Page 44 of The Jealous Girl

I let out an impatient sigh and busied myself examining the papers on the desk, flicking through files, squinting at the illegible scrawled notes. I pushed the chair back and turned to the filing cabinet. The top drawer clunked and creaked as I eased it open. I ran my fingers over the edges of the files, until they paused on the one I was searching for.

Vet.

I tugged it out, lay it open on the desk and reached for my phone. I didn’t have time to study everything here. I opened the camera app, cursing as it automatically shut off the torch, and snapped a photo of the first page, the flash lighting up the room again. I flicked the page and took another photo.

Glancing at the transfer bar, still only at forty-five per cent, I carried on. Turn, click, turn, click.

Once every page had been photographed, I slid the file back and pushed the drawer closed.

I glanced at the screen.

Seventy-eight per cent.

I puffed out my cheeks, turned the torch back on and resumed shuffling through the papers on the desk. It wasn’t as though I expected to find a record of what had been in the mysterious envelope, but part of me still hoped I might…

A faint glow shone through the window.

I froze.

The security light outside the house had turned on.

My head snapped towards the window. A figure was approaching the stables from the house.

18

THEN

Late July

I pushed the door open. ‘Well, this is it. Home,’ I said, with a quiet ripple of pride.

My one-bedroom flat was small, but it was mine.

Ryan set the cases down in the hall as I glanced around, suddenly wishing I’d tidied before I’d left for Malta. But then I’d expected to be returning home alone.

‘Wow,’ he said, already crossing the living room. ‘You can see the sea.’

I smiled, watching him as he stopped at the window completely absorbed by the partial view of Swanage harbour.

Clearly the mess didn’t matter.

‘It’s what we always talked about,’ Ryan said wistfully. ‘Getting our own place with a sea view.’

‘Yeah,’ I replied with a light chuckle. ‘Although it was supposed to be in Malta.’

Ryan shrugged. ‘You still did it, though. Your own place. A sea view.’

My chest swelled with pride at his tone. Impressed. And maybe even a little bit envious.

I’d done it without him.

I wondered if that hurt him. As much as he’d hurt me.

He turned back to face me. ‘I should have been here, with you, working towards this together.’

I tried to shrug. ‘You’re here now,’ I said as though that was all that mattered. It should have been – the past was behind us. Unchangeable. Gone. And yet, it still lingered.

‘What are you thinking?’ Ryan asked as he walked back towards me.