Chapter 40 #2
I was pulsing with rage now. ‘Thomas was kind to stand up for me just then, but it wasn’t necessary.
If Ryan sets one toe back into my life, he’s going to find me a very different woman from the person I was when he knew me.
I don’t need your permission, your fucking assessment of my character.
You don’t know me. You don’t have the slightest clue what I’m capable of.
If Ryan comes here, he will pay for what he did to me…
And you’re wrong about my son. I have blamed myself for far too long.
Taken on the guilt for crimes I didn’t commit.
’ I shook my head. ‘I didn’t kill him. I wasn’t responsible.
I did everything I could to get out. I risked my safety time and again.
It wasn’t my fault that Ryan was too clever, too quick, too fucking disturbed to let me leave.
It wasn’t my fault he broke me down until I was too afraid to try.
It wasn’t my fault,’ I breathed, letting the words fill me, heal me.
Jade shrugged. ‘If that’s what you need to believe to help you sleep at night…’
The axe glinted again, and I wondered if this madness had always been there, waiting to be unleashed.
She nodded towards her daughter. ‘Hand her over.’
‘No.’ I couldn’t give Amala to her in this state. I would never forgive myself if anything were to happen. I would protect her at all costs.
Nearby, the sound of sirens echoed through the still, windless air, and I wished there was a way to alert them, to get them to divert their path and come here instead of wherever they were heading.
Panic gripped Jade. ‘Now!’ she screamed. ‘Give me my baby. I have to go!’
I backed further into the workshop, holding Amala firmly in my arms, my eyes not leaving the axe. The baby wailed and jerked her head, and I knew she was getting hungry, but I couldn’t hand her over. Jade was unhinged.
As if in confirmation of my doubts, she lunged forward, swinging at my legs with the axe, and I jumped back, the walls closing in on me, the splintered, cobwebbed wood pressing into my bare shoulders.
‘Give her to me!’ she screamed.
The sirens grew louder, then came to an abrupt stop close by.
I heard heavy footsteps running up the path, urgent voices, someone yelling for an ambulance, and then, to my shock, Aaron appeared in the doorway, dressed in his police uniform.
‘What are you—’ I began, but Jade spun to face him with the axe clenched between her shaking fists.
‘Danielle Lake, drop the weapon and put your hands where I can see them!’
I blinked, confused . Danielle?
‘I really got it wrong with you, didn’t I?
’ he went on, shaking his head. ‘I thought you were an investigative journalist, come to dig up the past. It was always a miracle to me that the story never got leaked. Annie’s abusive ex, the investigation into the death of her child.
It would have been tabloid heaven for some halfwit hack, and I made it my mission that she wouldn’t suffer that after everything she’d already endured.
‘One of the PCs who’d been on duty back then was recently sacked for misconduct, and since then, details of a few cases have been leaked to the press.
I had a hunch he’d been putting out feelers, trying to get one over on us and make a bit of cash into the bargain, so I’d been half expecting it.
And then here you were. The moment I saw you, I knew there was something off about you.
That you were here for nefarious purposes.
Annie always glosses over the worst parts of a person’s character.
She searches for the best. And you did such a good job of making her feel sorry for you – responsible for you – that she almost managed to convince me you might actually be telling the truth.
You should go into acting, Danielle, because you really do play the part of pitiful lost soul to perfection. ’
He snorted. ‘To think I was worried about you coming to dig up Annie’s secrets, to cast her as a killer in the papers and ruin the life she’s made for herself here.
The truth was way beyond what I imagined.
I have to say, you’re pretty good at coming up with new identities for yourself, aren’t you?
Laura Jarvis, Michelle Oliver, Joanna Prince, Lacey Rogers…
I think we uncovered all of them. I already suspected there was no such person as Jade Ashton, so we did some digging, and with a picture I took of you from my window a few days ago, I was able to discover your true identity.
Quite the record you have, Danielle. Married under your real name four times, divorcing each of the husbands less than a year into the marriage and taking half their fortune.
All legal, very clever. But your fourth husband didn’t slink away with his tail between his legs, did he?
He made it his mission to destroy your reputation. ’
He glanced at me, though I could tell he was still hyper aware of the axe clutched in Jade’s hand.
‘If you type her real name, Danielle Lake, into Google, there are too many results to read through. Articles her fourth husband wrote describing how she conned him, the tricks she used to make him think she loved him.’ He looked back at Jade.
‘The way you pretended to be clueless about the prenup, all the while finding ways to work it to your advantage. You wrote the wrong date of birth on the forms, and then flirted with his lawyer, a young, inept puppy, who didn’t notice. Voided the whole thing, didn’t it?’
‘Oh my God,’ I whispered.
‘I know.’ He nodded. ‘Like I said, clever. We spoke to him,’ he went on. ‘He isn’t the kind of person I’d mess with. You made an enemy for yourself there.’
‘As if I care!’ she bit back. ‘Let him cry into his empty bank balance. I got what I wanted and that’s all that matters.’
He shook his head as if shocked that anyone could be so calculating.
I liked that about him. That even after years in the police force, dealing with some terrible situations, he still had the capacity to be surprised by how cruel people could be.
He was so good he couldn’t bring himself to see the worst in people. Even me.
‘So,’ he continued, ‘you couldn’t use that name any more, so you started creating new identities.
You’d seduce some unsuspecting rich guy, then go through the farce of marrying him, though it wasn’t legally binding.
You’d even sign the prenuptial agreements; that part was especially clever because it was your leverage, wasn’t it? ’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘She scares the life out of them – reminds them of the prenup and tells them she’ll take them for half of everything they’ve got.
Then when they panic, believing that they’re legally bound to pay her, she plays the kind-hearted hero, getting them to transfer the money to some offshore account without getting lawyers involved.
Always a hefty chunk, but far less than half, so the husbands think they’ve escaped lightly.
But here’s the most interesting part,’ he added, and I could tell he was enjoying this just a little bit.
I supposed it made quite a change from arresting petty shoplifters and graffiti artists.
‘Just over two years ago, Danielle Lake was convicted for fraud and sentenced to nine years in HMP Bronzefield.’
‘ What ?’ I gasped.
He met her eyes coolly, and I could see the rage pulsing through her.
I wanted to warn him to stop goading her, to back down.
He was pushing her too far. I knew that look, that simmering energy that grew steadily more volatile in the moments before an explosion.
I’d experienced the consequences first-hand from Ryan.
He and Jade had a lot in common, it would seem.
‘Most prisoners who escape don’t make it a week,’ he went on. ‘I’m not sure how you managed it, but you did well to get this far. That law degree taught you all you needed to know, didn’t it? Just a shame you didn’t put your knowledge to better use.’ He glanced at me. ‘Did she ask you for money?’
‘Yes. She married my brother… that’s why she came.
For money. The house.’ I frowned. Aaron had said that her previous marriages weren’t legally binding.
My eyes widened as I took in what that meant.
‘So Thomas isn’t even married to you!’ I broke into a smile, then quickly schooled my features as I caught the seething rage burning across Jade’s pretty face.
She had nothing over him. My brother was free to walk away from her with no legal repercussions.
Aaron nodded, seeing that I understood.
‘Thomas!’ I cried suddenly. ‘Is he?—’
‘The paramedics are out there with him now. I think his leg is injured and he’s concussed, but he’s conscious.’
I let out a long sigh of relief. ‘Thank God.’ I patted Amala, swaying gently. She’d stopped crying and was losing the battle against sleep, her eyes heavy, her breathing slowing, giving just the occasional hiccupping sob.
Aaron took a pair of handcuffs from his belt and nodded over his shoulder.
Three officers appeared behind him, as if they’d been waiting there the whole time.
‘You’ve had quite the adventure, Danielle.
But it’s time to go home now. I’m sure the staff at Bronzefield will be ready to welcome you back with open arms. Put the weapon on the floor and your hands in the air where I can see them. ’
‘I won’t go back there,’ she cried. ‘I have a daughter now! I have responsibilities. You can’t take her from me. I won’t go back to that place!’ She let out a scream that made the hairs rise on my arms, then rushed forward brandishing the axe.
I wanted to close my eyes, to make sure I didn’t carry the memory of what was sure to happen next with me for the rest of my life, but I couldn’t bring myself to look away.
Aaron deserved more. Without thinking, stopping to reason, I grabbed the first thing to hand, a tin of paint, and, clenching my fist around the handle, swung it with all my might, then released it.
It flew through the air, smashing into the back of Jade’s head just as the other three officers pushed through the doorway, their bulk filling the dusty space.
She went down like a sack of potatoes. Trembling, I looked up into Aaron’s eyes and found him smiling at me.
‘I knew you had it in you, Annie,’ he said softly.
I gave a tiny nod. ‘So did I, I think,’ I breathed. ‘So did I.’