‘I don’tbelieveyou!’ Evie cried, tears exploding from her eyes. ‘Why are you doingthis?’ She hadn’t waited for Lina to answer. Her expression filled with bitter disillusionment, she’d snatched her hand away and fled.
And now she was back here in the thick of it.
‘Did you meet up with your mother?’ Lina asked her warily.
‘No.’ Evie answered, her expression cautious. ‘She called me, but… Did she have something to do with this?’
Lina had no idea what to say. How much to tell her. Natalia was determined to convince Evie that her father had lied to her, telling her that her mother was unhinged and didn’t care for her. Just as she’d convinced Lina that Jack was a misogynistic liar and a cheat, that he’d attempted to murder her. Now, though, after all that had happened – Natalia doing this to her, to Evie, that poor girl Imogen’s death – she wasn’t so sure who the biggest liar was.
‘She said she was going to be delayed,’ Evie went on. ‘That she was at work, in between patients. I didn’t believe her. She was sending me on a wild goose chase, wasn’t she? She wanted me out of the way.’
Still Lina hesitated. Obviously that was Natalia’s intention. Out of the way of what, though? Her thoughts flew to Kara and all she’d already been through, and fear crystallised inside her. Surely that wasn’t Natalia’s skewed thinking? To rob Jack of his child as he’d robbed her?No.She was sick – Lina hadn’t realised how sick – but she wasn’t evil.
‘Didshe have something to do with you falling?’ Evie jarred her attention back to her. ‘You need to tell me.’
Lina shook her head. She couldn’t tell the girl the truth. She didn’t dare imagine what Evie’s reaction mightbe. A confrontation with her mother might have catastrophic consequences.
Evie looked far from convinced. ‘Why did you lock the door?’ she asked.
Lina tried to think. ‘I didn’t lock it. Your mother must have,’ she said, scrambling for a way to convince Evie to leave and go somewhere safe.
Natalia obviously had locked it, meaning she really didn’t care anything for her. Did she care about Evie? Did she not realise what findingher grandmother lying stone-cold dead might have done to her?
Cursing her naïve stupidity in imagining that she could somehow make things right with her daughter, she pressed her knuckles to the floor and attempted again to heave herself up.
‘Lean on me,’ Evie said, moving quickly to support her, as she had since Lina had sought her out, wanting then only to have some contact with her granddaughter before she shuffled off to her lonely grave. No one would have grieved for her. But now Evie would. She was confused, angry, but she had a good heart. Lina had to look after her. There was no one else. Whether the things Natalia had told her about Jack were true or not, she couldn’t make herself trust him.
‘Careful,’ Evie urged her, helping her to sit at the table. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked, stepping back to scrutinise her carefully. ‘Should I call an ambulance?’
‘No. I’m fine.’ Lina waved away her concern with a reassuring smile. ‘I had a fall, that was all, tripping over my own clumsy feet as usual.’
Evie nodded, but still she looked doubtful. ‘Why would Mum lock the door knowing you might have a fall, though?’ she asked.
Again, Lina hesitated. ‘I don’t think your mother’s very well, sweetheart. She seems confused about what happened to her, where she’s been. Perhaps she suffered some memory loss,’ shelied, out of kindness. ‘I need to find her. She said she was going to see Jemma before going home. I know she used to confide in her. I should go and speak to her. She might know where your mum is living.’
‘But you can’t.’ Evie stilled her as she attempted to stand. ‘The front door’s locked. The back door, too. I came in through the downstairs loo window. I had to smash it. There’s glass everywhere. You’ll never be able to get out that way. I’ll go. I’ll check whether there are any spare keys at the house while I’m at it.’
‘No.’ Lina caught her sleeve as she turned away. ‘I’d rather you didn’t go to the house, sweetheart. Kara will be shocked. I don’t think it’s good for her or the baby to be any more upset than she has been.’
Evie frowned, no doubt bemused as to why she would suddenly care about Kara.
‘Go straight to Jemma’s,’ Lina urged her. ‘She’s Kara’s friend too. She’ll know what to do. I’ll call your father meanwhile.’
Now Evie looked surprised, as she would after all the awful things Lina had accused him of.
‘I know he and I haven’t seen eye to eye, but he thinks the world of you. It’s better I talk to him about Natalia, rather than him finding out any other way that she’s alive.’
Evie seemed dubious, but eventually she left, albeit reluctantly.
As soon as she was sure her granddaughter was safely away from the annexe, Lina pulled herself up and headed towards the kitchen. She had to find a way out. Her gut feeling was that Natalia had gone from here straight to the house. She had to stop her. If anyone could reach her, she could. Natalia was herdaughter. She needed help. She needed to be loved. Lina admitted to herself that she had probably never felt that she was,not in the way she should have been. She wouldn’t get that help in prison.
SIXTY
NATALIA
‘No sugar in mine. I’m sweet enough,’ I say, watching Kara carefully as she makes the tea. It’s only polite, after all, I’d reminded her, to offer her guest a nice cup of tea.
My eyes glide to Jemma, who, having given up her phone, is sitting at the kitchen table, her hands on top of it where I can see them. She looks a little flustered, I note, and a little desperate. As she should be. I’m not so sure any more that Kara deserves all that’s happening to her – she seems like a nice person whose only crime was to fall for Jack’s charms, of which he has many, I have to concede. He does have a caring side. I recall how he’d held my hand during the most horrendous labour. How he’d looked down at his new baby daughter in wonder and sworn he would die to protect her. He didn’t realise then, of course, that the day would come when he might have to.
