Objects of Desire Read Online Free PDF Page B

Proposing I should leave Lakeside?’
    ‘I’m proposing one of us should leave Lakeside. It would be practical, it would be constructive for all of us if
you
were to choose to leave. You cannot easily, if at all, make a life on your own here in this community, not after a divorce. Half the lifestyle you know and are used to is all you might manage at best. Too tough. It would be easier for you to begin again elsewhere.’
    ‘No husband, no house, and now no town to live in. I suppose what comes next is to take my children away from me?’
    ‘I wouldn’t have put it exactly that way, but yes, I do want custody of the boys.’
    ‘Never!’
    ‘Don’t say never, Anoushka. The burden I’m taking off your hands gives you the freedom to go out and start again. You won’t exactly be homeless. If you agree to leave Lakeside and let me help to support you financially, I’ll make our house in the Caribbean over to you. You’ve always liked that house and living there. You can take the boys there on their holidays,live in some degree of elegance or travel. Begin again.’
    ‘Oh, you’re not going to take our island home away from me. At last a sacrifice on your part! What if I don’t like these plans of yours?’
    ‘They’re hardly plans. I may have wanted out of this marriage for a long time but until now it was a vague thought which I never acted upon. I have never planned how we should part. I’m talking this out for the first time.’
    ‘Well, I don’t like your plans for me. What are the alternatives?’
    ‘I can leave Lakeside and the clinic. You can remain here in this town and take custody of the boys, give them a diminished life, and have a thin time yourself. Anoushka, divorced women like you – well, let me put it this way. You can never regain in this community the same life we had as a family. I’m offering you a better deal than hanging on in Lakeside. If you’re smart, you’ll take it.’
    ‘Oh, so now this has come down to the best
deal?
I can’t believe this is happening to me! The boys – do you think they will choose to live with you rather than me?’
    ‘I think they’ll choose to stay with their father here in their family home where they are happy and secure and have their friends all round them, and know that their mother is at the end of a telephone when they need her, that they can see her whenever they wish, as you can see them whenever you want to. They will understand we gave our marriage the best shot and itsomehow missed the target. Alexis and Mishka are mature boys who have seen more than half their friends come from marriages that didn’t work. Our boys understand the realities of life far more than you think. They’re kids with lots of savvy, like most children of the 90s, stable, well balanced and very bright. They will know that within this unfortunate break-up between you and me …’
    Anoushka interrupted Robert, ‘Oh, you do at least agree it’s unfortunate?’
    The look of utter disdain he shot at her made her shiver. He chose to ignore her remark and continued, ‘They love us both, and trust us, and will see that we are doing the best we can for all of us.’
    Anoushka covered her face with her hands. She felt the tears staining her cheeks and swallowed hard, drying her eyes with the back of her hands. ‘You’re stripping me of my life, my whole world.’
    ‘No, just your lifestyle. I won’t be able to keep you lavishly but I promise you will never be destitute.’
    ‘Oh, and I’m supposed to thank you for that? Next you’ll be telling me that I’ll thank you for this one day.’
    ‘No, I would never have uttered that cliché, but it’s probably true.’
    ‘What happens next?’
    ‘We go and see the boys and then our lawyers, who will make a meal out of this. Unless we are careful they will come out financially better than either of us.’
    This time it was Anoushka who rose from her chair and went to the vodka bottle. She poured herself alarge measure