Page 35 of The Girlfriend’s Secret

I think about my brother and know he would help me, and even though Liane foolishly washed the note with his number on it, I had already saved it to my phone. So I could call him. But I’ve needed him to bail me out of too many situations in the past, and he deserves a night off. I’ll figure this out myself. I just don’t know how yet. At least I don’t until I leave the bedroom with my bag and go back downstairs. When I do, I see something that could help me. So I take it without a moment’s hesitation, and just after I have, Joel appears.

He looks upset. Like he doesn’t know what to do. Lost. Just like me then, except he has a warm home to stay in with his family while I will be out there walking the cold streets by myself with no parents worrying about my wellbeing.

‘Haven, please. Just stop and let’s talk about this,’ he says, but the time for talking is over for tonight.

‘I’m sorry,’ I say as I walk past him and straight out of the door.

As I suspected, it is cold out here.

But I keep walking.

Anything is better than going back to where I just came from.

TWENTY-THREE

LIANE

She’s gone.

I should be breathing a sigh of relief now.

But this is far from over.

I only have to look at my youngest son to know that. I can see how upset he is about all of this, most of all that it has ended in Haven leaving the house. Where does that leave their relationship? I have no idea, but what I do know is that Joel needs me and his father at a time like this, so we try to rally around him.

‘Can I get you anything?’ I ask Joel.

‘How about I make you a sandwich?’ Frederik suggests. ‘Or maybe you could use a beer. I know I could.’

Frederik goes to open the fridge and I’m hardly going to object if the two of them decide that they need a little liquid refreshment to help them process what has just happened. I might need some refreshment of my own too, because I doubt any of us are getting much sleep tonight. But before my husband can get a single drink out, Joel speaks up.

‘How could you do that? How could you just throw her out on the street when she has nowhere to go?’ he cries.

‘It wasn’t our intention, but she was the one who was saying awful things about your brother,’ I say, defending myself and his father. ‘You heard her. What were we supposed to do? Just stand here and take it all?’

‘I don’t know, but you shouldn’t have told her to get out,’ Joel is adamant. ‘I need to go and look for her.’

He grabs his coat and heads for the door, but Frederik is quickly after him.

‘Wait!’ my husband calls. ‘You can’t just go wandering around out there in the dark!’

‘Why not? That’s what Haven is doing because of you two!’ Joel hisses back, and I should have known he was not going to be our best friend after what just occurred. But I really don’t feel we had a choice. I have a family to defend and that young woman was threatening to blow it apart with her vicious tales of Scott’s debt and motivation to see his grandmother die before her time.

‘I’m going to go and look for her and you’re not stopping me,’ Joel says.

‘Fine, but at least let me come with you,’ Frederik says, grabbing his own coat.

‘What are you going to do when you find her?’ I ask my husband. ‘She’s not welcome back here.’

‘We just need to make sure she is all right,’ Frederik says. ‘I know she’s said some awful things, but it is late and it’s very cold out there. I don’t really want something bad happening to her on my conscience. Do you?’

Of course I don’t, so I don’t put up any more resistance and, very quickly, Joel and Frederik have left the house, leaving me all alone to pick up the pieces of what just happened.

It all started after I snuck into my son’s bedroom to take Haven’s phone while she slept. If only she hadn’t woken up then none of this might have happened. But she did and now so many things have been said that cannot be unsaid. Only time will tell what the repercussions are from all of that.

I know I won’t be able to get any rest until Frederik and Joel return, so I won’t even bother going upstairs to try. Instead, I pour myself a glass of white wine and take a seat at the breakfast bar, hoping my drink will take the edge off my exhausted emotions.

I consider calling Scott and talking to him about everything Haven told us tonight. I want him to know that his family is on his side, not hers, so he has nothing to worry about regarding her wild accusations. It hurts me to think that he has been dealing with Haven and her lies alone, trying to rid this family of her and her venomous tales, without being able to lean on his parents or younger brother for support. It’s not fair that he’s had to face accusations of hurting his grandmother at a time when he is mourning her loss, like we all are. How dare Haven come into our lives and add extra pressure and stress onto a time that is already full of it?