The Last Testament Read Online Free PDF

sound of another person or people moving in and out of the apartment. What was going on?
    ‘They’ll kill us,’ said Brett. ‘They’ll take all our money and make this whole thing even more of a nightmare than it already is!’
    This was working.
    ‘Look,’ he said. ‘We’ll sort this out, we promise. Don’t we, Kathy?’
    ‘We do.’
    ‘OK? We’re promising. We’ll get this done. Right here.’
    ‘I think it’s too late for that. We set aside a period of time to resolve everything—’
    ‘Oh, please don’t say that, Maggie.’ It was Kathy, now imploring. ‘There’s not such a lot of work to do here. You heard those red lines. We’re not so far apart.’
    Maggie turned around. ‘I’ll give you ten minutes.’
    In fact it took fifteen. But when they left Maggie’s office and walked into the sunshine of a Washington September morning, Kathy and Brett George had resolved to share the costs of child support proportionate to their income, Brett paying more because he earned more, Kathy’s financial contribution shrinking to zero if she gave up paid work to look after the kids. From now on, he would pay his way even if she carried on working, though she would have a genuine incentive to stay home. The children would live in their own house with their mother, except for alternate weekends and whenever either the kids or their father fancied seeing each other. The rule would be no hard and fast rules. Before they left they hugged Maggie and, to their surprise as much as hers, each other.
    Maggie fell into a chair, allowing herself a small smile of satisfaction. Was this how she would make up for what she had done more than a year ago? Bit by bit, one couple at a time, reducing the amount of pain in the world? The thought was comforting for a moment or two – until she contemplated how 24
    SAM BOURNE
    long it would take. To balance all the lives lost because of her and that damned, damned mistake, she would be here, in this room, for all eternity. And still it wouldn’t be enough.
    She looked at her watch. She should be getting on. Edward would be waiting for her outside, ready to hit the full range of Washington’s domestic retail outlets in a bid to equip their not-quite-marital home.
    She opened the door to a surprise. Flicking through one of Maggie’s back numbers of Vogue , in the tiny area that served as Maggie’s waiting room, was a man who oozed Washington. Like Edward, he had the full DC garb: button-down shirt, blue blazer, loafers, even now, on a Sunday. Maggie didn’t recognize him, which didn’t mean she hadn’t met him. One of the troubles with these Washington men: they all looked the same.
    ‘Hello? Do you have an appointment?’
    ‘I don’t. It’s kind of an emergency. It won’t take long.’
    An emergency? What the hell was this? She headed down the corridor, opening the door onto the kitchen. There she saw Edward, signing on one of those electronic devices held out by a man wearing delivery overalls.
    ‘Edward, what’s going on?’
    He seemed to pale. ‘Ah, honey. I can explain. They just had to go. They were taking up too much space, they messed up the whole place. So I’ve done it. They’ve gone.’
    ‘What on earth are you talking about?’
    ‘Those boxes which you’ve had sitting in the study for nearly a year. You said you would unpack them, but you never did. So this kind gentleman has loaded them onto his truck and now they’re going to the trash.’
    Maggie looked at the man in overalls, who stared at his feet.
    Now she understood what had happened. But she could not believe it. She stormed past Edward, flung open the door to the study and, sure enough, the space in the corner was now empty, the THE LAST TESTAMENT
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    carpet on which those two cartons had once sat more compacted, a different shade from the rest. She flew back to the kitchen.
    ‘You bastard! Those boxes had my, my . . . letters and photographs and, and . . . whole fucking life and you just