Chapter Seventy-Three
Emme knocked on the door of Cassie’s family’s house.
It was grand but gaudy, with a lion on either side of the chalet door.
Arjun’s family lived near the Steinherr mansion, on the left bank of the Glanzfluss, although their house looked a bit deflated next to the fairy-tale turrets of the mansion next door.
A maid answered.
‘Hi, erm, is Cassie home?’
‘One moment,’ the meek woman said as she closed the door and went to check.
Within seconds Cassie came to the door, intrigued by who the visitor might be.
‘Em! What’s up?’ she said, leaning on the doorframe.
She was already wearing pyjamas and a robe, and had her hair wrapped in silk.
‘I’ve just finished packing. What is it, last-minute Cadbury order?
’ she joked. Then she saw the desperation in Emme’s eyes under the streetlights. ‘Oh no! Is everything OK?’
‘Please Cassie, I know you’re obviously a wonderful, loyal friend, but I need to talk to you about what happened to Jenny … My boss – Lexy – I’ve had to get out.’
Cassie took a step back. A flash of hesitation flitted across her face while she tried to work out what to do. She looked down at herself, then nodded to the Anna Maria on the other side of the river.
‘Give me a few minutes to get changed. I’ll meet you over there …’
In the cosy bar a pianist was warming up for the Friday night clientele. No Christmas tunes here, he was playing jazz versions of rock standards. ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ by Kiss followed by ‘Nothing Else Matters’ by Metallica.
Emme was sitting by the fire, already nursing a G&T when Cassie arrived.
‘I didn’t know if you wanted a G&T or a cup of tea, you were in your jammies …’
‘Oh hell, I’ll join you,’ she said.
Emme beckoned the waitress and asked for the same again.
‘It’s a double,’ she said sheepishly to Cassie, who batted that little quandary away.
‘So what’s up?’ Cassie asked, rubbing the top of Emme’s shoulder. ‘You look really spooked!’
Emme took a large sip and placed her glass down carefully on its mat.
‘I need to know – did your friend Jenny get pregnant by Tristan Du Kok?’
If Cassie had her drink yet, she would have spat it out in shock.
‘WHAT?! No!’
There was no uncertainty in her tone.
‘But she and Tristan were having a fling?’
‘Jenny?!’
‘Please Cassie, I know she’s your friend and her business isn’t my business, but I need your help. Lexy. She slapped me.’
‘She what?!’ Cassie shook her head. ‘Jesus Christ! That woman …’
Emme put her palm to her cheek and nodded.
‘She was acting crazy, warning me off Tristan because he got Jenny pregnant and dumped her when she told him. But I’ve since realised Lexy was sleeping with him too.’
Emme shook her head in despair. This was all so grubby.
‘Lies.’ Cassie said firmly. ‘Lies to cover her arse. She really slapped you?’ she asked in outrage.
Emme put her hand to her cheek again.
‘Then what’s the truth? What happened on Halloween that made Jenny leave town? I really need to know about Tristan because –’
‘Oh god,’ Cassie groaned, shaking her head. ‘You’re not into TDK.’
Emme’s eyes glassed over with tears as she nodded.
‘Like nothing I’ve ever known,’ she said, almost in a whisper. Embarrassed that she had arrived in Kristalldorf in unrequited love with her best friend, and now was hopelessly obsessed with the biggest player in town. A player who had made her feel exquisite for a few stolen moments.
Cassie let out a big sigh.
‘Well I can a hundred per cent say Tristan did not get Jenny pregnant.’
‘Was it Bill then?’
‘No! Jenny isn’t pregnant – not that I know of anyway …’
The waitress arrived with Cassie’s drink and they stopped talking for a second, nodded and smiled their thank yous.
‘Jenny has a boyfriend back home. Jon. She loves him.’
Cassie looked at Emme with caution.
‘Look – I couldn’t tell you about Lexy, it would have compromised you, but you obviously found out. How?!’
Emme didn’t answer. She was just desperate to understand.
‘What happened on Halloween?’
Emme thought back to her Halloween. The church. Chrissy’s beautiful dress. The murder ballads.
‘Jenny and I took Arjun, Harry and Bella out trick or treating – it’s big here, of course,’ she rolled her eyes. ‘Spoilt brats … But Jenny forgot to bring buckets, and Arjun was being a turd about pooling sweets and sharing them, and there was just sooo much stuff …’
Emme was hanging on Cassie’s every word.
‘So while we were doing the rounds, Jenny popped back home to get Harry and Bella’s Halloween buckets. I’d said I’d watch the kids.’
‘And that’s when she walked in on them …’
‘Yes.’
‘And had a row with Lexy over Tristan.’
‘Yes – but no! Not like that.’
Cassie took another swig of her G&T.
‘There was no Jenny and Tristan, whatever Lexy told you was a deflection, to take the focus off what she and Tristan were up to.’
Family friends.
‘What, so Jenny and Tristan weren’t shagging?’
‘One hundred per cent not,’ confirmed Cassie.
‘So Lexy lied to me?’
‘Of course she did! She’s a nutjob.’
‘Poor Jenny.’
‘I know.’ Cassie shook her head. ‘She was so shocked – and uncomfortable. Lexy begged her to keep schtum and not leave, but I think she’d made Jenny’s life so difficult before that – she wasn’t the nicest boss …’
Emme nodded. That much she knew.
‘Jenny knew it was game over for her job. A secret like that would weigh too heavily on her.’
‘And Lexy was panicking about losing her nanny,’ Emme said wryly.
‘Plus Bill finding out, you’d hope …’ quipped Cassie.
‘So that’s why she was pleading. That’s why Jenny looked angry.’
‘Looked angry?’ Cassie asked.
‘I saw some of it on the doorbell footage, but there was no sound.’
‘Jenny just needed to get back to the kids, so when she came back with the buckets she was totally in bits. She knew this terrible thing about the kids’ mother, and she knew it wasn’t going to end well for her …’
Emme shook her head. Fucking Tristan. Fucking uptight Lexy Harrington. She wondered where in the apartment they were screwing when Jenny walked in.
‘That night, after Jenny had put the kids to bed, Lexy hardened. She gave her an ultimatum. Keep it quiet or she’d fire her. Jenny had no option. She couldn’t lie. She’s so sweet. She had to walk. She handed in her notice there and then. She just wanted to get home to Jon.’
‘What did Bill think?’
‘I don’t think Bill ever found out why she went so suddenly. Who knows what Lexy told him. Jenny just wanted to be out of that toxic place. I mean, Jenny said Lexy was a nightmare for months before that. I thought my family here were crazy …’
Emme shuddered.
‘What a bitch.’ Emme started to cry. ‘What an utter bastard!’
Cassie rubbed her back. Vivian Steinherr walked past and stopped in alarm to see a customer not looking happy.
‘Everything OK?’ she asked Cassie with a sympathetic smile, trying to gauge Emme’s face. Cassie nodded as if to say it would be OK, and Vivian moved along to meet and greet diners.
Emme felt even more ridiculous to have Vivian bear witness to her tears. It served her right. She remembered what Lexy had said to her in the laundry, the night of the Kivvi Christingle.
‘Be wary of anyone who can break three hearts in one callous hit.’
She meant Vivian, Anastasia and herself, of course. He hadn’t broken Emme’s heart then. Not yet.
And Tristan. What a shit. His sunny FaceTime calls from Stellenbosch had all been such bullshit. She hung her head.
‘I can’t believe I was excited about spending Christmas with him.’ She shuddered. ‘I feel sick.’
‘I’m so sorry babe, it’s utterly shit. They’re as awful as each other.’
Back in room 319 of the Steinherrhof, Emme paced in circles, trying to work out what to do: Bill would be home by now – should she go back and tell him why she had fled?
Should she tell him about Lexy and Tristan?
Should she hand in her notice? She couldn’t work in that family with that atmosphere any more.
Poor Jenny having to walk in on that. But poor Jenny wasn’t hooked on the guy she’d walked in on, fucking her boss.
She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. How dare they?
Tristan phoned on FaceTime, a fourth missed call, and she ignored it, not knowing what to say or how to coherently tell him to fuck off.
What do I do?
With Bill home, the kids were not abandoned. She would take the weekend to work out what to do. Maybe Lexy would have to start looking after her own kids.
The phone rang again. Tristan on FaceTime, followed by a worried text.
Are you OK babe? Got a bad feeling x
Emme flipped her phone over, and cried herself to sleep.