Trust Me - Sheryl Browne Page 0,94

semi-light, her mind instantly conjuring up her sister’s face, her violet eyes staring at her through the window of her dreams, the accusation in her gaze, the warning Emily had sensed there. But might it be that in interpreting the dream as some kind of prophecy, she herself was making it happen? Because she felt she deserved to lose Jake, to lose everything, just as her sister had? She recalled again the awful things she’d said to her, as she had countless times since the day that came back incessantly to haunt her. ‘He doesn’t love you. He laughs at you,’ she heard herself screaming. ‘We both do, Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes with her nose always stuck in a book. He loves me!’

‘Why?’ she remembered Kara screaming back through her tears. ‘Because you’re different? Unique? You think you’re the only one who can give in to her wild side, don’t you? You’re wrong, Emily! We can all do what we want on a whim without giving a shit about anyone. The difference between you and me is I care about the people around me too much to hurt them!’

‘Right, as you’ve just fucking demonstrated,’ Emily had sneered.

‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ Kara had stared murderously up at her from the hall. ‘The more you rebel, because you think you have some God-given right to do what you like, the more I have to be perfect. And I’m sick of it.’

Emily’s heart wrenched as it all came flooding painfully back. They’d been so busy fighting each other, they hadn’t realised that the man they’d thought they loved was using them, pitting them against each other, getting his perverted kicks from it.

Emily had wanted to take her words back. She’d never had the chance. She’d apologised over and over, for years in her dreams, every time Kara slipped into her mind, but she couldn’t undo what had happened. She needed to stop. Punishing herself wouldn’t bring her sister back. She would probably never stop feeling guilty, but she had to stop dwelling on the past and concentrate on the here and now. Someone had tried to take away her ability to function by drugging her, but she would function. If it took every ounce of strength in her body, she would fight. The only other option, as Edward had pointed out, was to let the malevolent person who was trying to harm her and her family win, and that actually wasn’t an option.

She had to talk to Jake, swallow her pride and try to find a way to move forward with him, together on some level, for the sake of their children.

Thinking she would ask him to go for a walk where they could talk out of earshot of Ben, she tugged on her tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt, pushed her feet into her pumps and made her way quietly along the landing. She didn’t want to wake Ben. He’d come home early, while they’d still been out, taking Edward home and making sure the village hall was secure. He hadn’t said very much, going up to bed looking sullen instead. His date hadn’t gone well, Emily had assumed, and promised herself to make time to talk to him properly. She wanted him to believe he could open up to her, however angry he might be feeling.

Reaching the lounge, she stopped, heart sinking, as she heard Jake’s phone ring. A patient? she wondered, and then clamped down hard on her next thought.

‘Jake Merriden?’ she heard him say, having clearly snatched the phone straight up.

A chill of apprehension running through her, Emily listened for a second and then tentatively pushed the door open, her stomach lurching as Jake’s alarmed gaze shot to hers. Her stomach turned over as he said, ‘Joyce, you need to slow down, I can’t hear you.’

Getting to his feet, the phone pressed to his ear, he appeared to be searching for his trainers. ‘What? When?’ His eyes slid in gratitude to Emily as, seeing them where he’d obviously kicked them off by the coffee table, she went to grab them and pass them to him.

‘What’s happened?’ Ben appeared by the door, looking as if he hadn’t had much sleep either.

Emily moved quickly across to him. ‘I’m not sure,’ she whispered, though she guessed from the urgent tone of Jake’s voice that something had. Something bad.

‘And he didn’t say where?’ Jake dropped to the sofa to shove his feet into his trainers. Standing again, he raked a hand