‘Kate, you must have been terrified,’ Jake says. ‘I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.’
‘There’s no time for that now.’ Annabelle speaks with level urgency. ‘While she’s calm out there’ – she gestures towards the hallway – ‘let’s talk about next steps.’
‘OK,’ Jake says.
‘We think the best thing to do is take Marisa back to ours, don’t we, Kate?’
Kate nods.
‘We can keep her calm on the journey – Chris has all the necessary tablets and whatnot – and then we can put her up in the guest cottage. She’ll be out of your home, which I think is absolutely necessary from what Kate has said.’
Kate, realising that Jake and Annabelle are still several steps behind, brings them up to date as quickly as she can on what she found in Marisa’s room; the contents of the diary; the prescription that hasn’t ever been used.
‘Christ,’ Jake says. ‘She’s a fucking nutcase.’
Annabelle draws herself up straighter, unimpressed by the swearing even in these extreme circumstances.
‘Well, look, you both know it took me some time to … understand what you were doing with a surrogate whom you barely knew, but weare where we are. And I’m sure, with the right medical treatment, this woman—’
‘Marisa,’ Kate interjects.
‘Yes. I’m sure that she’ll be right as rain. The main thing is we keep her safe and stable and away from you for the duration of this pregnancy. Once the baby is here, we can deal with everything else.’
‘She thought we were havingan affair?’ Jake is incredulous. ‘She thoughtyouwere a lodger?’
Kate touches the back of his neck, feeling the warmth of it against her palm.
‘Apparently so.’
‘How did we … I mean, how did she … how did this happen?’
Kate shrugs. The point is not that it’s happening, she wants to shout, the point is what they do to salvage it.
She knocks back the remainder of the whisky and puts the empty glass on the coffee table. She remembers her tooth on the hallway floor. She hasn’t even thought what to do about that yet. Should she pick it up and put it in some ice the way you’re meant to do with amputated limbs?
Annabelle’s voice brings her back.
‘Listen,’ Annabelle is saying, ‘if you have to pretend you’re in a relationship with her, Jake, then so be it, quite frankly. It won’t mean anything. You can say you and she need to be apart while you sort things out with Kate. Drag it out a bit, tell her your parents are looking after her until you can be together, if necessary …’
‘Mum, come on. You can’t be serious.’
Annabelle fixes him with those blue, blue eyes.
‘I’m deadly serious. You got yourself into this mess. You have to do whatever it takes to get yourself out of it.’
‘It’s hardly ethical—’
‘Ethical?’ She gives a short laugh. ‘You’re going to talk tomeabout ethics, after everything she’s put you through? This is my grandchild we’re talking about.’
Kate, sitting quietly on the sofa, is surprised by how together she feels. Her anxiety and fear have dissipated. She sees that Annabelle is,in her own way, right. They have to do whatever is required. All of those traits in Annabelle that Kate has previously found so frustrating – her coldness to outsiders, her steely belief in the rightness of her own opinions, her clear-sighted ability to see straight through to a person’s weakest point and her borderline obsessive devotion to her son – are now coming to the fore in a positive way.
‘What do you think?’ Jake asks her.
‘I think your mother is right.’
And Jake – good, kind, solid Jake – agrees to go along with it, as both women knew he would. For all his qualities, Jake is also weak. He is directed by stronger, prevailing winds and tacks his sail accordingly. It’s partly why Kate loves him so much. She knows he will always support her because he relies on her to tell him where to go next. He is impressed by her, still, even after all these years. Now, he needs Kate to steer the course. She knows exactly what they have to do, and so does Annabelle, and that is to protect their child at all costs.
26
