‘Do be quiet.’ I sigh in exasperation. ‘You’re getting on my nerves.’
Kara moves to put an arm around her, touchingly, also confusingly. If I were her, I’d be tempted to slap Jemma’s face. Kara is an enigma. I’d long since lost the ability to be so forgiving.
‘And you can live with that, can you?’ She looks up at me, her eyes burning with anger.
‘With Jack’s death?’ I tip my head to one side, making a show of thinking about it. In reality, I’m struggling now to look at her. ‘What doyouthink?’
She doesn’t respond, and relief sweeps through me, because I’m faltering. And I can’t. Because then he will have won.
‘With your death, and hers?’ I glance at Jemma. ‘She had an affair with my husband,’ I remind her. ‘Youdecided to steal him.’
‘I thought you weredead,’ she says, her expression so genuine I could almost believe her.
‘What, at Jemma’s party?’ I ask, pointing out the deep flaw in her argument. ‘I was very much alive, you might recall, watching as you salivated all over my husband.Yourhusband saw it. He lookedfarfrom pleased, trust me on that.’
The innocence I saw a second ago gives way to shock and then guilt. It’s written all over her face – as good as an admission.
‘Did you argue about it? On the way home?’ I push on, anger and hurt driving me. I can’t believe I was actually feeling sympathy for her. ‘Is that why you ended up killing your husband and child, Kara?’
The colour drains visibly from her face and I know I’ve hit home. She’s hurting. I can feel how much as she presses a hand to her stomach, where Jack’s baby grows. She wants to protect it. Of course she does. It’s a mother’s instinct. Sheshouldknow how I feel.
‘Neither of you gave a damn about meorEvie,’ I growl, swallowing hard to hold back my tears, ‘so save your guilt-tripping. I can live with it, trust me. I want Jack destroyed. I want him to know that I’ve taken everything from him before he dies, just like he tried to take everything from me. Just like he tried to killme. Do you haveanyidea how painful drowning is?’ I ask, eyeballing her furiously.
She says nothing, but squeezes Jemma closer. There’s nothing shecansay, is there?
‘No, you don’t. So stop with the amateur psychology and drink your fuckingtea.’
She continues to stare at me and, sensing rebellion, I step towards her, but stop as I note her gaze moving away from me, travelling upwards.
Ha.Does she think I’m going to fall for that?Nice try, I’m about to say when a furious voice behind me seethes, ‘Leave her alone.’
My blood freezes as I spin around to find Evie standing on the landing glaring murderously down at me.
SIXTY-THREE
JACK
Jack skidded the car to a stop at the bottom of the lane and reread the text he’d received from Jemma.I’ve spoken to Kara. You need to get back. Evie’s really upset.Still it made no sense. Did she mean she’d spoken to her at the house? On the phone? Wherewerethey? After debating whether to call her, he dismissed the idea, shoving the car door open instead and setting off at a run. He had no idea what she’d spoken to Kara about, whether Evie being upset was anything to do with her overhearing, but his gut told him this was all wrong. He needed to find out what the hell was going on, but without alerting anyone to the fact that he was here – namely Natalia. He didn’t know how it was possible, but every instinct screamed at him that she was at the house, which would definitely explain why Evie would be upset. Also that she wanted more than to take his daughter away from him. She wanted him.
His blood pumping with fear and adrenaline, he raced on, faltering for a second as he passed a disused farm gate and saw a car parked there.Fuck.Apprehension knotted his stomach. It was her. Had to be. She was here, doing her damnedest to poison Evie’s mind against him. Kara’s too, assuming she was also here,though how she could have walked away from what could only be a mangled wreckage, he didn’t know.
He couldn’t let this happen. Nearing the house, he slowed his pace, swiped the sweat from his face, and tried to think what to do. If Natalia had turned up, would Evie have just let her in? Surely she would have called him. Would she, though? She would have been shocked by her supposedly dead mother reappearing in her life, scared and utterly bewildered, and Natalia would have been sure to move in and lay the poison fast. She would never hurt Evie physically. Christ only knew, though, what it would do to her psychologically if she told her what he was dreading she might. Even mentioning that day on the clifftop might jog Evie’s recollection. Jack had prayed with his whole soul that that would never happen. It was bound to trigger a volatile reaction.
‘Shit.You need to stop her… Iknow, for fuck’s…’Realising he was talking out loud, he cursed himself. Then, making a decision, he headed through the gate of the farm next door, where he could get around the back of the house and over the fence that ran the length of the garden, hopefully using the annexe as cover. Where was Lina? In the thick of it, probably, rejoicing at the return of her daughter and backing up everything Natalia said. The ugly truth, which would destroy Evie.
He could only hope Natalia would pause long enough to consider the impact it would have on Evie. Whatever, she’d survived and made her way back here, biding her time once she had. How she’d managed to get back, he had no idea. Persuaded the guy who’d been chatting her up at the harbour to give her passage? Probably. Anger burned inside him afresh as he recalled walking back to the harbourside restaurant after sightseeing with Evie to find Natalia flirting with some good-looking yacht owner who was obviously loaded and clearlyinterested. Who could blame him? Natalia was a beautiful woman. And she was working it to makehimjealous. That was when the argument that ended so catastrophically started.
Why had she made her presence known only to Evie, though? Lina didn’t appear to know she was alive, unless it was all part of some plan to convince Evie he had killed her, paving the way for Natalia to swoop in and take her away from him, possibly abroad. He wasn’t about to let that happen.
Once he reached the field at the back of the house, he made sure to keep low while he checked how the land lay. Seeing no movement at the kitchen window, which faced out that way, or in any of the bedrooms, he moved quickly past the house and, choosing a spot just past the annexe with enough foliage to cover him, climbed over the fence.
He was straightening up when he saw Lina at her downstairs toilet window. The window was smashed, he realised, jagged shards of glass protruding from the frame. What the…? She was trying to remove them.Christ. He didn’t like the woman, but he didn’t need the complication of her severing an artery and bleeding to death.
Quickly, he headed towards her. She shrank back as soon as she saw him. Then returned to the window, gesturing him frantically on. ‘She’s inside the house,’ she hissed, her eyes wide and fearful. ‘I sent Evie to Jemma’s, but I’m not sure she went, and I’m so scared for her. She drugged me. She injected me with something and I?—’
Jack pressed a finger to his lips. ‘Slow down,’ he said quietly. ‘Whodrugged you? Why did you send Evie to?—’
‘She locked me in,’ Lina went on frantically, tears sliding down her cheeks, genuine tears this time, Jack had no doubt about that.
