Charlene stepped out of the hotel lobby and onto the street. Glasgow smelled exactly as it had all those years ago. Car fumes, cold air and burger and onions. Those were the three main scents that assaulted her senses as she headed along the road towards Queen Street station. Jez had no idea she’d followed him and unless he saw her, he never would.
Being in the city made Charlene nervous about what she would do if she found Jez doing exactly what she suspected of him. The thought turned her stomach. She didn’t love him. In the beginning, she’d almost fallen for him, before she found out what he was really like, before he’d had it off with her best friend. Why hadn’t she been enough for him? Why did he have to abuse her trust, rip apart a friendship she’d had before even meeting him? People said there was a fine line between love and hate. Charlene wasn’t sure how many times she’d crossed it and come back again. It was his fault she felt like this. His fault that she’d wasted her life trying to be a good wife, a good mum. She’d focused all her energy into loving him, yet she’d struggled to forget what he did. He was good-looking, charming and once upon a time had made her feel good about herself. After they’d had their first son, things had got better for a while. She’d managed to somehow live with his infidelity, not just with Roxanne but with others too. They’d worked hard at being affectionate towards each other, but the lie was always there in the back of her mind.
She knew Jez had continued to cheat on her as the boys grew up. The older they got, the more she and Jez grew apart. The idea of him with other women didn’t infuriate her as much as it had when he’d been sleeping with her best friend. That rage had never burnt out.
Purchasing the ticket at the ticket desk, Charlene headed down to the platform to wait for the train. She knew exactly where Jez was. The tracker she’d set up on his phone was accurate. Of course, he was unaware of her constant need to know where he was every second of every day. She’d managed to hide that from him for a very long time. It had only been during the last two years or so that she’d let the mask slip and he’d seen her bitterness and what it had done to her. She’d often wondered why he hadn’t just left her. Maybe he didn’t feel the need. They were barely ever in the house at the same time and when they were, they were at opposite ends. They said absence made the heart grow fonder, but for Charlene, absence made the raging fire grow.
If he was in the location the phone said he was, then there was a very strong possibility that she was there too. The one woman who had destroyed Charlene’s marriage to Jez before they’d even got married. Before he’d even proposed.
The train pulled into the station and Charlene climbed on, sat by the window and took a steadying breath. What would she do when she got to the location which was flashing up on her screen? Would she confront Jez, or watch from afar? Could she bear to look at them together? Why did she want to torture herself like this? Ignorance was bliss, but she wasn’t ignorant like she had been back then.
There was one thing she knew for sure: if that bitch was there, Charlene would deal with her. She would deal with them both.
The image of both her lying, cheating husband and her so-called best friend lying dead at her feet brought a feeling of calm so quickly, it scared her. Maybe she was more like her husband than she thought. Ruthless, vengeful. He was one for getting rid of people who stood in his way. Perhaps she’d learned from the best?
The train pulled out of the station and headed west, out of the city. Charlene looked up at the grey sky and found she was beginning to forget what it felt like to have the sun on her skin. Funny how Scotland made you forget what it was like to feel warm. Even though she’d grown up there, she felt no connection to the place. No family, no friends. That was why she’d never gone back, even when things were at their worst with Jez.
The train continued on its journey and Charlene continued to monitor the screen. Jez could go anywhere and she would know his exact location. Unless he turned his phone off. But Jez was a businessman and he hadn’t turned his phone off since she’d known him.
A voice in her head kept telling her to stop what she was doing; that it wasn’t healthy. Just go back to Spain, pack your things and leave. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She loved him but she hated him. She wanted to know for sure if Cole Woods was the only reason that Jez had come back to Scotland.