Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
‘It’s not yours.’ Lina moves with an agility I hadn’t thought her capable of and attempts to yank the locket from the beam.
‘Lina, wait.’ I catch hold of her hand to stop her. ‘You’ll break the chain.’
‘It still has my daughter’s photo in it.’ She glares at me. ‘You were trying to remove it, weren’t you? Did you think you could replace her that easily? You can’t. You need to give it back.’ She fights me as I attempt to unhook it.
‘Nan!’ Evie shouts from the landing, causing her to start. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Taking back what’s mine,’ Lina responds determinedly.
As Evie flies down the stairs and skids across the lounge, I take advantage of the distraction and manage to free the chain. ‘Take it,’ I say, glancing reproachfully at Lina as I drop the locket into her outstretched hand. ‘I really don’t want it.’
‘What are you doing, Nan?’ Evie asks again, bewildered.
‘She had your mum’s locket,’ Lina replies tremulously. Tears are welling in her eyes, I notice, as she glances between us. ‘It doesn’t belong to her, Evie. She can’t keep it.’
Evie looks at me, her gaze filled with confusion.
‘It was clasped around the beam.’ I sigh despairingly. ‘And no, I have no idea why, or how it got there.’
Obviously noting my annoyance, Evie looks worriedly back to Lina. ‘Why was it there, Nan?’ she asks softly.
Lina frowns in puzzlement. ‘Well I don’t know, do I? I certainly didn’t…’ She stops, her gaze anxious as she notices Jack striding towards us.
‘What in God’s name is going on now?’ he asks, his tone one of complete exasperation.
‘Your girlfriend had my daughter’s locket.’ Lina’s eyes harden to steel as she looks him over. ‘Did you give it to her?’
‘What?’ Jack glances from her to me, baffled.
‘She can’t have it,’ Lina goes on. ‘It was Natalia’s. I bought it for her. You can’t just give it away. She was wearing it when she died. If anyone should have it, Evie should. It’s the last precious memory the girl has of her.’
‘Christ Almighty, did you ever hear anything so fucking ridiculous?’ Jack mutters.
Pressing a thumb against his forehead, he breathes in hard.
‘But she couldn’t have been wearing it, could she, Lina?
’ he says, looking her over in utter despair.
‘Think about it. Natalia jumped into the sea. This was upstairs in my bedside drawer. It’s been there since we moved in.
And you didn’t buy it for her,’ he adds, clearly agitated.
‘I did. I had it engraved for her birthday years back.’
His bedside drawer? I squint at him in confusion. Why there? It obviously is a keepsake. In which case, surely he would have wanted Evie to have it?
‘Rubbish,’ Lina snaps. ‘You’re lying.’ She looks back to me.
‘I’m sorry to upset you, my dear, but if he’s given it to you, then it obviously wasn’t the heartfelt gesture you imagined it to be.
That locket was my daughter’s. It was bought by me.
I have the receipt somewhere. As such, it belongs to me.
And I believe her daughter should have it.
There you are.’ She holds out her hand, offering it to Evie, who looks down at it as if it might bite her.
‘Take it, Evie,’ Jack urges her. ‘I was keeping it to give to you one day anyway.’ He wipes a hand wearily over his face. ‘You’ve clearly been snooping around, Lina.’ He eyes her coldly. ‘Might be an idea not to in future, since this is Kara’s house and you’re here by her good grace only.’
‘A house you’ve made sure you have a stake in, I’ve no doubt,’ Lina throws after him as he turns towards the kitchen.
His step falters. ‘I’ve had just about enough of this,’ he grates.
My heart stalls as I imagine a showdown with Evie in the middle of it. Relief crashes through me as he mutters as if to himself, ‘She’s provoking you. Ignore it,’ and carries on.
‘Come on, Nan,’ Evie says, ‘let’s get you back in bed where it’s nice and warm. I’ll stay with you,’ she adds, as Lina glances nervously after Jack.
‘That would be nice,’ Lina says, nodding meekly.
‘She wasn’t snooping.’ Evie glances at me as she steers her around towards the stairs. ‘I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been reading on my Kindle. She hasn’t been out of her room. I would have heard her.’
I look her over, worried she might have overheard Jack and me talking. But even if she had, at least she might now realise that we do have to seek help for Lina. ‘It’s late. We’ll chat tomorrow.’ I give her a small smile in the hope of reassuring her. ‘Try to get some sleep.’
Evie nods and carries on with Lina towards the spare bedroom. They’ve barely gone two steps when Jack yells from the kitchen, ‘The patio doors are wide open, for Christ’s sake! We’ll be murdered in our bloody beds at this rate.’