AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Another lie comes to my lips. The only acceptable one. ‘I pulled out all the tape – the ribbon bit. I got rid of it. Decades ago.’
‘He told me because he wanted me to find out from you where you’d hidden it. He sent me on a little mission.’ She smiles grimly. ‘He wants to be certain this is what it is – the thing Jenna had. He thinks you’re lying. It doesn’t really matter because he’s doing everything he can to find Jenna and get to her before the police, but he wants to know for sure, as soon as he can, so he knows how to handle Jenna once he finds her.’
62
NOW
My brother is doing everything he can to find my daughter. This should make me happy, shouldn’t it? But he’s not doing it for me or Jenna. And he isn’t sure what he’ll do when he finds her. The hair on my arms stands as a chill runs through me.
Does Mina understand what she’s saying to me? Is she really done with my brother? I thought they were happy. I thought everyone was happy. Including myself.
Did Tristan rape Miss Smith? Did he try to kill her? She said those words. Those questions came out of her mouth, about my brother, about her own husband.
What does she mean she thinks he could have done any number of terrible things? He did one – might have done – one thing wrong.
I dig my thumbnails into my fingers and try not to show my fear. ‘Where does he think Jenna is?’
‘He doesn’t know. But he’s sending someone to talk to Georgia.’
Sending someone? Who? Who’s conducting this secret search for my daughter? Where are they searching?
‘Not Glastonbury, then?’
She rolls her eyes. ‘He offered to get her a ticket. If she’d wanted to go that badly, she’d have taken the offer.’
‘He was going to buy her a ticket?’
‘Sure, why not? What does it matter to him?’
‘Why wouldn’t he have discussed it with me?’
‘Why do you think?’ She starts crying again. ‘I deleted that email,’ she says.
‘What email?’
‘About Georgia coming back. I deleted it for Tristan too.’
My eyebrows shoot up. ‘Why?’
She rubs her eyes and sighs and takes a sip of coffee. ‘I thought you’d put a stop to it, but if she could get in without you knowing, once Tristan found out she was teaching here, we’d just move away.’
Who would have thought she had her own little plan? ‘Tristan would never move away. He’d just have had her fired.’
‘Except he would move, to London, for his career. That’s the next step. It just isn’t happening quickly enough. And why would he risk getting her fired when he could just move a bit sooner than planned? And out of this house… maybe we could be happy again.’
‘She’s been here for half a year. When were you going to tell him?’
She looks at the ceiling and drags a finger under her eyes. ‘I… I was going to tell him. But… her being here made me think about things I haven’t thought about in a long time. And then I thought that maybe I didn’t want to be happy again, with him. And then I wondered if there was a way to split up, without losing everything.’
She pulls something out of her pocket, a folded piece of paper. She opens it on the table. It’s a picture of Tristan in a crowd, maybe a stadium, with his arm around another woman. She’s leaning into him, her blonde hair covering her face.
‘Then I got this, and I felt jealous, and I just…’ She throws her hands up. ‘He’s the man I’ve always wanted. I think, if we could get away from this place, things might be different.’
‘Where did you get this?’ I ask, grabbing the photo.
‘Someone sent it, or put it through the door.’
‘Did you tell the police?’
