Shirley Valentine Goes to Vegas. Michelle Betham

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       Prologue

      Dragging the suitcase down from the top of the wardrobe I threw it onto the bed, standing back as it hit the mattress with a resounding thud. For a couple of seconds I just looked at it as if, all of a sudden, I’d temporarily forgotten just what the hell it was I was doing. Was that deliberate? Was that actually my own subconscious giving me a little bit more time to think about everything? To make sure this really was the right thing to do?

      Leaning back against the wall, I closed my eyes, breathing in deeply. My heart was still beatingfast, pounding away inside my chest as I tried to shut out the noise drifting up from the party going on downstairs: a party I should be getting back to. But I couldn’t. Not now.

       ‘… this is just something she needs to get out of her system…’

      His words were playing over and over in my head like some never-ending record I couldn’t switch off.

       ‘She loves me, and she knows I need her to do certain things if this is going to work a second time…’

      Yeah. I loved him. But did I love him enough? Enough to strip myself of everything I’d fought so hard to become?

      I slowly opened my eyes, taking another deep breath, my gaze falling back on the empty suitcase.

      ‘Lana?’

      I swung around so quickly I almost lost my balance, my breath catching in my throat as I saw him standing there.

      ‘What’s going on?’

      ‘I’m leaving, Adam.’ I’d thought my resolve would weaken the second I saw him, but I was obviously stronger than I thought I was. ‘And this time, I’m not coming back.’