Chapter 54 Now
Now
James stares at the frozen figures of Dimple and me. His letters lie scattered across the wooden floor, secret hiding place still gaping open. He looks to them and then back to us with betrayal written clear across his face. As if we’ve somehow wronged him by finding him out.
“So you found them.” And then he looks at Dimple. “And what the hell are you doing here?” Then he spots the knife, sucks in a sharp breath. I expect him to back away, but he takes a decisive step forward, closing the gap between us.
“Thank god,” he says. My confusion grows louder. “Thank god, you found her out. I couldn’t…I couldn’t take any more.”
I hold my free hand up, stretch my arm out between us. It’s not smart to let him come any closer. Then I realize my predicament, one arm pointing the knife at Dimple and one palm warning my husband away. I’m stuck between two vipers and don’t know who will strike first.
“What are you talking about, James?” I ask. “How do you know her?”
“You can’t trust a word he says.” Dimple.
“That’s rich, coming from you,” he spits.
And the heat in his words feels too alive to be fake.
He turns back to me. “She came to me, told me about your letters. Told me you were dangerous, a killer. Unfit to be a mother. And I didn’t want to believe her, but when I found them…
” He has to choke the words out, but whether it’s genuine emotion or simply tough to spit out these lies, I’m not sure.
“She put all this pressure on me. Told me I had to trigger you. Get you to hurt someone so she could have you arrested. Put you away.”
“That’s a lie!” Dimple shouts, lurching forward a hair’s breadth.
“Nat, she’s insane,” James says.
“Yes, James was meant to try to trigger you,” Dimple says. “But just enough for you to say something serious enough, incriminating enough, in our sessions. I didn’t know he was threatening Will. Didn’t know he had his own secrets to hide.
“Can’t you see she’s lying?” James. “She’s trying to confuse you.”
“When you first started telling me things about James—the secrets, the suspicions—I thought you were just fucking with me. That maybe you were onto us, wanted to play us off each other. Or that Will was fucking with you. I still wasn’t sure until I came here today.
James told me where he’d stashed the copies of the letters he was sending you.
Guessed if he had anything else incriminating, he’d stash it there, too. ”
I move the knife a few centimeters away from her neck.
Her words remind me of the forged letter—it could only be James who’d written that—and the message from Jade’s mom.
James is a good actor, but he’s not a good man.
And I don’t know what Dimple is, but I do believe that she’s my father’s daughter.
A flash of George’s large frame, heavy hands.
And there’s Claire again, eyes unseeing, so much blood.
My past feels like it’s racing toward me.
She looks again to James. “She knows you’ve been manipulating her. Will told her everything.”
He takes another decisive step forward. I spin, point the knife at his chest. He’s close. Too close. “What exactly did my alcoholic, pill-popping brother say?” he says.
A reel of scenarios is running through my mind. I can’t stop replacing James with George in my mind. I have a shot to do it right this time. To fight him and win. But he has a chance to hurt my sister again. A sister I feel nothing but rage for, but a sister nonetheless.
“James, I think we can drop all pretense,” I say. “You know I’m capable of using this, or you wouldn’t have sent me after Will.”
He tries to interject. “Nat—”
“I’m talking,” I say. “You’re going to stay right where you are, and, Dimple, you’re going to leave this house.” I don’t risk looking at her. If I look away from James, I’m sure he’ll make a move. “James, I’m being very, very serious. You’re not to move a muscle. Dimple, get out.”
She doesn’t have to be told again. She makes a break for the door.
“Be smart, James,” I bark.
His jaw clenches tight, but he doesn’t even turn his head to watch her leave.
A naked fury is building on his face. “What exactly is it that you think you know?”
I hear the front door slam shut. Feel a wave of relief and then another of terror. We’re alone. I hope Dimple is calling the police but can’t trust that she is. Can’t trust anything about her.
“Do you remember how when you found my letters I just came clean?”
He surprises me with a laugh. “Did you, now?”
“Listen, I know you clearly read those letters and thought I had a violent streak. Had hurt my exes. And Will…Will was falling apart about Chioma. Your confession.” James’s jaw tightens further, the muscles straining.
“You saw two opportunities. The first, try to shut Will up with the threat of violence and my money. The second, push me to the point I might snap and kill Will to get rid of your problem for you. And for when you needed to be rid of me? A contingency plan.” He’s shifting from foot to foot now, eyes flickering around the room.
“I want to believe that at the worst, you just wanted to paint me as unstable. But I can’t help but wonder if… ” I can’t even say it.
James’s eyes widen. “You think I’m planning to kill you?” His portrayal of hurt surprise is so good I want to applaud. “You really think I could be capable of that?”
“You tell me. What happened to Jade?”
His eyes lose their doe-eyed innocence. “Who?”
“James.”
“How do you know about Jade?”
“I’m not even going to touch how weird it is, you lying about your dating history. Just answer the question.”
“She was a sick girl. Mentally, I mean. She’d been struggling for a long time and one day slit her wrists in the bath while I was sleeping. That’s it.”
“Jesus.” I wonder if that was his plan for me, feel the breakfast I didn’t have churn in my stomach, empty and acidic.
“It was a horrible tragedy.”
“Just like Chioma, right?”
He visibly flinches. I’ve got him.
“I know about the fake Instagram, James. Why is your relationship with Jade all over that but nowhere to be seen on your main account?”
His jaw clenches. “She was putting pressure on us to be official on socials. It was too early for me.”
“I might buy that if you didn’t have a few months of holiday and restaurant posts before she even appears. Why set it up unless you always planned to hide from people you knew? And why hide her? I can only assume you knew she might disappear in a way that was hard for you to explain.”
His voice has been stoppered up while mine has been uncorked.
“I get it now,” I go on. “Why you were so scared about Will telling the police—or even just Chioma’s mom—about what happened to her. You didn’t want everything else coming up. But, James, it has to end.”
He cocks his head at me, frowns.
“How exactly does this end, Natalie?”