‘I know. I’ve no idea how or when anyone could have …’ Emily looked away, cursing herself as tears pricked her eyes. The last thing she wanted to do was give in to her emotions and cry. She had to appear in control, competent. Show him that she was capable of doing her job.
‘They’ve had devastating consequences,’ Jake went on. ‘The General Medical Council will need to be involved, obviously. I imagine the impact on the surgery will be pretty dire.’
Emily was well aware of that. Patient trust would be broken, which was all the more devastating since it was something Jake had worked hard to build up, especially after Tom’s indiscretions, which Jake considered would have impacted on patient relationships. A GP should be someone the community could rely on, after all.
‘I’ve told Nicky to make sure to be in early tomorrow. Sally, too,’ she said, forcing herself to say the woman’s name. ‘I think we need to have a meeting and go through all the guidelines together before casting aspersions. Nicky’s distraught. She—’
‘Is it you, Emily?’ Jake asked bluntly, stopping her mid flow.
She looked at him, astounded. ‘What?’
‘Is it you?’ he repeated, his expression guarded. ‘I have to ask. Are you doing this, leaking information, because of this ridiculous obsession you have that I’m cheating on you, which, quite frankly, utterly confounds me?’
Emily felt the blood drain from her body. ‘Are you serious?’ She could barely get the words out.
Jake said nothing. His blue eyes as dark as thunder, he simply stared at her.
‘You are, aren’t you?’ Nausea rose hot in her throat. Was this what he thought of her? What he’d always thought? He hadn’t suddenly imagined her a monster, had he? He’d obviously been harbouring bad thoughts about her for some time.
‘Anyone could have sent them!’ she yelled, biting her tears back. ‘As for leaking information, do you honestly think I would do that? I’m constantly on at Nicky for flouting data protection. Do you realise how many times I’ve had to reprimand her for forgetting to blank her screen or shut her computer down? Not to mention the files she leaves on her desk. Tom too, come to that. It’s certainly not me who’s allowing all and sundry free access – delivery men, the postman, patients. Fran’s always floating about the place, peering over people’s shoulders. As far as gossip goes, I’m only surprised she hasn’t got a loudhailer.’
Jake continued to study her. Still he didn’t say anything, which spoke volumes.
He’d made up his mind. Did he really have such a low opinion of her? Or was this a way for him to justify his own despicable actions?
‘Have you considered that it might be Nicky who’s sending the letters?’ Emily asked, careless of the tears now spilling down her cheeks. As was Jake, it seemed. He saw them, looked agonised for a second, but didn’t move towards her.
Massaging his temples, he glanced down. ‘That’s not likely,’ he said, looking confusedly back at her. ‘She hasn’t been here that long. Why would she do such a thing?’
‘I don’t know. But that’s my point, we don’t knowher,’ Emily said, determined now to fight her own corner since she seemed to have no one else in it. ‘We don’t know who she is. She could have any number of personal issues.’
Jake looked highly sceptical, which fired her temper further. He believed his wife – someone he’d lived with, someone heloved, or so he’d said – capable of doing something so deplorable, clearly, but not Nicky, a woman he’d known for five minutes.
‘You do realise her initials are NJA, don’t you?’ Emily couldn’t let him go on making – and possibly believing – these accusations against her. Whether he truly believed it was her, or whether he was using it as an excuse to get rid of her, she didn’t know. She wouldn’t creep off meekly, though, from her marriage or from her job. Being her husband’s office manager hadn’t been what she’d wanted to do with her life. She might not have been the clever one, as her parents had made patently obvious, but she’d had talent. Over the years she’d convinced herself that her ambitions of picking up her art training had been unrealistic, and had channelled her energies into this instead: into her marriage and her family. She’d given everything she had to give. She had loved Jake unconditionally, with her whole heart and soul. He might want to throw her love away, but she wouldn’t just simply abandon the relationship. Shecouldn’t.
Jake looked at her askance. ‘And?’
‘The emails I believed you were exchanging with Natasha.’ Her heart pounding, Emily reminded him of what she’d asked him after the summer fair. ‘I saw one sent to you from an address beginning “nja123”. It wasn’t quite as calculatedly nasty as the letters sent to Dean and Michael, but it was definitely of the same ilk, threatening to expose secrets.’
‘Secrets?’ Jake’s expression was now a mixture of incredulity and wariness. ‘What bloody secrets? You need to show me.’
‘I deleted it.’ Realising how implausible that sounded, Emily felt her cheeks flush. ‘But I remember it, every single word,’ she added quickly. ‘“Unless you want a certain person to find out about your extracurricular activities, meet me in the designated place, 3 p.m. tomorrow”,’ she recited.
Jake narrowed his eyes. ‘And you’re sure it was addressed to me?’
‘It was addressed to you, yes.’
‘And you deleted it?’ He looked sceptical again.
‘Because I panicked,’ Emily tried to explain, though why it was her suddenly in the position of having to defend herself, she wasn’t sure. ‘I didn’t want you to know that I’d seen it. I … needed some time. To think.’
‘I see.’ Jake faltered for a second, glancing away and back. ‘It was obviously some kind of prank or scam,’ he said, raking his hand through his hair and dropping heavily into his chair.
‘Like the letters?’ Emily reminded him of those. ‘Because of the address, I thought Natasha Jameson had sent it, as you no doubt gathered.’
‘Jesus.’ Shaking his head, Jake looked hard at her. ‘And you really believed that I … With Natasha?’
Emily searched his eyes, looking for the lies there. Jake seemed totally bewildered. But then it was all a bit bewildering, she supposed. ‘I did, but then she was targeted herself, wasn’t she? I’m thinking it must be someone closer. Sally, for instance, who is definitely close and who we do know. Intimately. Or at leastyoudo.’
