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Sophie lowered her lashes, aching inside for her brother, lying in hospital so close to death, and for the tortured man who’d just lost his fiancée.
‘Jo stopped me. At least, I thought he stopped me. I credited him with saving me in those dark days, of saving me from myself. When we met a few years later, after he’d been in the army and was looking for a job, I wanted to repay him. My business was just taking off. I gave him work, thinking I was repaying his friendship. His loyalty.’
He ground the word out between his teeth, his voice growing bitter. ‘But all the time he was living a lie. I thought it bad enough when I discovered he was planning on pocketing half the pay-off money, but he’d already betrayed me in the worst possible way and I’d been too blind to see any of it. He told me that Jake had taken advantage of Emma while I was away and that he was probably taking her off for a back-street abortion to hide the evidence when they crashed. He fed me all this at the same time he was holding me back from wanting to tear your brother limb from limb.
‘And to think I’d thanked him all these years for holding me back…’ He shook his head. ‘But then I learned of Monica’s plans to marry Jake, and what had happened before all came rushing back. It wasn’t just Jo feeding my hatred—I know I had more than plenty to go round myself—but it was almost as if Jo wanted your brother gone more. He told me your business was in trouble and needed cash. It all fitted with the idea your brother was in it for the money, and that you were too.’
He looked at her, his eyes dark with regret, underlined with shadows she hadn’t noticed before. ‘I was wrong, Sophie. So wrong.’ He looked broken, shattered, and it was all she could do not to go to him, put her arms around him and tell him it didn’t matter.
But it did matter. So many people’s lives had been ruined back then; the shock waves continued to wreak devastation, even now, so she stayed where she was.
‘It was Jo who got Emma pregnant,’ she whispered. ‘Not Jake. He… He raped her.’
And he closed his eyes, his chest expanding on a breath. ‘I know. Which is why he didn’t want Jake around.’
‘But Jake couldn’t remember.’
‘Jo didn’t know what he knew. He couldn’t take the risk of the marriage going ahead and the truth coming out. He didn’t want your brother anywhere near me. He was going to take the money and run. And he would have, if you hadn’t tipped me off with numbers that didn’t make sense. I have a lot to thank you for, Sophie. Even more to apologise for.’
It was something, at least.
‘Jake seems to think Emma had come to him out of desperation. But I keep wondering why she didn’t go straight to the police.’
‘I don’t know. Except her parents were very strict. Maybe she thought they wouldn’t believe her. After all, he was supposed to be my friend. I’d asked him to look after her while I was away…’
She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could turn off his pain when she had so much of her own to bear. Because, if he’d blamed himself for her death before, now he had more reason than ever. Damn. She would not feel sorry for him! Not when he was hardly the victim in all this. She swallowed back on a sob.
‘It was you who gazumped us at the Tropical Palms, wasn’t it? So you could get me to the island. Have us all thinking the wedding was going ahead. All while you hatched your plan to pay off Jake in the background.’
His hands curled into fists at his sides. Then he nodded, his eyes the bleakest black.
‘You made the phone call before the helicopter like I said, didn’t you? And then you made out you’d been calling up the island, to let them know we were coming. You lied to me.’
‘By omission—I tried to justify it to myself. But, yes, you’re right. I lied to you.’
‘And you were going to keep me, weren’t you, as long as Jake had Monica? “An eye for an eye, a root for a root”. That’s how Jo put it. That’s why you slept with me, wasn’t it, Daniel? To get even at the basest level with someone you decided long ago you’d hate for ever.’
‘Those were not my words!’
‘But that was your intent! I was to be your prisoner in paradise, and you thought you might as well take advantage while I was here.’
‘Sophie, it wasn’t always like that, you have to believe me. Yes, I thought there was justice in having you with me while he had Monica. And, yes, to make that happen I made sure the Tropical Palms got an offer it couldn’t refuse. I know that nobody can understand, but I had to do whatever I could to ensure I had complete control over this wedding. It was the only way. Only then, when you got here, I found more reason than ever for you to stay.’
