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Those messages really have done a number on me.
“I just mean we don’t have any reason to hurry back,” she says, picking up her mug. “Look, we’ve barely even touched our coffees. And I’m just dying to get to know you better! I’ve never had a sister before. It’s going to be so fun, don’t you think?”
I smile in spite of my misgivings. She’s either really nice, or really cunning; I’m not sure which. But as she pushes the notebook towards me and starts to talk me through her lists, I find myself leaning towards the former again.
She has some great ideas, I have to give her that. But every time I try to bring the conversation to a close, so I can go home and talk to Jack, she starts on something else, and I start to get a sneaking feeling that she’s doing it deliberately; keeping me here talking as some kind of stalling tactic?
Why would she do that, Emerald? Why would she want to keep you here?
I have no idea. But by the time she finishes her second cup of coffee and asks where the toilets are, I’m in such a state of anxiety that I can barely sit still. As soon as she leaves the table, I jump up and rush over to the counter, where Brenda, the Wildcat’s dour-faced owner, is presiding over the till.
“Here, take this,” I say, pulling some cash out of my wallet and handing it to her, my eyes still fixed firmly on the door I know Rose will emerge from any moment now.
“Won the lottery, have we?” says Brenda, sounding unimpressed as she shuffles through the notes I’ve handed her. “Or is that rich boyfriend of yours giving you pocket money now?”
“No, of course not,” I reply, stung. “I have my own money, Brenda. I do work, you know.”
At Jack’s restaurant. In a role Jack created especially for me, and which I’m pretty sure the place would survive perfectly well without.
So that’s a sobering thought.
Sobering or not, though, it’s a thought I’m going to have to file away to pick at later, because right now I need to get home, and tell Jack about the messages, before I lose my nerve. And also before Rose comes out of the bathroom and tries to stop me, obviously.
So I square my shoulders determinedly as I accept my change from Brenda, and pull my sunglasses down over my eyes, even though it’s not actually all that sunny outside.
I’m going home, and I’m going to get some answers.
And this time, nothing is going to stop me.
Chapter 5
As I pull up in front of the house, I see Jack’s familiar rumpled head at the window of his office, and I get out of the car, slinging my bag determinedly over my shoulder.
I’m going in.
“Jack,” I call, pushing open the front door and heading straight for the office door. “Jack, I need to talk to you. It’s important.”
“In here,” he calls back, and I pause for a split second outside the door, gathering my courage, before bursting inside.
“Jack, someone sent me an anonymous message telling me not to trust you,” I blurt out, barely registering the shocked expression on his face. “Then they sent me another one asking why your family never come to see us, and saying you’ve been lying to McTavish. And I would have told you earlier, but then Rose turned up, and I didn’t want to spoil the mood — she was really off with Frankie and McTavish earlier, by the way — but it’s been eating me up inside, because the thing is, itisstrange that your parents have never bothered to come and meet me? Don’t you think that’s strange? Are you ashamed of me or something? Do you think they’re going tohateme? Because I—”
“Emerald,” says Jack tersely, through tightly gritted teeth. “Emerald, stop. Please.”
I snap my mouth shut, swallowing nervously. I was expecting him to be surprised, but I didn’t expect him to beangry.
Why would Jack be angry with me?
“I’m sorry,” I say in a small voice. “I know it’s a lot to take in. But, Jack, I had to tell you, because I need to know. Is there something you’re not telling me? Are you involved in something dodgy?”
“Emerald!”
This time, his tone shocks me into silence. And that’s when I hear it.
A small, polite cough comes from the corner of the room, directly behind me, and I whirl around in surprise, to find myself looking at an expensively dressed older couple who are sitting side-by-side on the sofa Jack keeps in here, wearing matching expressions of horror.
Oh my God, no.
“Emerald,” says Jack tightly, his mouth set in a thin line of fury. “Emerald, I’d like you to meet my parents.”
