SPOILERS!!!
Jessica's moment of indiscretion changes life as she knows it. Bertie finds out when one of his colleagues tells him that he saw Jessica enter the hotel, and Bertie even goes there to talk to the waiters. Jessica then has to confess, and at first, Bertie is upset but is willing to forgive her. Yet, talking to his colleagues is what changes his mind. Bertie wants a separation, and Jessica will only see the children two hours every week. He will keep the house and the car even though it was Jessica's inheritance that paid for everything.
Jessica confides her cousin, Lydia, and she tells her to see a solicitor, who tells her that there is nothing she can do. Bertie has the right to the money and the property, and she is the one who wronged her. Jessica then plans to take the children to London and tells Lydia about it. This proves to be a mistake. Feeling sorry for Bertie, Lydia tells him about his plans, and Bertie then tells Jessica that if she doesn't comply to his plan, he will file for a divorce, which will mean the ruin not just for her, but for the children, Tom and her mother. So Bertie takes her to a flat in Bootle. Jessica is devastated but won't give up. After Bertie leaves her in the flat, she takes a taxi to the school, but the children are gone. A woman has taken them out, and she realises it is Lydia, who has betrayed her. Then she goes to her house, and it is empty and with a for sale notice on the lawn.
Jessica then has to start life again. She has money that her mother gave her. Ethel knew about the affair, because Tom had confessed. Even though she seemed okay with it at first, Jessica realised that her mother didn't want to see her again.
After a few weeks of despondency, Jessica has to put her act together. She finds a job as a typist, and then she starts to make friends with the people in the block of flats. Lena, an eighteen-year-old woman, who is charge of her orphan nephew, Callum, and Angus, a Scotsman. She also runs into a former collegue of his father's, Josef, and they also keep in contact. The only person from her family Jessica sees is William, her brother, who comes at Christmas, and he falls for Lena, and some weeks later he marries her.
Jessica also falls in love. Harvey Cope is an electrician, and they start dating, but Jessica doesn't tell him about her situation and past. Harve thinks she is single, and when he proposes to her, she is unable to accept. So she writes a letter to him, explaining everything, and she agrees to go to Paris as a favour to Josef. His daughter, Sara, who used to be Jessica's friend, is in Paris, married, and Josef wants her to come home, so this will be Jessica's mission now.
I love Maureen Lee's books, and this has me hooked.
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