‘That would be nice,’ Lina says, nodding meekly.
‘She wasn’t snooping.’ Evie glances at me as she steers her around towards the stairs. ‘I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been reading on my Kindle. She hasn’t been out of her room. I would have heard her.’
I look her over, worried she might have overheard Jack and me talking. But even if she had, at least she might now realise that we do have to seek help for Lina. ‘It’s late. We’ll chat tomorrow.’ I give her a small smile in the hope of reassuring her. ‘Try to get some sleep.’
Evie nods and carries on with Lina towards the spare bedroom. They’ve barely gone two steps when Jack yells from the kitchen, ‘The patio doors are wide open, for Christ’s sake! We’ll be murdered in our bloody beds at this rate.’
TWENTY-NINE
JACK
After closing the doors, which were an invitation for anyone to stroll in, Jack glanced despairingly at Kara as she hurried into the kitchen. ‘What the hell iswrongwith the woman?’ He sighed in complete exasperation. ‘She’s a bloody liability, wandering about doing Christ knows what in the middle of the night.’
‘She didn’t open the doors. I did,’ Kara announced, surprising him. ‘It was still warm in here from earlier,’ she explained, not quite meeting his eyes. ‘The place stank of woodsmoke from the burner. I was feeling nauseous and I needed some air, so I opened them.’
Frowning, Jack looked her over quizzically. Was she covering for Lina? The kitchen door had been closed and the lights hadn’t been on, making him doubt she’d even been in here. He was about to question her about it when Evie walked in. She looked pale, exhausted and worried. She was probably desperate for him not to blame her grandmother, who she appeared to care for a great deal. If he did say something, it would degenerate into another argument, Lina at the centre of it, which was definitely what the woman wanted. She was determined to turn Evie and Kara against him, have them doubt him. She was goading him into reacting, preferably aggressively, in order to convince themhe might have been responsible for her daughter’s death. He couldn’t allow her to do that. For Evie’s sake, hewouldn’t.
‘Okay, I apologise,’ he said, holding his hands up in contrition. ‘I jumped to conclusions about the door. I shouldn’t have.’
Evie studied him quietly. There was still uncertainty in her eyes, sharp grey eyes that mirrored her mother’s. She looked so much like Natalia sometimes it haunted him. There was less hostility, though, which he supposed was something. He didn’t want to upset her and trigger any more furious outbursts. It killed him to see her like that. ‘You need to get some rest.’ He offered her a small smile. ‘It’s Saturday tomorrow. We can collect the rest of your grandmother’s things and make sure she has everything she needs to move into the annexe. We should all try to get some sleep.’
Evie nodded. Still, she looked as if she didn’t quite trust him, and that gutted him. ‘Nan didn’t take the locket,’ she said. ‘And she couldn’t have put it where Kara said it was. I was listening out for her in case she needed the loo or something. I would have heard her.’
What was he supposed to say to that? He wasn’t about to challenge her, suggest that she might have dozed off, or that Lina had made sure she didn’t hear her. The woman would just love them to be further at loggerheads over her. What was her aim here? he wondered again. What exactly was it she was hoping to achieve?Wasit access to Natalia’s money she wanted? If that was the case, she was out of luck. Her estate couldn’t be settled until a declaration of presumed death had been issued, and that couldn’t even be applied for until seven years had passed.
‘Maybe she put it there earlier and forgot?’ he suggested carefully.
Evie frowned, appearing to ponder that, then nodded thoughtfully again. ‘See you in the morning,’ she said, her gazeflicking hesitantly to Kara before she turned around to head back up the stairs.
Jack was desperate to give her a hug, but he guessed she wasn’t up for that. Her grandmother was driving a divide between them. Evie would be emotionally adrift. He didn’t dare imagine what the consequences of that might be.
Once she’d gone up, he glanced cautiously at Kara. ‘She really thinks we’re ganging up on Lina, doesn’t she?’ He shook his head in bemused disbelief. ‘Does she thinkImight have put the locket there? That you did?’
‘Obviously,’ Kara said. Her expression was wary, Jack noted, a knot of tension tightening his stomach. ‘Why was it here?’ she asked, after a second. ‘I can see that you would have wanted to hold on to it, but why would you keep it in your bedside drawer?’
He kneaded his forehead, frustrated this time with himself. ‘I’m sorry, Kara.’ He sighed apologetically. ‘I didn’t think to mention it. I was keeping it for Evie and I thought that was the safest place for it. I suppose I should have just let her have it, but time slipped by and then I worried it might evoke too many memories.’
Bad memories, he didn’t add, memories Evie wouldn’t be able to handle. ‘I wish I had given it to her now. Lina’s clearly looking for anything to stir up trouble between us. I’m at a complete loss as to why.’
Kara studied him silently for a second, as if quietly assessing him, and the knot of tension tightened inside him. He needed her to believe him. He needed his daughter to believe him, for her to be settled. He’d thought she would be better here, that a stable environment might help her move on. He knew she would always have issues. He’d hoped they might diminish in time with the right support.Hissupport. He hadn’t foreseen Lina crash-landing into their lives, determined to disrupt everything.
Still scrutinising him carefully, Kara didn’t answer for a long moment. Then, ‘Because she doesn’t want me in Evie’s life?’ she suggested, glancing away.
It was clear that she was troubled. And that troubledhim, greatly. He couldn’t have any more disruption in Evie’s life. Tempering his anger, he went to her. ‘You’re the best thing that could have happened to Evie since her mother died,’ he said softly, threading an arm around her. ‘To me, too. We’re a family. Soon to have a beautiful addition. Please don’t let anything Lina says come between us. That’s exactly what she wants.’
Kara looked searchingly back at him. ‘Did you buy the locket, Jack?’ she asked.
And there it was, the suspicion Lina had planted in her mind taking root. Jack felt his jaw clench. ‘It’s not the sort of thing a mother would buy for her daughter,’ he said, trying for a level of calmness he didn’t feel.
She knitted her brow. ‘It’s the sort of thing I would buy,’ she said. ‘Might have, in fact, for Evie’s birthday.’
Jack retrieved his arm from her shoulder. ‘So you believe her then?’ he asked, his anger rising afresh.
Kara sighed wearily. ‘I honestly don’t know what to believe,’ she admitted with a hopeless shrug.
‘Andthatis exactly what Lina wants,’ he grated. ‘For you to doubt everything I say. She’s got you wondering why I kept the locket. She’s even saying Natalia was wearing it when she died. It’s completely insane, all of it. You must see that?’
She looked at him as if she didn’t see anything. ‘Did she take it on holiday with her?’ she asked.
