ALANNA hesitated at the entrance to the cemetery, dismayed to find that her stomach had begun to churn.

      Just butterflies, she reassured herself, and forged on.

      The churning increased by the time she stood in front of his headstone. But she remained determined to do this. To say what she had come to say. To find closure once and for all.

      ‘It’s been five years since I stood here,’ she said to the man buried there. ‘Five long, incredibly difficult years. I’ve come here today to tell you that you didn’t win, Darko. I have survived.

      ‘Time does have amazing healing powers and I finally found the will to go on, a will much stronger than I ever believed I had. I have taken my life in my hands. My hands,’ she repeated quite forcefully as those same hands gripped her handbag in front of her.

      ‘I’ve remarried, Darko. Yes, you heard me. I am now another man’s wife. How you must be turning in your grave to hear that,’ she bit out between clenched teeth.

      ‘Of course, I did not choose a love match. Would I be so foolish as to marry another man who loved me? But we like and respect each other, Reece and I. Best of all, Reece doesn’t try to own me, or control me. He trusts me and wants me to be happy. He doesn’t mind if I go out with my girlfriends. He doesn’t mind if I wear sexy clothes. He even buys them for me. He bought me the suit I have on today. It’s the kind of outfit you would have ripped off me. But Reece loves me to wear clothes like this.’

      With a defiant tilt of her head, she spread her arms wide and turned around, showing off her eye-catching figure, encased that day in a cream silk suit that had a short, tight skirt and a figure hugging jacket with a deep V neckline.

      ‘Did I mention that my husband is a very rich, very handsome man?’ Alanna went on. ‘Very sexy, too. He might not be crazy in love with me, but he wants to make love to me almost every night. To satisfy me. Which he does. Do you hear me, Darko?’ Alanna threw at the headstone in a challenging tone, which didn’t totally mask the underlying hurt and pain that twisted at her heart.

      Tears threatened but she dashed them away. The time for tears had long gone.

      ‘One final thing before I go,’ she continued more calmly. ‘Reece and I are going to try for a baby. Not every man is like you, Darko. Reece won’t see a child as competition. Or something else to be suspicious of. Or jealous over. Reece doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body.

      ‘You will say that means he doesn’t care about me.