‘You fell in love with me through your own free will,’ Matthew continued. ‘You so desperately wanted it that you talked yourself into it. You can’t blame your DNA for getting you into this mess – you can only blame yourself.’
Ellie took a moment to regulate her shallow breaths.
‘There are several reasons I did this,’ Matthew continued, sinking deeper into his sofa. ‘Humiliating you was one of them. But I also wanted to demonstrate how greedy we are as human beings. How willing we are to give up everything and anyone we hold dear on the suggestion there might be something better around the corner. What you felt for me wasn’t a DNA Match; we weren’t designed for each other, we weren’t written in the stars. It was mind over matter that made you fall in love, not science. It was a good old-fashioned boy-meets-girl relationship, nothing more and nothing less. And once I tell everyone how I fooled the woman who “discovered” Matches, you’ll be a laughing stock and your credibility ruined.’
Ellie gripped the arms of the sofa as her temper got the better of her. ‘So what? Go ahead. Go public with it, be my guest. I’ll survive it. In the end, plenty of others have found a true happiness they never thought possible because of me.’
‘Oh, Ells. Still so naive. Have you not learned anything from this?’
She glared at him, not knowing what he was talking about.
‘You’re not the only one to have the rug pulled from under your feet. Millions of your subscribers are about to have their lives turned upside down too.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked hesitantly.
‘Did you think I’d simply mis-Match you and me? Of course not. I rewrote your whole coding so that, over the space of the last eighteen months, at least two million people on your database were Matched with the wrong person.’
Ellie swallowed hard, and her heart beat so fast she thought it might break her chest bone.
‘My mis-Matches are so completely random, even I don’t know who’s been affected,’ he continued. ‘Anyone signed up and Matched in that time period – which by your company’s growth rate is around twenty-five million people – could be one of my mis-Matches. Because of me, your business has just become completely worthless. Nobody will know if their Match is for real or if they’ve just talked themselves into it. I told you I was going to destroy you, and I never make promises that I can’t keep.’
Chapter 86
MANDY
It was the pounding in her forehead that eventually woke Mandy from her unconscious state.
With her eyes still closed, she reached her right hand slowly towards her face and felt the egg-shaped lump. It was tender to the touch. She could feel a line of stitches holding it together. Slowly, she attempted to open her eyes but her eyelids felt as if they’d been glued. She tried to move her left hand but it was too heavy and she was too weak. She went to grasp it with the other and realised it was encased in plaster that stretched towards the middle of her forearm.
As she gradually came round, Mandy couldn’t fathom out where she was or why the smell reminded her of bleach and mouthwash. She guessed she must be in a bathroom until she turned her head and squinted through the window. As her eyes focused, she recognised the built-up landscape outside. She had been here before, she recognised that view. Both times she’d lost her children, she’d been here. She was in a hospital.
Suddenly, a rising sense of panic engulfed her. She moved her hands under the sheets to her pronounced belly. It was much flatter than before.No, please not again, she prayed helplessly.
‘Is somebody there?’ she croaked, her throat bone dry, but she was alone in the room. Mandy tried to pull herself up in the bed and lie back against the metal frame, but a sharp, shooting pain wrapped its way around her stomach. She grimaced and her hand flailed against the side of the bed, looking for the button she knew should be there. She jabbed at it hard.
It took a few moments before a nurse with ponytail appeared at her door. ‘Ah, you’re awake, how are you feeling?’ She spoke in a foreign accent and made her way to Mandy’s side.
‘My baby,’ Mandy mumbled, and tried to clamber out of the bed. ‘Where’s my baby?’
‘Let me get the doctor,’ the nurse said, and left the room.
Mandy’s body trembled involuntarily as she took in her surroundings. The nagging pain in her forehead compounded with the pain in her stomach and wrist made her nauseous. She only just managed to lean towards the edge of the bed before she vomited on the floor. The doctor arrived.
‘I need to see my baby …’ she mumbled.
‘No, no, no, you must stay where you are, Mrs Taylor,’ he replied, as the nurse helped to clean her up. Mandy was too panicked to even notice he’d called her Mrs Taylor. ‘Your little boy is safe and well.’
‘Little boy?’ she asked. Pat’s prediction had been correct.
‘Yes,’ he continued, glancing at a chart which he’d pulled from a hook at the base of her bed. ‘You gave birth prematurely to a boy five days ago. Four pounds, four ounces. He’s safe and healthy and just down the corridor.’
‘What happened to me?’
‘We were told that you fell down a flight of stairs. You sustained a head injury and a fractured wrist along witha minor swelling to the brain, which put your body into shock. You’ve been kept sedated for the last few days and your baby was born by caesarean section as a precautionary measure. Now you need to take it very, very easy for the next few days. You’ll be of no use to him if you try to rush these things.’
‘When can I see him?’
‘I’ll ask one of the nurses to bring him to you in the next few minutes.’
