Chapter 4:

Charlie was walking along the beach when she ran into Ruby, who had the first period off. They greeted each other with a hug and went to the diner together for a coffee. Ruby knew Charlie was holding something back and demanded she tell her everything. Charlie broke down and told her everything, from what Alf had seen, to the girl on the phone. Ruby listened carefully and by the end of it, she was smiling.

"Why are you smiling Ruby? This is nothing to joke about!"

"Well actually Charles, it is, you need to trust Angelo, you are married now. If it is bothering you so much, why don't you just ask him about it, I bet there is a really, really simple explanation for everything".

Charlie nodded in agreement, still not 100% sure about anything. She quickly realised that she was droning on about her problems, not even considering Ruby. They had been chatting for a good hour when Charlie all of a sudden realised how long she had been sitting there talking to Ruby. She swiftly got up; said good-bye to her daughter and almost ran back to the station.

As soon as she stepped into the police station, she was greeted by an unhappy-looking Angelo who told Charlie to follow him into his office. As soon as they had both entered, he closed the door and asked where she had been.

"I didn't feel well so I went for a walk. What's the problem?"

"Well unless you walked around the whole of Summer Bay, I don't see how a walk takes a whole hour".

"Ok so I ran into Ruby and we sat down for a chat. I still don't see what the problem is Angelo!" her temper rising.

"Charlie, we had been hit with a huge MVA and I needed all hands on deck. I tried calling your phone but it went straight to message bank. I need to know that I can trust you to be able to be called on when I need you" he replied trying to reason with her, hearing the anger in her voice. "Next time just let me know that you are leaving before you go".

"Well I would've but you were on the phone, talking to someone" she replied bitterly before turning around and storming out of the office.

Angelo was shocked by her outburst and started after her but was interrupted when Watson came in.

"Sarge, we got a report of an armed robbery in progress".

Watson knew she had just walked in on a heated discussion and felt embarrassed but Angelo just exhaled deeply and nodded at Watson who walked back out and continued her work. Angelo knew he would have to talk to Charlie later and see what on earth was troubling her.

...........

Charlie stalked out of the station for the second time today and just kept walking until she got to the beach. She walked up the dunes and sat, just staring out into the ocean, thinking. She knew she shouldn't have gone off at Angelo like she just had, but he didn't have any right to be angry at her, she should be angry at him. He was the one sneaking off with a girl and taking her phone calls at work.

Deep inside Charlie knew there was no way that Angelo would cheat on her. Why would he marry her and cheat after only one year? It didn't make sense, but then again, at that moment, nothing did. She really wanted to believe that he wouldn't do such a thing, but being a police officer, she looked at the facts. Alf had seen Angelo chatting and drinking with a girl at the Surf Club. He had mysteriously answered a phone call at work from a young girl who knew his name.

"I bet that person he was talking to yesterday morning was the girl" she said to herself. "He told me it was no-one important".

Determined to get to the truth, she got up and decided that she wouldn't stop until she got the truth about what the hell was going on.

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