‘Yes. Dandy. I’ll see you later.’ I pop my glasses back on and make up a sentence as I type, focusing intently on my screen. ‘The longer you stand there staring at me, the later I’ll be.’
‘Fine. Have it your way.’
‘I will.’ My words fall on his back as he storms out, slamming the door behind him, making me jump and the thin walls rattle.
Alone, the enormity of what’s happening takes hold. I lean back in my chair and stare at the ceiling, begging the dams in my eyes to hold back the ensuing river.This can’t be happening.Seven weeks ago, if someone had told me I’d be sitting in my chair now, distraught because the only mother I’ve ever known is being questioned by the police in connection with the murder of a man I killed, I’d have laughed. Then I would’ve told that person they have a very vivid imagination.
But here I am. A hostile takeover under my belt. My old boss locked up for assault. My dad dead. Sandy working for a woman I hardly know because I couldn’t give her a job. I’m in love with a morally grey man with a past so dark, he won’t dare reveal it. And I’m a murderer. Now everyone I love is being dragged under the bus with me.
No matter how long I lean back in my chair, staring at the ceiling, I can’t locate Scarlett Heath. She seems so far away, further even than my rapidly disappearing sanity. And I’m wondering now whether the real reason I haven’t given Neil my decision about Dubai is because deep down, a part of me thinks it could be a fresh start, a clean slate. But a flight won’t hide me from a murder charge. That’s just about the only thing I can be certain of right now.
I’m trying to pinpoint the last time I knew myself and the only place I get to is the boardroom. My pitch in the boardroomof Eclectic Technologies. I wonder whether it would’ve been better for everyone if Gregory hadn’t walked into my life.
That thought kills me.
Finally, the dams disintegrate and two silent tears drip from the corners of my eyes. This will break us. Now. Next week. Next month. When I’m rightly behind bars for killing a man. This will break us because one person’s love can’t defy the order of the world alone. My silent tears build to a sob and I drop my head to my arms on my desk. Despite everything, I need him and I hate myself for beingthatdependent woman.
I ignore my ringing phone. I don’t want to speak to him. I can’t. I’ve got no idea what I want to say and I’m afraid of anything that might leave my mouth. I’m not thinking straight. It’s getting late, the sky is pitch-black and the sensor lights are out in the corridor. Wiping tears, and no doubt mascara, from my cheeks with the backs of my hands, I sit up and grab my phone as it starts to ring again.
But it isn’t Gregory.
‘Sandy, are you okay? I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.’ My tears are flowing from a bottomless well.
‘Oh deary me, stop that. I’m fine, it wasn’t so bad. Quite exciting in places, really, like being a police show.’ I know what she’s doing but I can’t muster a smile.
‘Were they nice to you?’
‘That Barnes is a nice chap. He knows Geoffrey.’
‘DI Barnes. I know.’And there’s something highly coincidental about that.‘Was there a woman too?’
‘Oh, yes, she was a nasty piece of work but nothing I couldn’t handle.’
‘What did they ask you?’
‘Nothing of much consequence: how I know you, Gregory and Geoffrey, whether I think you and Gregory are in love.’
‘Enough to do anything for each other is what they really mean.’
‘They implied things, yes. But I told them you always do what’s right, Scarlett. They, erm, they asked me how your father died.’
‘Did they… were they… did they make a connection?’
‘No, I explained he had Alzheimer’s.’
I hadn’t realised my shoulders were up by my ears but now they sag. ‘I’m so sorry you got dragged into this. I’m sorry for everything.’
I can hear Jackson in the background; he sounds like he’s talking on his phone.
‘Are you home?’
‘I’m at the Shard. I’m going to stay here tonight with Geoffrey.’
‘You call him Geoffrey.’
‘That’s his name.’
‘He’ll always be Jackson to me.’
