Armani Angels by Cate Kendall Page B

family holidays – when it seemed like they were as close as ever and she’d felt her chest swell with love for her husband and son.
    She rubbed her face with her hand, smoothing down her eyebrows and flattening her wayward hair. It was just that the good times were so hard to remember now, when everything seemed so ugly.
    Things had got really bad when Tyler went to school and Gemma’s career launched at IQPR. At the same time Stephen’s job at the radio station started to flounder and he was sidestepped for promotion several times. Gemma seemed to get promotions just as Stephen got turned down, and the friction between the pair increased.
    Gemma fell back onto the bed, her temples throbbing with pain as she remembered how at some point Stephen had just given up and now seemed more than happy for her to be the breadwinner. He settled into middle management and the schmoozing that came with it, and embraced the financial freedom that Gemma’s income offered.
    Even when his relaxed work attitude resulted in his retrenchment, he was unconcerned. When he finally did get another job, it was at a much lesser station on a lower income, but again he was happy to play golf and eat long lunches, even while Gemma’s workload intensified. She felt a stab of guilt hit her as she thought of the moments in Tyler’s life she had traded for the sake of her career. She’d missed his Year Six graduation, the time he won gold at the swimming carnival and his last two presentation nights. At least Stephen had been there, she sighed.
    She tousled her bob distractedly and thought again about the emptiness of her marriage. It had been months since they’d even had sex – not that she was missing it. She’d gone through the motions of trying to have a fairly normal sex life to maintain some illusion of a real relationship between them, but then a few months ago, she’d offered herself to him in her decreasingly regular act of charity and he turned her down. Rather than being upset or insulted she’d internally high-fived, rolled on her side and slept the sleep of the duty-free and hadn’t offered since. Nor had he asked.
    Gemma’s headache was ebbing, her mouth was less like the bottom of a budgie’s cage, the sun’s attack was becoming more like an embrace and she began to luxuriate in her little lie-in. In fact she started feeling a little too good for comfort. Yes, just as she suspected, feeling good was shadowed by its arch-nemesis, guilt.
    She groaned, rolled out of bed, pulled on her cashmere gown and wandered downstairs to put in an appearance. It was important to show the others that she was an active, interested member of the family unit. Hopefully, then, they would reciprocate in kind.
    The kitchen was awash with sun. And dishes. Tyler and Stephen had obviously decided to do a big breakfast fry-up. She glanced around and saw no evidence that they’d given her morning appetite a thought; there was no plate of eggs, bacon, waffles and syrup warming for her anywhere.
    She sighed and turned her back on the mess to start up the coffee machine for her morning fix. Her arm stopped halfway to the Saeco. Damn, she stomped her foot in frustration remembering her caffeine ban. But she needed a coffee this morning after the excesses of the previous night. Maybe just one to get her heart started, she decided, reaching for the Grinders tin on the shelf. She’d get straight back to green tea after breakfast.
    â€˜Well, look who’s up,’ Stephen said, wandering into the kitchen.
    â€˜I see I missed out on breakfast,’ she said with a tight smile.
    â€˜We didn’t want to disturb you,’ Stephen replied. ‘You were snoring like a maniac when I got up, and you were dribbling all over your pillow – quite the look, my dear.’
    â€˜Thanks very much,’ Gemma muttered, searching through the dirty dishes for her favourite coffee mug.
    â€˜Oh,