‘Evie. She’s spoken to the landlord.’ Kara turned to face him, her expression now immensely unimpressed.
Jack couldn’t blame her. In her eyes he was acting uncharacteristically. Definitely unsympathetically.You need to get your damn act together. ‘Right, so you think her health problems are genuine?’ he asked, attempting to moderate his tone.
‘The dementia?’ Kara folded her arms across her chest. ‘Yes, I do. She’s confused, forgetful. She might not have had an actual stroke, but the heart problem’s definitely genuine. She has all the symptoms. I lost my nan to the same thing, Jack. I think you can trust my judgement.’
Jack blew out a sigh, now wishing bitterly he hadn’t overreacted. It wouldn’t help. It would just make him appear to be the emotionally unbalanced one. ‘Okay, I’m sorry,’ he said, contrite. ‘It’s just… I don’t trust her. I never have.’
‘I gathered,’ Kara responded with a thoughtful frown. ‘Once we’re alone, perhaps you’d like to share. You never have spoken about what happened that night,’ she added pointedly. ‘Meanwhile, you need to consider that Evie clearly loves hergrandmother. She’s concerned for her, as I am. If you turn your back on Lina, you might well end up losing Evie. She’s determined to try to look after her, meaning she will stay over at her flat, which might actually be a health risk to her considering it’s cold, damp and mice-infested. If Lina’s here, at least we’ll be able to keep an eye on things.’
‘I suppose,’ Jack reluctantly conceded, though it would also mean that Lina would have free access to Evie to fill her mind with whatever poison she might choose to. Perhaps she was genuinely ill, but it was too much of a coincidence that this was all happening at once, that she’d supposedly run into Evie in the village. The woman hadn’t even lived in the village. The last Jack heard, she was still living close to Worcester town centre.She’d probably googled builders in the area and found out his whereabouts. She’d engineered this. he was sure of it. And she was dangerous. Evie would only end up with more questions. Questions he couldn’t answer. He needed her to move on from Natalia’s death. All he could do was attempt damage limitation, make sure Evie knew that her grandmother was suffering early dementia – and pray that nothing Lina said would jog her memory. He couldn’t let Evie find out the truth. It would destroy her.
‘So can I take it you’re in agreement?’ Kara asked, her expression wary. That it was him she was wary of gutted him. Lina was already causing trouble between them. He guessed his appearing to be drinking excessively wasn’t helping matters.
He pushed the glass aside. ‘I guess I don’t have a lot of choice if the flat really is that grim, do I?’ he said.
‘It is,’ Kara assured him. ‘Unless of course you think she trained the mice to make an appearance as part of her master plan.’
Jack laughed wearily. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I am sorry, Kara.’ He gave her a smile, hoping to redeem himself in some way. ‘Herappearance has dredged up so many emotive issues – obviously for Evie too. Even so, I could have handled it better.’
Kara looked at him thoughtfully. ‘Of course it has, but I don’t think we have any choice but to bring her—’ She stopped, her face registering shock as there was a high-pitched shriek from the hall.
‘Christ,’ Jack muttered, swinging around, Kara close behind him as he raced that way.
‘What the fuck wasshedoing upstairs?’ Evie seethed, glaring at Imogen, who was in floods of tears fumbling to open the front door.
TWENTY-TWO
EVIE
My chest heaves with fury as I stare at myfriend, who’s being subdued by Kara. ‘She pulled my hair out!’ Imogen blubbers snottily, which does her Instagram-perfect face no favours. ‘She’s fuckingmental,’ she screeches.
‘What were youdoingup there?’ I scream, my own tears exploding with anger and frustration. ‘Were you planning to lie on the bed and open your legs for him? Was that it, Imogen?’ I snarl spitefully.
‘No!’ Imogen looks horrified. ‘Evie, why are you saying those things? I’m yourfriend.’
‘You’re a slut!’ I seethe. ‘You’re not my friend. You’ve never been my friend. You’re using me. It’s my dad you want to get “friendly” withandyou fucking well know it.’ Words spew out of my mouth like poisonous lava, and I hate myself for it, but I can’t stop. The rage is getting bigger, building and building, until I feel it will consume me. Imogen is aliar. She’s been flaunting herself and flirting with Aiden every time we see him, right in front of my face. SheknowsI like him and she just doesn’t care.
‘I was waiting foryou,’ Immy screams back. ‘Your dad said it would be okay for me to get my stuff from your bedroom.’
‘What stuff? There’s only your leather jacket and some tatty old jewellery up there.’ My gaze swivels accusingly to my dad as he hurries towards me.
‘Evie, for God’s sake, stop this, will you?’ he implores, circling his arms around me. ‘Just take a breath and try to calm down.’
I squirm away from him, my gaze shooting back to Imogen. ‘And you weren’t in my bedroom anyway, were you? You were in Dad and Kara’s bedroom, spraying Kara’s perfume all over the place.’To cover up her own.‘Why were you doing that?’ My gaze twangs back to my dad, my boiling anger now directed at him. ‘Why was she in there?’
‘Jack?’ Kara stares at him, her face white, her eyes frightened.
‘I told her she could go up.’ He looks desperate as he answers her, as if he’s willing her to believe him. Desperate and scared. My heart bangs.
‘But why didn’t yousayshe was up there?’ Kara asks, looking at him in bewilderment.
‘Iforgot,’ my dad answers defensively. ‘You came in with Lina and…’ He stops, panic flooding his features as he notices Kara’s expression. Accusing. She doesn’t believe him. I can see she doesn’t. ‘For Christ’s sake, Kara, Iforgot.’
His voice is almost pleading as Kara turns back to snivelling Immy.She’sthe cause of all of this. I didn’t want to believe it, but what I said was true. Imogenhasbeen lusting after my dad. She’s only friends with me, rather than bullying me like the shitty clique do at school, because she’s obsessed with him. She’s always trying to attract his attention, flicking her hair back and licking her pouty lips with the tip of her tongue and sticking her boobs and arse out whenever he’s around.
‘Go and sit down in the kitchen, Imogen. I’ll take you home shortly,’ Kara says, steering her gently that way.
Once Imogen is through the kitchen door, Kara comes back. ‘Evie,’ she says, her eyes filled with apprehension as they search mine, ‘go into the lounge with your gran. I think she’s concerned about you.’
