Keep My Secrets by Elena Wilkes (large ebook reader .txt) 📗

I warned you what they were like.’

‘I did see something though, Jack… And that door was open.’

Despite the warmth of the duvet, she found that she was shivering.

He glanced at the door and she anxiously followed his eyes.

‘Frankie… Frankie… Hey, come on.’ He took her hand. The pressure of it was comforting. ‘What I was trying to say earlier – it came out wrong. It’s not that my dad and Vanessa are bad people, they’re just stuck. It’s their grief and their pain that brings its own kind of weird energy into the house. Everything is heightened. I don’t know if you’re hooking into that weirdness, but whatever it is, it’s not healthy. I told you, now you’re here, it’s like they’ve got her back.’ He looked at the door again. It was making her nervous.

‘And once you leave and if Martin Jarvis gets off tomorrow…’

Just the mention of his name made her feel ill.

‘I think it will kill them. After losing Charlotte. I don’t think they’ll survive it.’

Frankie saw the score lines under his eyes and around his mouth. He looked older than his years. He lifted his head to look at her. ‘And then there’s you, Frankie. You must be torn both ways: part of you must want him punished; part of you must hate the fact that he’ll be leaving you with a kid.’

Frankie hugged her knees closer, trying to protect herself from his words. The baby quickened and turned inside her.

The pain lines in Jack’s face deepened. ‘Charlotte’s death is at the centre of everything. It’s like we’re all haunted by her: what we did, what we didn’t do. We’re all thinking we could have stopped it happening in one way or another: if Vanessa and my dad hadn’t smothered her, if I hadn’t gone with her to that party, if you hadn’t had that row with her, if only, if only, if only – and the truth is, until we can put her ghost to rest, none of us will get any peace.’

Chapter Fourteen

Now

The sound of her phone slams her back into the present.

There are seconds where it drills and jangles into the car’s quiet interior before she manages to look at it.

Christ, Alex.

‘Hello?’

‘Where are you?’

‘I’m—’

‘And don’t say you’re with Declan. I already know you’re not.’

Her brain swarms into panic. ‘I wasn’t going to say that.’ What’s Declan said?

‘You were going to phone me. You said you wouldn’t leave me to worry. So where are you?’

She glances quickly at the clock. Shit.

‘You can tell me the worst, whatever the truth is. What’s going on?’

She wonders for some gut-churning minute if he followed her here and is sitting in his car watching her right now. She takes a surreptitious glance around, but if he’s here, she can’t see him.

‘Has something else happened at work?’

‘Sorry?’

‘Diane.’

‘What about Diane?’

‘I thought that’s why she was trying to get hold of you. She didn’t reach you then? She said your phone kept going to voicemail, so she rang here. I thought maybe it was bad news.’

Frankie quickly glances at the screen and sees there are three voice messages.

‘Ah – no – I don’t know how I missed them. I’ll contact her now. I called into the office – I realised I needed some files that I can’t access at home. Christ, the time ran away with me. I—’

‘Oh, and the police rang.’ He doesn’t sound convinced.

Her stomach does a little flip. ‘They rang you?’

‘Yeah… It was a really odd conversation. Julia said they couldn’t find a Matthew Jarrow on the system who’d been convicted or released recently. She said they couldn’t find anything on the police files about him at all… Strange, isn’t it?’

She opens her mouth to speak.

‘So I asked Diane about him.’

Her mouth closes again. There’s a moment’s silence.

‘Did you hear me? I asked Diane about this Matthew Jarrow and him harassing you. I told her I needed to know exactly what kind of man he was.’

She thinks she’s forgotten to breathe.

‘And what did she say?’

Everything stops.

‘She said it must’ve been before you worked for her, while you were still at the Ellesmere Port office. She said she remembered several cases where—’

But his voice fades as her brain scrambles. She feels light-headed with relief. Diane, bless her, had taken the question in her stride.

He pauses. She realises he’s asked her a question.

‘Sorry, the phone cut out. Say again?’

‘I said I was sorry for storming off this morning.’

The guilt of where she’s sitting right now, washes up and over her in a hot tide of shame.

‘It was stupid and childish and could only make matters worse. There are two sides to every argument, and you feeling that you couldn’t confide in me makes me feel terrible… More than terrible. I hate the way I found out, but I hate even more that I was going to just walk out. That’s not how a partner is supposed to behave—’

She wishes she could stop him talking right now. The guilt squirms and burns.

‘There’s no need, Alex. There really isn’t.’

‘Yes, there is. I want you to know how bad I feel. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.’

‘Alex—’

‘I’ve got to go over to the community centre this afternoon. I’ll go shopping for dinner on the way back. You’re coming straight home now?’

‘Yes.’

‘So how about we talk about stuff over dinner tonight? Like, properly talk. I want us to be a team again. I want it to be us against the world.’

‘Yes. Yes, so do I.’ She tries to breathe normally.

‘—Oh and Frankie?’ She can hear the smile in his voice. ‘I love you, you know.’

‘I love you too.’

‘Bye, love.’

‘Bye.’

The call ends and her hand drops. The phone lies there warm against her palm. She stares at it for a few moments. He’s going to find out; he’s going to find it all out and then he’ll see her for what she is. This is madness. She feels as though she’s standing in front of a wall of water. She can hear