Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
LIANE
I’m reeling from my meeting with Calvin for a number of reasons.
One, I almost saw a guy get run over in a traffic accident – a guy I was chasing.
I certainly did not want that man to come to any harm during our meeting and I’m glad that things didn’t go any worse than they did.
Fortunately, despite running in front of a car that almost hit him, he was okay.
But I’m not. Not after being told that Haven came to visit him, days before I believed she arrived back in England.
That piece of information drives a huge hole through her story and it’s one that leaves me extremely puzzled.
I don’t understand how Frederik and I could have greeted Haven and Joel at the airport after they’d flown home from Australia, yet she somehow visited her brother in England before that.
I want to ask her how it’s possible, but to do so would give away the fact that I tracked down her brother and spoke to him about her, and I don’t want her to know.
That’s assuming Calvin hasn’t already contacted Haven himself somehow and warned her about me now.
Last but not least, I’m reeling because of the last thing Calvin said to me.
About how Haven won’t be any trouble for me as long as I’m not any trouble for her.
That felt like a threat.
A warning.
A possible predictor of things to come.
I’m back home now after my ill-fated meeting with Calvin and I have even more questions than when I went to see him.
That wasn’t the point. By now, I was hoping I’d have had my worries eased and be free to enjoy watching my son and his blossoming relationship with his partner.
Instead, I cannot stop thinking about how there is something very sinister going on that my son is caught up in, possibly unwittingly, and it is only going to get worse unless I can figure all this out before it does.
‘Are you okay, Mum?’
Joel’s question snaps me out of the trance that I have been in ever since I got back from the park. I had the house to myself for the first few hours after my return, but now I am very much surrounded by other people.
Joel’s here, Frederik’s here, and she is here.
‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ I reply, twirling my hair and smiling weakly.
We’re all sitting on the sofas in the living room, watching something on TV.
I say ‘something’ because I have no idea what it is that we’re supposed to be watching.
I haven’t been paying any attention to it since my son selected it for us all to watch.
I’ve just been sitting here, staring into space while my husband scoffs peanuts and the younger two snuggle up to each other on the other sofa.
I want to ask them both about when they actually got back from Australia.
Find out if there’s any way it is even remotely possible that Haven could have got back earlier and visited her brother before meeting me.
But I haven’t asked the question yet. I’m too scared to.
Once I do, Haven will know I’ve been looking into her, and I’ll have lost any element of surprise I once had.
Therefore, if she is hiding something, I’ll be even less likely to find out what it is.
Her laughter cuts through the room then.
She’s amused at something that has just happened on screen.
But the sound of it, juxtaposed with my personal paranoia, is jarring, and it feels like the lilt of her laughter penetrates my skull and makes a mockery of all my concerns.
How can she sit there so contented when I’m so tormented?
But it’s what she does next that really makes my blood boil.
She leans into Joel and whispers something in his ear.
She probably assumes I’m too focused on the TV to hear what she is about to say, but she is wrong and I hear it perfectly.
‘Let’s ditch the oldies and go to bed.’
Okay, so she might not be the first youngster to refer to her boyfriend’s parents as ‘oldies’, but given everything else that has happened lately, it’s too much disrespect, even for me.
‘You don’t need to whisper in this house,’ I say to Haven, surprising her with my sudden statement. ‘If you have something to say to my son, you can say it louder.’
Haven looks surprised, as does Joel. Even Frederik pauses his peanut eating to look at me.
‘I’m just saying, there are no secrets in this house,’ I go on. ‘None at all.’
Does she get that hint? Does she know that I am onto her? If she does, she doesn’t give anything away, simply looking at me and nodding before stifling what appears to be a fake yawn in an attempt to get Joel to suggest they go to bed and leave us behind.
‘I think we’re going to go upstairs,’ Joel says, and with that, the pair of them get off the sofa and head for the door.
‘You’re not watching the end of the movie?’ Frederik asks before popping another peanut in his mouth.
‘No, we’re tired,’ Joel replies before he and Haven leave.
‘Guess it’s just us two,’ my husband says, smiling before settling back to watch the rest of the movie.
But I still can’t give it any of my attention, especially not when I have an idea as to how to potentially find out more about Haven without her knowing.
It’s a dangerous idea, one that I’m not sure I can pull off, but now that I have it, I cannot stop thinking about it.
It is very risky and it will be disastrous if I get caught, but if I succeed, I just might finally find out who Haven really is and what she is hiding.
So I’m going to do it.
Tonight.
‘How long is left?’ I ask my husband, referring to the film that I haven’t watched any of so far.
‘About fifteen minutes,’ he says, and I think that’s fine because I need to allow some more time to pass. I need Haven and Joel to do whatever they are going to do upstairs and then fall asleep. My plan will only work if they are not awake.
I impatiently sit through the rest of the movie, not at all getting any of the pleasure that Frederik seems to get from the huge twist at the end, but that’s just the price I pay for not following the rest of the story before that.
As the credits roll, Frederik lets out a satisfied sigh, possibly from the quality of the movie he just watched, or possibly from the quantity of peanuts he just consumed.
Either way, he seems happy as he suggests we go upstairs to bed.
But I’m happy too, at least as much as I can be, because as we head up, I am getting closer to being able to enact my dangerous plan, the one I concocted on the sofa when it would have appeared like I was not doing anything of the sort.
As we pass Joel’s bedroom, I can see a light on underneath the door, so I know they’re still awake in there.
That’s fine, I will give it a while yet before I go anywhere near them.
I brush my teeth, change out of my clothes and then get into bed and Frederik and I make small talk in between him reading his book and me trying to hold onto the small kernel of courage I have about what I plan to do very soon.
When the lights go out, Frederik falls asleep fast, which only helps my plan.
But I wait longer before getting out of bed because he’s not the only one in this house who needs to be asleep for this to work.
* * *
I open our bedroom door and peer out and see that the light beneath my son’s door is now off. How long should I leave it before going in there? Are they both already asleep? Or will one of them still be awake and see me creeping in?
I decide to wait a little longer.
But I can’t put it off forever. If I’m going to do this, I need to be brave at some point and sneak into my son’s bedroom to get what I want, so eventually, I leave my bedroom and creep towards his.
Reaching the door, I put my ear against it and listen in. I can hear soft snores. They sound like Joel’s. I’d recognise that sound anywhere. But I can’t hear her.
Either she’s a silent sleeper.
Or she’s still awake.
I swallow hard before reaching out for the handle. Then I open the door and go inside, hoping to get what I want.
But also scared of losing something precious at the same time…