Page 44 of The Girlfriend’s Secret

She was here the other day. She came with Joel to help do some packing. Did she lose it then? Maybe. But I don’t remember her being in this room that particular day. But if not then, when?

I decide to keep the earring with me as I finish getting dressed before going downstairs. I won’t bother checking the cupboards to see if there’s anything for breakfast because even if there is, I don’t really want to start my day with food from a tin. That’s how I ended yesterday, and I want today to be much better than that, for more reasons than one.

I consider calling Frederik and checking in with him to see what the atmosphere is at our house before I go home. I can’t imagine it’s great, but my husband might surprise me and give me some good news. He might say something about how Joel has woken up this morning and feels like I reacted appropriately to the situation when I threw his girlfriend out. If so, me and my youngest son don’t have to be at war for the foreseeable future. But somehow, I have a feeling it’s not going to be as easy as that.

Deciding to hang on to being optimistic rather than realistic, I leave the house, making sure the door is locked before getting into my car and starting the short drive home. As I go, I think about where Haven might be now. Hopefully out of town already if she has any sense. Wherever she spent the night, today is a fresh start for her as well as it is for me, and I hope she is safe, well, but not planning on coming anywhere near any of us again. I also wonder how Scott is after I told him about my confrontation with Haven, when she had openly accused him of murdering his grandmother. My poor boy must be suffering because that’s such a heinous thing to be accused of. But he’s made of strong stuff, and I suspect he’s already at work now, wearing his greasy uniform and fixing another car, doing his best to get on with his life despite somebody trying hard to ruin it.

I don’t want to get the police involved in this because that will only add more drama and stress to our lives. But I will if these fabled accusations continue any longer. If Haven has any sense, she will know that pursuing this will result in the police getting involved and I doubt she would want that. That’s probably why she hasn’t already gone to them herself with her claims against Scott. It’s because she knows they won’t take her seriously. It’s also because she is afraid they might figure out she is the bad one, a fact I’ve already discovered.

As my house comes into view, it feels strange to be arriving home here so early in the morning. But I’ll soon be inside, enjoying a cup of tea in my kitchen, and things will slowly start to get back to normal from there.

I can’t wait.

I park and enter my house, eager to get the kettle on and make some breakfast. But as I approach the kitchen door, I hear voices on the other side. I can hear Frederik and Joel, which tells me they are both up already. They don’t seem to be arguing, which is a good sign, just like it’s a good sign that our son is not hiding away in his bedroom, avoiding his parents. I can only hope the arguing and the avoidance don’t start again when I go in.

I open the kitchen door and walk in purposefully, conscious that I don’t want it to feel like I am intruding here. But I stop still when I see who is sitting at the breakfast bar.

I already knew my husband and son were in here.

But I didn’t know she was here.

I didn’t know Haven was back in my house.

But she is.

And she’s smiling at me.

THIRTY

HAVEN

‘What’s going on?’ Liane asks when she sees me sitting with her family, enjoying a breakfast of croissants and bagels. I was just about to ask Frederik to pass the butter, but I better wait until his wife gets over the shock of seeing me here.

‘Hey, you’re back early!’ Frederik says as he rises out of his seat and approaches his wife, although she quickly takes a step back from him. But she doesn’t take her eyes off me as she does.

‘Why is she here?’ Liane demands to know, and while it’s hardly the best way to say good morning, I choose not to call her out on that. Instead, I just take another bite out of my breakfast.

‘I can explain,’ Frederik says, sounding like he’s a naughty schoolkid who has just been caught doing something he shouldn’t and now needs to explain himself to the headmistress.

‘How can you explain this?’ Liane replies. ‘How can you explain letting her back in this house after what she said?’

‘Mum, just calm down,’ Joel tries, but my boyfriend has clearly underestimated his mother’s capability to be in the same room as me again. Unbeknownst to her, we were actually in the same room last night, when I was hiding under the bed she was sleeping in, but again, I don’t think this is the time to mention that.

‘Haven came back here late last night,’ Frederik explains to his wife. ‘She showed up on the doorstep at 3 a.m. and said she had nowhere to go. What could I do? Turn her away?’

‘Yes, that’s exactly what you should have done!’ Liane cries.

I am glad that Frederik did not turn me away, although I’m sure the fact that Joel insisted he let me in played a big part in that decision. Whatever the case, I was allowed into this house, and I was glad about that. After the scare at Valerie’s house, I didn’t have the energy or mental capacity to take another risk elsewhere. I just needed a warm bed. I needed my boyfriend. And he needed to ask me something very important.

‘How could you think that my brother killed her?’ Joel asked me once I was in his bedroom and the door was firmly closed. ‘I just don’t understand it.’

‘Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s just a feeling I have,’ I’d replied. ‘I know you love your brother, but you have been away in Australia having the time of your life while he has been here, trying to keep a struggling business going. I know he pretends he is successful, but he’s not, and debt and desperation can drive anybody to do terrible things.’

‘I just can’t see it,’ Joel had said, shaking his head from where he sat on the edge of the bed. ‘Not my brother. He’s not a killer.’

‘He’s threatened me,’ I went on. ‘I have the proof and it shows he is not the nice guy everyone thinks he is. But I admit I don’t have any evidence that he pushed your grandmother down the stairs, other than him arranging to be there on the day she died. So I understand if you want me to stop this and leave.’

‘No, I don’t want you to leave,’ Joel had said, reaching out for my hand and showing me that while he was incredibly conflicted about what I was accusing his brother of, he still wanted to be with me too. I wanted the same, so we spent the night together, sleeping side by side, and I was feeling a little better about things when I woke up. I was feeling a little better until Liane came home.