Anderson caught the train out to Wilmslow. He missed Mia; not just for a shoulder to cry on, he wanted another chance. Desperate to cling on to his old life in some way. Salvage something. Maybe he could go with her to collect the kids from school, surprise them.
‘Jesus! You look like shit, John!’ Mia exclaimed on opening the door.
‘It’s been a tough few weeks.’
Mia wasn’t interested in prolonging his visit. It took a great deal of negotiation just to be invited inside. They stood in the kitchen exchanging pleasantries, almost as strangers. She rejected his suggestion of collecting the children. ‘Let’s just stick to the pre-arranged visits. You can’t just turn up like this.’
Mia’s open hostility towards him over the last few weeks had been replaced by indifference. She seemed distant. Even the prospect of his conviction didn’t seem to concern her. How did she think he was going to pay the mortgage from a jail cell?
‘Mia, I promise you I don’t know who that woman was. I have never been unfaithful to you. You know me. Let’s talk about this.’
‘John, I don’t want to talk about it. Just go, will you?’
He couldn’t understand how things had changed so quickly. She’d never really given him a chance to try and explain. He brooded over it during the walk back to the station. Was he missing something? Had something else happened?
He cut through the woods on Lindow Common and stopped. Something made him turn around. He listened. Only the distant mooing of a cow. A curious sensation. That someone was watching him. Was he losing his mind on top of everything else?