Trust Me - Sheryl Browne Page 0,107

realising, finally, that the blame hadn’t been solely hers to carry. ‘She stole my boyfriend, and I hated her.’ Tears streaming from her eyes, she relived the emotions as painfully as she had on that dark day. ‘I hated her!’

Fear crossing his features as her voice rose, Jake stepped towards her.

Emily backed away. ‘I said terrible things to her, wicked things, but it wasn’t her I should have hated, it was him.’

‘Emily …’ Jake’s eyes flicked to the door, warning her that Millie might hear. Her poor, innocent, feisty girl. He’d hurt her.

‘He killed her!’ Stuffed too long inside, the words came tumbling out. ‘He pushed her. They argued on the canal bank and he pushed her. And I knew he had. I knew it. In here I knew it.’ Choking back her sobs, she banged a hand against her chest. ‘But in my head … I couldn’t remember. I tried, but … I believed him. I went to him. Before he was convicted, I went to him. He was distraught, and I …’ She stopped, reliving that night, desperately not wanting to.

‘After we were together?’ Jake surmised correctly.

Closing her eyes, Emily answered with a feeble nod.

‘Were you still in love with him?’ His voice was hollow.

Pressing her hands to her face, she shook her head.

‘Yet you carried his child.’ His voice now full of insurmountable hurt, Jake spoke the words that would send the rest of her world crashing down.

Emily looked back at him, her heart so swollen with sorrow and regret she felt it might burst right out of her chest. ‘You knew Ben wasn’t yours?’ She could barely get the words out.

He smiled heart-wrenchingly. ‘I’m a doctor, Emily, remember?’

He’d done a test, she guessed. He must have suspected. Of course he had. He wasn’t stupid. She was the stupid one.

‘I got that you wanted to keep the child. I understood. What I didn’t understand was why you didn’t tell me,’ he went on, his voice strained. ‘I could have forgiven you cheating on me. It wasn’t as if we were already planning our wedding. I would have forgiven you anything, but … All these years? Why didn’t you just tell me?’

Emily didn’t answer. She couldn’t.

‘You should have told me.’ Shaking his head, Jake looked her over disappointedly and turned away.

‘I didn’t!’ Emily called after him as he walked towards the door. ‘I didn’t cheat on you,’ she repeated wretchedly. ‘I didn’t want to. I didn’t plan to have sex with him. I didn’t want to. He …’

Jake stopped.

‘Jake?’ Emily moved towards him.

‘Are you telling me this bastard raped you?’ he asked gutturally.

Recalling again the cloying smell of him, his hands all over her body, the words he’d whispered close to her ear – I want you – her stomach roiled violently. ‘Yes.’ She voiced it finally. ‘I should have gone to the police,’ she added quickly. ‘I know I should have, but after the court case … They didn’t believe that I couldn’t remember. No one did. They convicted him anyway, but … I couldn’t go there again, giving statements, being questioned. Not being believed.’

‘Bastard!’ Jake exploded.

‘Jake! Where are you going?’ Undiluted fear gripped her as he yanked the kitchen door open.

‘Where the fuck do you think?’ he seethed, grabbing his car keys as he strode to the front door.

‘Dad …?’ Millie said shakily, part way down the stairs.

Jake’s step faltered. ‘Stay with your mother, Millie,’ he said throatily, then he pulled the front door open and slammed it hard behind him.

Forty-Six

‘Where’s he going?’ Millie asked, her voice a hoarse whisper.

‘I’m not sure.’ Coming back from the kitchen, Emily grabbed her bag from the peg and snatched up her own car keys.

‘Mum …’ Hearing the sob in her daughter’s voice as she reached for the front door, she stopped and spun around.

Millie’s eyes were wide, her face, free of make-up, that of a petrified child.

Her heart catching, Emily moved quickly towards her as she stepped falteringly down the stairs, yanking her into a firm embrace. ‘I have to go after him, Millie. Stay here,’ she said, breathing in the smell of her, the scent of her child, her flesh and blood. Her baby girl; she would always be that no matter how grown-up she was. She had to make her world safe.

Gulping back a knot of raw emotion, she pressed a kiss to the top of her head. ‘Call Ben. Tell him we need him to come home. And stay here until I ring you.’

Millie eased away