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‘Nothing.’
‘Millie,’ I say. ‘There’s no such thing asnothingwith you.’
She won’t look me in the eye. Iknow if I ask,if I ask, she’ll tell me.
It’s the closest I’ve come to breaking the golden rule that’s kept us safe all these years: our marriage works precisely because so much of what binds us together is left unsaid.
What did you do, Millie?
If I ask, it’ll change everything.
Millie, what did you do?
chapter 38
millie
A hand suddenly grabs my shoulder and I turn, expecting to find a journalist thrusting a camera in my face.
It takes me a moment to recognise the woman behind me as Harper. Her hair is caught back in a messy ponytail, and without a scrap of make-up she looks almost as young and vulnerable as Meddie.
‘What are you doing here?’ I ask, shaking her off.
‘Where is he?’
‘Felix? I’ve no idea,’ I say.
‘You must know!’ Harper cries. ‘You have to tell me!’
I glance across the road. At least a dozen journalists and photographers are camped on the narrow pavement outside the Glass House. Even as we watch, a Sky News van arrives and kerb-crawls down the street, looking for somewhere to park. The house has an oddly abandoned air: all the blinds are up, and the letterbox is jammed with junk mail. It’s clear no one’s home. It looks deserted, as if no one’s lived in it for years.
I don’t know what I was thinking coming here again.
A couple of snappers recognise Harper and start to take photos. We’re attracting way too much attention.
I grasp the girl’s arm and propel her past the journalists and down the road to my car. ‘Get in,’ I say.
She climbs into the Audi andpulls her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them like a small child. I want to tell her to keep her thick-soled white trainers off my nappa leather, but even I can appreciate now’s not the time.
‘You invested money with Copper Beech?’ I ask, hazarding a guess.
She nods.
‘When?’
‘A few days after I ran into Felix outside the divorce lawyer’s office,’ she admits, her chin pressed to her knees. ‘When I heard he’d pulled out of the sale. I called and told him we needed the house move to go ahead or our sponsors would ditch us. He knew we had a cashflow problem. He said he could help!’
‘You blackmailed him,’ I say flatly.
‘He said it was safe! He said everyone put their money in Copper Beech! We’d make at least ten percent in less than three months!’
Ruthless bastard. Felix already knew the company was in trouble at that point: it’s why he pulled out of the house sale just a couple of days later. Which means he was also well aware Harper would almost certainly lose any money she invested with him. He probably figured she deserved it for trying to screw him over in the first place.
I sigh. ‘How much did you give him?’
‘Me and Kyle had a hundred and fifty thousand in our joint savings account. It was only getting one percent interest where it was. It seemed like a smart thing to do!’
‘Does Kyle know?’
