposing any ultimatums. Not me...this is nothing to do with me."

“Olivia Martin has had his engagement ring for five years, she was too young when they were promised to each other, she’s waiting for him to formalise his intentions. Olivia's father works in the same bank as him, and this could jeopardise his chances in work.”

Once again Rebecca felt the room swirl in the presence of a member of the Groves family, but this was another person talking about the same woman. She felt sick, “What do you mean?”

Lizzie grinned sensing she had finally penetrated Rebecca's armour, “Part of him getting so high up in the Investment Bank was thanks to Peter Martin, he’s a chief executive of the bank, he helped Nathaniel climb the ranks.”

Bec squared up to the girl, “you want me to believe that all of Nate’s work success is due to that, a promise related to the daughter? Your brother is a very intelligent and successful man, and it wouldn’t do your family any harm to realise that.”

Lizzie stood up and shrugged in an overconfident manner, “we don’t see him as a pot of gold!”

“How dare you? How dare you come here and judge me. You don’t know me.” She couldn't bring herself to say anything else.

The younger girl shrugged, “if you don’t believe what I say, do your research. The engagement was announced in most of the broad sheets, the internet will give you all the evidence you need. And if you want to be a life wrecker like that, if you feel that you are more important than all that life, tradition, promise...well so be it!” She turned on her heels, and left. 

Bec was numb. How could Nate not tell her about this? How could he keep so many secrets? She knew she should never underestimate the Groves family and their poison. But Lizzy had seemed so assured, almost cocky, she wasn't intelligent enough to fake that. There was some truth in it, but she also knew she owed Nate her trust.

But as much as she wanted to ignore their words, within half an hour she was sat in front of Nate’s desktop Googling the names Groves and Martin. She had three hundred hits, the first dozen or so read exactly the same: 

“Peter and Grace Martin, of Harrow-on-the-Hill, are delighted to 

announce the engagement of their only daughter Olivia, to 

Nathaniel Groves, eldest son of Sir Edward Groves, the Earl of 

Cartwright, and the late Sara Groves.”

She felt sick. All the articles were dated four years earlier, exactly as both Sir Edward and Lizzy had said. Next she searched for the accounts and details of the Invest Bank, and just as she feared, every time Nathaniel was mentioned in a story, Peter Martin was there too. Lastly she searched for Olivia Martin, and a few society stories popped up, with photos. She was stunning, young, dark, with the bluest eyes that she had ever seen. 

Feeling sick, she lay on the sofa, she had to speak to Nate, had to find out what was happening. She couldn’t bear the thought that he had been using her all along to fill in until Olivia was ready to marry him.

They'd missed each other a lot over the last few days, and today was no exception, when he didn’t answer she left a message, then had a bath. She was climbing into bed,  an emotional wreck at almost midnight when he called her back.

“Hey darling! I’ve been thinking about you all day! How are you?” He sounded so happy to speak to her, there was an elation in his voice. But she was fraught, the hours of silence since his sister had left had not done anything to calm her concerns.

“Who’s Olivia Martin?” She knew she'd snapped, sounded angry, she wasn't, she was hurt and vulnerable, but she couldn't let him know that.

Silence.

“I asked you a question Nate and I deserve an answer.”

He floundered, “Whatever you’ve heard I’m sure isn’t true.”

It was no defence, anything positive was the minimal she expected, instead she heard nervousness and anxiety, “Do the broad sheets lie?”

He groaned, “Shit! It’s not what you think Bec, it really isn’t....”

Rebecca was fighting back the tears, “you have no answer for me? Do you?”

“Of course I do, I’m just not getting into this over the phone. I’ll come home tomorrow...”

Suddenly she needed to protect her heart, step away from this row, “Don’t worry, I’ll speak to you when you get back.” She hoped she sounded calmer, but with his lack of denial she could only feel betrayed and lied to.

“Bec?” he could sense the distance in her voice. “I love you!”

She mumbled a response, then excused herself as tired.

The next morning she came back from the shop to see the answer phone blinking...pressing play she paused hearing a strong clear voice naming himself, and she thought her heart had stopped. Any doubts she had over the relationship were magnified tenfold, and she knew she had to leave, not only to protect her sanity, but also to protect everything about her, and her unborn baby. If she hadn't been pregnant she'd have stayed and fought, but that voice...that name...she had to run and run.