Chapter 32
Nel was distracted when she arrived at the pharmacy. She was thinking about Harriet, debating whether to speak to her about Maddie’s pregnancy, when she realised that Sophie Warner was walking up the aisle towards her.
Nel stopped, waiting for Sophie to see her, and watched as she took a box from the shelf and dropped it into her tote bag.
The gesture was so casual, so fluid, that she’d second-guessed herself.
Had she really seen what she thought she’d seen?
Sophie put the strap back on her shoulder, then looked up and saw Nel standing there.
Her eyes widened first with recognition, then panic, then finally a silent plea.
Nel looked at the products on the shelf—pregnancy tests. Was Sophie pregnant?—then back at Sophie. There were tears in her pale blue eyes. Nel gave her a tiny nod. Sophie lowered her gaze and walked past out of the store.
When Nel got back to the clinic, she searched for Sophie’s mobile number on the database.
I’m here if you need to talk, she typed. Dread sat heavily in her stomach as she hit send. Another child was the last thing Sophie needed.
Nel’s thoughts went back to that other unexpected pregnancy. Maddie’s. Did Harriet know? Her gut said that Maddie would have told someone. Someone other than Ryan. She checked her schedule, pleased to see a gap later that morning.
The Grand was deserted when Nel arrived, right on opening. There was no one at the bar, but she could hear a tap running somewhere, the clink of glasses and muffled voices. It felt like being on the set of a play in an empty theatre.
‘Hello?’ she called.
Harry appeared from a door behind the bar holding a rack of beer glasses. Her eyes met Nel’s, recognition flashing on her face.
Nel smiled. ‘Hi, Harriet.’
‘Hey,’ she said, putting the glasses on the bar. ‘It’s Harry these days.’
Nel nodded. ‘Sorry I didn’t recognise you the other day at The Larder.’
Harry shrugged. ‘Understandable really, without the disguise.’
Nel nodded. Disguise. Is that what the emo thing had been? A mask for a troubled teen who felt unable to reveal her true self to the world?
‘Can I get you a drink?’ Harry offered.
Nel ordered a soda water and sat down on a bar stool. She took a breath, conscious she might be stirring up something Harry would prefer to leave in the past. ‘I wanted to ask you something … about Maddie.’
‘Yep?’ Harry kept her eyes on the post-mix gun as liquid filled the glass.
Nel waited as she added a slice of lemon and placed the glass in front of her. ‘I found out something this week and I wanted to know if you knew.’
Harry raised an eyebrow, intrigued now.
‘Maddie was pregnant.’ She watched Harry’s face to gauge her reaction, but she gave away nothing. ‘I wondered if she might have confided in you.’
Harry reached for a coaster and put it under Nel’s glass. ‘No, I didn’t know that,’ she said eventually.
‘Me neither,’ Nel said. ‘But Maddie and I weren’t as close, in those final weeks.
Months. She knew what I thought of Ryan, so I can understand why she didn’t tell me.
’ She noticed Harry’s face harden at the mention of Ryan’s name.
‘The baby must have been his,’ Nel said when Harry offered nothing. ‘Don’t you think?’
Harry shrugged and picked up a cloth.
‘Did you know she was sleeping with him again?’ Nel asked.
There was a flicker of something on Harry’s face as she wiped the spotless bar. She opened her mouth to speak then closed it again.
‘Did you?’ Nel asked again.
Harry sighed heavily. ‘Look, I really don’t want to get involved in this.’
Nel observed a flash of something on Harry’s face. ‘You did!’
An elderly man ambled up to the bar and Harry went to serve him. When she returned, she leaned in and spoke in a low tone. ‘She slept with him the night we had that big bonfire on the beach.’
Nel swallowed. ‘How do you know? Did she tell you?’
‘I saw them.’
‘Where?’
‘In the dunes. They didn’t see me. I never told her I knew.’ Harry straightened again. ‘But I meant it when I said I don’t want to get involved in this, Nel. It took me a lot of therapy to make sense of what happened with Maddie.’
‘Her death, you mean?’
‘Yeah … but also the way she used me.’ A beat. ‘And the way I let her.’