Chapter 62
SIXTY-TWO
Jack doesn’t respond to my text, but I can see that he’s read it. He’s wary. He’ll be aware by now that Kara’s poor broken body is not in the vicinity of the wreckage. Wondering about the cryptic implication of my message. He will come, though. His overriding concern will be for Evie.
Satisfied as I imagine his escalating panic, his fear that every aspect of his deceitful, murderous personality is about to be exposed, I turn my attention to the dilemma of how to convince my rivals of his dubious affections that they need to take me seriously.
Glancing around the room, my eyes fall on the wood-burning stove.
A box of matches sits on the mantel beam above.
My mind goes to what Jack had told Kara about his family, no doubt to gain her sympathy.
Keeping one eye on my captives, I stroll towards the beam and pick the matches up. Then ponder a moment.
‘It must be a terrible way to go, burning in a house fire,’ I say, sighing expansively as I stroll back. ‘Excruciatingly painful, I imagine.’
‘You’re not serious.’ Kara looks at me in abject horror as I open the box and draw a match from it.
‘Oh, but I am.’ Striking the match, I hold it aloft, watch it burn for a second, then purse my lips and blow it out.
‘Deadly serious. You’d better hope that Jack really is as caring as you imagine he is.
All he needs to do is tell the truth, and then all of this will be over.
For you, anyway. Jack has to pay. My guess is he will know that.
Do you think he’s gallant enough to ride to your rescue, Kara? Really?’ I eye her questioningly.
Her expression is somewhere between disdain and disgust. I find that upsetting, because although I’m no paragon of virtue, she can hardly claim to be one either.
‘I sense I’m being judged.’ I raise my eyebrows, unimpressed. ‘What would you do, Kara, if it was you he tried to murder? If he tried to take your child away from you?’ Then, ‘Oh, I forgot. He was trying to, wasn’t he? And you ran. I couldn’t do that. Not without my daughter.’
She scans my eyes for a long, searching moment. ‘Why are you doing this?’ she asks, as if she hasn’t heard a single word I’ve said.
‘I just told you,’ I snap, my patience wearing paper-thin. ‘Because I want my daughter back.’
‘And you think this is the way to do it?’ She stares at me, incredulous. ‘Threatening to kill me? To kill Jemma?’
Jemma flinches at that, yet more tears spilling from her eyes. ‘Drink your tea,’ I tell her wearily. I’m growing tired. I want this to be over as much as they doubtless do, but I won’t walk away without Evie.
‘Threatening to kill her father, drugging her grandmother?’ Kara goes on, her eyes narrowed with incomprehension. ‘Evie loves Lina. Do you think for one minute that she will have any feelings for you other than hatred when she finds out what you’ve done?’
‘She won’t find out,’ I assure her, with more confidence than I feel.
She might, but I hold on to my conviction that deep down Evie knows the truth about what happened on that dark day when my life was supposed to have ended.
That she and I both loved a man who wasn’t worthy of our love.
A man who perhaps doesn’t consider himself worthy of love and therefore mercilessly manipulates people in order to keep them.
Realising I’m almost feeling sorry for him, even now, I pull myself up sharp.
This is exactly what I did before, feeling sorry and guilty for everything.
No more. ‘I will do whatever it takes to make sure Jack gets what he deserves,’ I assure Kara, making sure to hold her gaze.
I can’t have her thinking she’s found my Achilles heel.
‘And then I will simply disappear again, taking my daughter with me. No one knows I’m here with you.
So you see, no one will point the finger at me.
It will just have been an unfortunate accident.
Your house is stunningly beautiful, but you have to admit, being made mostly of wood, it’s a real fire hazard. ’
‘Oh God.’ Jemma gasps out a ragged sob.
‘Do be quiet.’ I sigh in exasperation. ‘You’re getting on my nerves.’
Kara moves to put an arm around her, touchingly, also confusingly. If I were her, I’d be tempted to slap Jemma’s face. Kara is an enigma. I’d long since lost the ability to be so forgiving.
‘And you can live with that, can you?’ She looks up at me, her eyes burning with anger.
‘With Jack’s death?’ I tip my head to one side, making a show of thinking about it. In reality, I’m struggling now to look at her. ‘What do you think?’
She doesn’t respond, and relief sweeps through me, because I’m faltering. And I can’t. Because then he will have won.
‘With your death, and hers?’ I glance at Jemma. ‘She had an affair with my husband,’ I remind her. ‘You decided to steal him.’
‘I thought you were dead,’ she says, her expression so genuine I could almost believe her.
‘What, at Jemma’s party?’ I ask, pointing out the deep flaw in her argument. ‘I was very much alive, you might recall, watching as you salivated all over my husband. Your husband saw it. He looked far from pleased, trust me on that.’
The innocence I saw a second ago gives way to shock and then guilt. It’s written all over her face – as good as an admission.
‘Did you argue about it? On the way home?’ I push on, anger and hurt driving me. I can’t believe I was actually feeling sympathy for her. ‘Is that why you ended up killing your husband and child, Kara?’
The colour drains visibly from her face and I know I’ve hit home. She’s hurting. I can feel how much as she presses a hand to her stomach, where Jack’s baby grows. She wants to protect it. Of course she does. It’s a mother’s instinct. She should know how I feel.
‘Neither of you gave a damn about me or Evie,’ I growl, swallowing hard to hold back my tears, ‘so save your guilt-tripping. I can live with it, trust me. I want Jack destroyed. I want him to know that I’ve taken everything from him before he dies, just like he tried to take everything from me.
Just like he tried to kill me. Do you have any idea how painful drowning is? ’ I ask, eyeballing her furiously.
She says nothing, but squeezes Jemma closer. There’s nothing she can say, is there?
‘No, you don’t. So stop with the amateur psychology and drink your fucking tea.’
She continues to stare at me and, sensing rebellion, I step towards her, but stop as I note her gaze moving away from me, travelling upwards.
Ha. Does she think I’m going to fall for that? Nice try, I’m about to say when a furious voice behind me seethes, ‘Leave her alone.’
My blood freezes as I spin around to find Evie standing on the landing glaring murderously down at me.