Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
HAVEN
‘I’m sorry this happened to you,’ I say, speaking clearly and calmly. ‘You didn’t deserve it and nothing I can ever do will make it right. But I promise you that I am going to do my best. I promise that I am going to make your daughter pay for what she did.’
I look around the room I’m standing in as if expecting a response to come from a random direction. But it doesn’t. Of course not.
I’m the only person in this room.
I’m the only person in this house.
Still, it was worth saying. I had to say it.
I had to let Valerie’s spirit know that I am still on her side and always will be.
I don’t expect her to hear me or understand me or have any kind of reaction to it, but I’ve said it anyway, if only for my benefit.
It’s because it has helped me get clear in my mind about what is happening.
More than that, it is to stop me chickening out now it’s the pivotal moment.
I take a seat on one of the sofas in this living room, feeling the fabric sag slightly as I sit and thinking about how it would have been perfectly contoured to fit the shape of Valerie.
She would have sat here so many times, watching television, having a cup of tea with a friend, and more than anything, talking to her family whenever they visited.
I imagine she would have welcomed any of them into her home with open arms whenever they called around.
Why wouldn’t she? She loved her family. I’m sure she made that clear in life, just like she has made it clear in death.
She left each of her family members a small fortune, ensuring they all inherited money that she worked so hard to make and save over her lifetime.
That is something that most people would be extremely grateful for.
But it’s not enough for everyone. Some people always want more and they want it faster.
They want it all.
Some people like Liane.
Now she thinks she has it all.
But she has no idea how close she is to losing it.
I take out my phone and open the app that I downloaded earlier. I have no idea if it will work as I hope it will, only that I have trusted what I have read online and it all seems legit. But there’s only one way to find out if it will work for me right now.
I see a black screen and turn up the volume, holding my breath as I do because this is the moment of truth.
‘Can you pass the rice, please?’
I swear my heart skips a beat as I hear Frederik’s voice loud and clear through my phone. A moment later, I hear more.
‘You really need to try these buns, they’re delicious.’
That was Scott.
‘I will if you stop eating them all,’ replies Joel, and now I know there are at least three of them there, sitting together and clearly enjoying their meal. But where is the fourth member of the family? Where is the one voice I need to hear more than any other?
Where is Liane?
‘I knew we should have ordered more,’ I suddenly hear her say and I breathe a strong sigh of relief. She is there and like everybody else she is having dinner with, I can hear her voice loud and clear.
That’s crucial.
As I keep listening in on the ‘private’ conversation occurring at a house only fifteen minutes away from the one I’m sitting in, I think about how it was in this room where I sit alone when my plan’s success moved from ‘possible’ to ‘likely’.
It was in here where, with the help of Scott, I told Frederik what needed to happen next.
I had no idea if it would work.
I had no idea if he would listen to me.
I had no idea if he would choose Liane and love over me and justice.
But I got my answer in the end.
‘What’s going on here?’ Frederik had said as he entered Valerie’s house with his eldest son to find me waiting for them both.
‘Just calm down, Dad, and listen to what we have to say,’ Scott had told his father.
‘You shouldn’t be in here,’ Frederik had said to me. ‘How did you get in? We thought you were gone.’
‘Dad, please, just let us explain,’ Scott had pleaded again and, thankfully, Frederik had fallen quiet long enough for us to try and do just that.
‘I’m so sorry to tell you this, but your wife has been lying to you,’ I had said as gently as I could. ‘She’s been lying to us all.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Frederik had snapped back.
‘She’s talking about Valerie,’ Scott had interjected, and I was thankful he was there to provide support because it would have been impossible to convince Frederik on my own. ‘She’s talking about how she died.’
‘It wasn’t an accident,’ I had explained to Frederik. ‘She didn’t just fall down the stairs. She was pushed. By Liane.’