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‘You’re not serious?’
He shook his head. ‘There’s no proof.’
‘And likewise you have no proof that Grace is guilty.’
‘I believe what the theatre nurse told me.’
‘You’d rather believe someone who wasn’t honest enough to go to the police in the first place? Doesn’t that tell you something about her from the start? I don’t believe what she said for a minute. Grace doesn’t do drugs. Don’t you’d think I’d know if she did? How can it be that I’ve never heard any of these stories?’
‘Because your charming doctor friend has paid to hush them up, same as she’s done every time. Paid to hush up the woman rendered blind after a failed eyelid lift. Paid to hush up the girl who caught her snorting a line of coke in her office. Paid—’
‘Stop it!’ Jade yelled, her hand clutching the air. ‘I don’t believe it—any of it.’
He had her arms in his hands. He’d crossed the room so fast she hadn’t realised. ‘You don’t believe it? Or you just don’t like to think your cosy partner has been found out? It must be some team effort, covering up for all her mistakes. Is that why you had to invent the foundation—to provide more funds for her drug use, to provide more hush money to cover up her mistakes?’
She was thrashing in his arms, trying to get free. ‘I’m not listening to any more of this. Let me go!’
His fingers squeezed tighter on her arms. ‘And as for not knowing—I think you know a lot more about your good doctor than you let on.’
He dropped his grip on her, almost thrusting her away from him. She turned away, rubbing where his fingers had bitten down deep into her flesh.
‘And if I did, why the hell would I tell you now? None of this makes sense, and I’m not going to contribute anything to this sick vendetta of yours.’
‘Don’t you understand anything?’ he said, lurching forwards again. ‘This is much more important than some mere vendetta!’
She recoiled momentarily and then, when she realised he wasn’t reaching out to hold her again, she sighed, a long ragged sigh, shaking her head.
‘You couldn’t save Zoë so you’re desperate to save a sister who doesn’t want to be rescued. And you’ll pull down anyone who gets in your way. What are you trying to prove, Loukas? Zoë died in obviously tragic circumstances, but she’s gone. Hunting down Grace and ruining her career isn’t going to bring her back for you. Can’t you see that? If I wasn’t so angry about what you’re trying to do, I think I’d feel sorry for you.’
‘I don’t want your pity!’
She spun back to face him. ‘Then what do you want? Do you expect me to help you on this crazy quest of yours? Is that what these last three nights were about? Did you think that once you’d got me into bed I’d only too readily spill everything I know about Grace’s seedy underside? Is that what you thought? Well, okay, you being such a red-hot lover, I’ll fall for it. I’ll give you the goods. I’ll tell you everything I know. Are you ready for this? Nothing. Zip. Nada. Do you understand? There is nothing to tell.’
Cold fire marked his features, the veins of his neck corded and pumping fury.
‘I’ll tell you what I understand. I thought you were different. Over these last few days I’ve thought there was just a chance you weren’t like her. But I was wrong. You’re two of a kind. You belong together in your black magic world, turning out your plastic clients and your Barbie doll lookalikes, living off people’s insecurities and spreading fakery and artifice like a disease, like a weeping sore. And you’re the biggest fake,’ he continued with barely a pause. ‘Because you pretend not to know or to see what’s right in front of you.’
‘I can’t see what isn’t there!’
‘Still pretending,’ he snorted. ‘You’re so fake you can’t see straight. Or is that what happens when you’ve been under the knife too many times—you can’t recognise the truth any more? Which bits of you are real, I wonder? And which are fake? That nose? Those breasts?’
