She seemed to waver at that. Adam had thought she might. He thought he knew why, too, and it was tearing his heart from inside him. Glancing down at Liam, she lowered her head to kiss his cheek. Then, meeting Adam’s eyes, wariness in her own, she passed him to Ryan, who hugged him tight. One hand defensively over the back of the child’s head, he moved past Adam, carefully past Cassie, and climbed the stairs.
Adam waited until he’d reached the landing. ‘Where’s Jemma?’ he asked Cassie, trying for some level of calm.
Cassie looked flustered. ‘In the bedroom,’ she answered, a new fear beginning to take root inside Adam as she spoke. ‘She’s…’ Her eyes grew wide with alarm as she faltered.
‘Jesus Christ! Adam!’ shouted Ryan.
Hearing the terror in his voice, Adam grabbed hold of Cassie’s arm and steered her up the stairs in front of him.
As soon as he saw the slim figure lying unmoving on the bed, he realised that something was very wrong. ‘Shit,’ he muttered, grappling his phone from his pocket and jabbing 999 into it. She’d known. Was she going to leave her todie? His heart pumped with anger and confusion. ‘Ambulance,’ he said.
‘I’ve called them,’ Cassie said tearfully as the operator told him they’d already had a call from this address. ‘I’ve called them,’ she repeated, desperation in her voice.
‘She’s unconscious,’ Adam said. ‘We’re not sure what to do.’
‘Stay on the line, caller,’ he was advised.
‘She must have taken something. I can’t make her wake up!’ Ryan said hoarsely as he laid Liam gently down on the duvet.
‘Is she breathing?’ Adam asked, repeating what the call handler was telling him. Clamping hard on his fury, he manoeuvred Cassie ahead of him and kicked the door closed behind them.
‘I don’t know.’ Ryan’s voice was filled with panic, his hand shaking as he brushed his wife’s hair from her face. ‘I—’
‘Look at her chest,’ Adam instructed him urgently. ‘Look to see if it’s rising and falling. If not, listen for breaths over her nose and mouth.’
Ryan did as he was told. ‘She is!’ Straightening up, he swiped a hand over his face. ‘She’s alive.’
Adam felt himself go weak with relief.Thank God.His eyes back on Cassie, he nodded her towards the dressing table stool on the opposite side of the room, hoping she would get the message: there was no way he was about to let her out of his sight.
‘Turn her on her side.’ He repeated another instruction to Ryan, going across to the bed to make sure the baby was safe. ‘You need to put her in the recovery position.’
Ryan nodded shakily and eased his wife onto her side.
‘Do we know what she might have taken?’ Adam asked, feeling as desperate as the man looked.
‘No. There’s nothing here.’ Ryan’s gaze skimmed the bedside table as he straightened up. He was crying openly, wiping his tears against his shoulder.
‘Fuck!’ he said suddenly, and raced to the en suite. ‘Antidepressants,’ he shouted, swinging back into the room. ‘And sleeping tablets, it looks like.Fucking hell.’ His voice was wretched with fear as he stopped short of the bed, his chest heaving, the packets clutched in his hands.
Adam stayed with them until the ambulance arrived, keeping his gaze hard on Cassie, who sat mutely, her expression inscrutable as she gazed towards the window, where the rain lashed prophetically against the panes and the dark night beyond them was as bleak as his soul.
Fifty-Nine
Adam
‘Talk to me, Cassie,’ Adam begged, as Cassie sat silently in the passenger seat beside him.
She didn’t answer. Her gaze was fixed forwards, her expression closed.
Wearily Adam shook his head. She’d refused to go to the hospital, despite the cut to her forehead, which had obviously bled profusely, as well as the deep grazes on her cheek and the injury to her leg. Did she realise he was a millimetre away from calling 999 again? The ambulance wouldn’t be the service he required this time, though. Did she care? It was as if she was seeing and feeling nothing.
‘Where’s Kim?’ Fear settled like ice in the pit of his stomach. If Cassie had gone to the cottage, Kim would have run. Where was she now? Seeing the state Cassie was in, he was desperate to know she was safe. ‘Please talk to me, Cassie. Tell me where she is.’
Cassie looked at him at last, a frown crossing her face. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen her,’ she said distractedly. ‘Why? Are you missing her?’
Hearing the sadness in her voice, Adam glanced down, pressed a thumb hard against his forehead. He’d been naïve. He shouldn’t have allowed the closeness she’d witnessed developing between him and Kim. He couldn’t undo it, but he wished she would believe that he’d never considered sleeping with another woman.
‘How did you know where Samuel was?’ he asked her, his throat tight.
