The Only Way is Up

Part One

A/N As soon as I get to the final third of a story, the next one starts to emerge. This one has been invading my mind for a long time, so the first chapter is out like a rocket. Hope you like, and as always, please, please comment. I do love hearing what you think, this is the only feedback I get.

Thanks for reading all, MZ

Chapter One

Nicole threw a crystal highball tumbler at the wall above the dining table, then cringed as it shattered into a zillion pieces.

"You'll be cleaning that up," a voice to her right snarled. Turning she took in the angry face of Vincent. He was still her husband, and she'd honestly thought that tonight he was coming home to speak to her because he realised that he'd made a mistake, that the grass wasn't greener. But he hadn't, he didn't...instead he mentioned the 'D' word and she felt as though her world was crashing down around her.

"Don't I always?" she murmured a little too quietly, but then she'd never been confrontational, not with him.

He shook his head, "I'll ignore you breaking a Lalique glass, after all what's another hundred quid in this world? Nothing your father can't afford, hey?"

She shuddered at that, her father's wealth and status had always both intimidated and brought our envy in her husband. "You said you wanted a divorce. Did you expect me to smile and be happy?"

He laughed, but it wasn't in a humorous way, "you're surprised? I left, walked out. Did you think I'd changed my mind?" When she was silent he knew he'd hit on the truth. Laughing he shook his head, "look at you! I married a woman who had something to offer, something going for her. You...you're a mess. You wonder why I found someone else? Take a look in the mirror."

With a slam of the door he was gone and Nicole slumped to the floor, unaware of the glass shards digging into her flesh.

How did it get to this place? Nicole shook her head, a year ago she'd been happily married, Vincent loved her, they had an amazing home, they were financially secure, and they were planning for the future, a family. And now?

Now she was sat on the floor of her dining room feeling as though her world had ended, five years down the pan, live over. How was ever going to cope with this? How could she move on? How could she hold her head up high and live her life knowing that Vincent had publicly dumped her, and now shamed her further by persisting with this ridiculous relationship with a bimbo?

The pounding of the door tried to penetrate her devastation, her personal hell, but not enough to wake her up, to make her stand and go and open it. Someone called her name, but she ignored that. Her humiliation was complete. Vincent wanted a divorce, the man she'd married three years earlier; the man she'd thought would love her forever had gone. She was alone, and she was a mess without him.

"Shit Nic! What the hell are you doing? You're bleeding!"

That voice forced her to look up, to take note, at her best friend Kim who was stood in front of her a shocked expression on her face.

As her friend squatted awkwardly beside her, she bent her head so that her lips were close to Nicole's ear, "what happened love? And why are you sitting in glass?"

As Nicole turned to face her friend, those unshed tears that had blocked her vision since Vincent left, finally fell coursing down her cheeks.

Kim stood up, and then using her hands pulled Nicole up too. As she studied her friend for a moment, she sighed with relief, "a few scratches, let me clean your leg, then you can tell me all about the bastard."