Mia slammed the door behind her, hands shaking. She felt sick. Gulping lungfuls of air, she closed her eyes trying to rid her brain of the horrible encounter she’d just had. How could he? And with Sarah? With any other guy she could easily believe such infidelity. In her – quite limited – experience men were nothing but lying, cheating assholes… but Tom? He had been the ultimate pin-up husband as far as they were all concerned. He’d been supportive of Ana’s delusions way past the point Mia and Willow had been. They didn’t blame him for wanting a break from her. Ana was the one they thought had lost the plot, constantly talking about how Sarah was scheming to steal her husband.
It was starting to look as though Ana had been right though.
Mia walked out of the gate, her mind still reeling. Her immediate instinct was to call Ana, but she paused. Should she tell her? This would surely mean the end of Ana and Tom forever. Did she want to be responsible for such a monumental break up? Her hesitation was only momentary. Ana had a right to know and if Tom was going to be stupid enough to shag someone in – of all places – Ana’s house, then he was really asking to be caught.
If it was me I would want to know, Mia thought as she dialled Ana’s number.
Ana answered on the third ring. She sounded as though she’d just woken up. Mia could almost hear her heart breaking as she told Ana what she’d seen.
“Are you OK?” Mia said gently after Ana had been silent for about fifteen seconds.
“Fine,” said Ana. “I’m fine. Really.”
Then she started sobbing.
Mia glanced at her watch. Shit. She was already running late, but work would just have to wait. This was way more important.
“I’m coming over,” Mia said.
“Thank you,” said Ana, between sobs.
***
The cab had just pulled up outside Ana’s parent’s house when Mia’s phone rang again. She looked at the caller ID. Work. She took a deep breath before answering.
“We were just wondering if you were planning on gracing us with your presence this morning?” Felicia, her boss, inquired cooly.
“I’m so sorry,” Mia said. “A friend is going through a rough time and…”
Felicia cut her off. “That’s a new one.”
Mia gulped.
“Last week it was family drama and the week before… a death in the family wasn’t it?”
Mia cursed inwardly.
“If I’m not mistaken these are all metaphors for a hangover?”
“No! My friend has just…”
Felicia cut her off again. “Mia, I thought we’d talked about this. I expect to see you walking through this door in under an hour, understand?”
Mia agreed and hung up. An hour would give her enough time to see Ana, have a cup of tea with her and then grab another cab to work.
She was surprised to see Ana so calm when she answered the door, the only sign of the earlier hysterics were slightly red eyes. She followed Ana through the grand entrance hall – complete with indoor tropical forest – into the huge, modern kitchen. Mia had been there a couple of times before, but was still awestruck by the huge mansion that Ana’s parents called home.
“Breakfast?”
“Sure,” said Mia feeling suddenly very out of her depth. These situations made her uncomfortable and she had no idea what to do or say. It was a shame that Willow wasn’t here. She was so much better at dealing with stuff like this.
Ana switched on the custom espresso machine and the rich smell of coffee wafted through the kitchen. She toasted some homemade crumpets, smothering them with butter and jam.
They ate slowly and in silence. Mia was sure that the crumpets and coffee were delicious, but she couldn’t taste a thing. Ana’s calmness was making her even more uneasy. She glanced at the clock wondering how soon she could leave. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help her friend. It was just, well, she didn’t know what to do.
“Mia,” Ana said, turning to her. “Can I ask you a huge favour?”
“Anything,” said Mia, grateful that Ana had broken the silence.
“I want you to watch something with me,” she said. “I’m… I’m not proud of this but…”
“But?”
“I don’t think I can look at it alone.”
Mia had no idea what on earth she was talking about, but obediently followed Ana to the guest wing of the house. She would watch whatever Ana wanted her to, then rush to work. Fine.
Ana had her laptop set up on a large mahogany desk. She typed in a web address and a picture appeared on the screen. It was a grainy picture of a bedroom and there was someone asleep in the bed.
“That looks exactly like Sar… I mean, your old room,” Mia said. She peered closely at the screen. “Wait, that is your old room!”
Ana nodded.
“How do you have a picture of your room?”
Ana didn’t say anything and clicked on a link. The picture changed slightly. It was still Sarah’s room, but this time it was empty. A small set of numbers in the corner indicated that this footage was from the previous day.
“You put a camera in her room,” Mia said, her heart sinking. This wasn’t going to help Ana’s case one little bit. If she confronted Tom about it, he would probably accuse her of spying and Sarah would undoubtedly go to the police this time. Having sex with someone else wasn’t a criminal act; setting up a hidden camera was.
All thoughts of getting to work on time vanished and Mia watched, horrified, as Ana started fast forwarding through the video. She stopped when Sarah came into the room and started getting changed. Mia looked away, embarrassed, as the image of Sarah admiring herself in the mirror dressed only in lingerie appeared on the screen.
“I knew it,” Ana said under her breath. “The lingerie.” She froze the video and Mia looked at the flicking girl in front of them. She was dressed in some dark coloured underwear, but the image wasn’t clear enough to prove it was the exact set that Ana accused her of buying with the stolen credit card. At least, Mia didn’t think so. The video started again and they watched as Sarah pulled on a white shirt and jeans, throwing her head forward to muss up her hair.
Ana fast-forwarded again until they saw the door swing open. This time there were two people on the screen. Sarah and Tom. Mia heard Ana inhale sharply as the couple on the screen embraced passionately.
“You don’t have to do this,” Mia said gently. “We know what’s going to happen. Isn’t watching it going to make it worse?”
Ana didn’t reply.
Sarah pushed Tom onto the bed. He lay perfectly still – like he was asleep – and she pulled off her shirt and sat next to him. She put her hand on his chest and ran it down to her belt buckle, slowly undoing it. All of a sudden, Tom leapt up and pushed Sarah off him. He was a bit wobbly on his feet and there was no sound, but the wild gesticulating indicated he was furious with her. As soon as he started though, he seemed to lose steam and collapsed back on the bed. Sarah poked him and he pushed her hand away. She went out of the room and came back a few minutes later with a bottle of wine, a glass and her handbag. They watched as she poured the wine and then pulled a small bottle out of her bag, glancing at Tom to make sure he wasn’t looking before putting some of it in the drink. He sat up in bed and obediently drank the wine before falling back down, dropping the glass in the process.
“That… that… bitch!” Mia said, her mouth falling open. “Did you see that? She drugged him! She put something in his drink!”
Ana nodded grimly. This wasn’t what she’d been expecting either. It was better in some ways, but so much worse in many others.
The rest of the video played out much as they expected: Tom lying passed out on the bed, still mostly clothed, as Sarah tried everything she could to rouse him. Eventually, she settled for tugging his clothes off, placing them strategically around the room for that flung-off-in-passion look and climbed into bed. She read a book for about thirty minutes before turning the light off and falling asleep.
Ana closed her laptop screen. Her hands were shaking slightly and her mouth was set in a firm line.
“You can’t let her get away with this,” Mia said. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” said Ana. “I really just don’t know.”