Ali nods. “You wouldn’t have noticed, but knowing what was going on between them, I could see it a mile off.”
“They could have been messaging anyone,” reasons Rachel.
Ali shakes her head. “When I asked Paige what she’d done that she wasn’t particularly proud of, she typed a message on her phone. Jack’s screen lit up and he smiled as he read it.”
Rachel dreads to think what it might have said. “That could be pure coincidence,” she says.
“When I pushed you to share what you and Jack were getting up to in the bedroom, Paige told you to keep it to yourself.”
Had she?
“And she refused to look at him or talk to him for the rest of the night,” adds Ali. “As if she was surprised that you had such an active sex life.”
“Did she know you were on to them?” asks Rachel.
“Well, I assumed that Jack would have told her, but she seemed shocked when I confronted her on the beach this morning.”
“That’s what you were talking about?”
Ali nods with a confused expression. “She told you I’d spoken to her?”
“She said that she was warning you off Jack,” says Rachel.
Ali shakes her head. “I wanted to give her the same chance that I’d given Jack: to end it or I’d tell you. But she just laughed and turned everything around on me. Telling me that I’d gotten it all wrong. That the only reason I was making something out of nothing was because I wanted Jack for myself. It seems that, like you, she presumed that something might be going on between us.”
For a split second, Rachel is comforted by the loyalty Paige had shown in her attempt to save her and Jack’s marriage, but then she is hit by the harsh reality of it not being her relationship with Jack that Paige had been trying to protect.
“What were you doing there? On the beach.”
“I knew she was going to meet him,” says Ali. “Do you remember how they mentioned going for a run, so casually, over lunch yesterday?”
Rachel frowns. “And you jumped straight on it and said you’d go too.”
“To try and stop them from having time alone,” says Ali animatedly. “I knew what they were up to and I just couldn’t stand by and let it happen.”
Rachel thinks about how Jack had manipulated her into not bringing her trainers, how Paige had nonchalantly asked if he’d already left, and her body language as Ali had spoken to her on the beach.
“I followed Jack down to the beach and knew she’d be close behind, and sure enough, twenty minutes later, they met.”
“But maybe they just happened to bump into each other,” says Rachel, clutching at straws.
“Have you not heard anything I’ve been saying?” asks Ali, not unkindly. “They’d arranged it like that. They kissed when they met and held hands as they walked.”
“But Paige said you and Jack were together on the beach.”
Ali laughs wryly. “She would, wouldn’t she?”
“So where did Jack go?” asks Rachel.
“Well, as per usual, he scooted off, like the spineless wonder he is,” says Ali bitterly.
“And he hadn’t told Paige you were on to them?”
Ali shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so, otherwise she would have been better prepared. It was only when we were out there”—she tilts her head in the direction of the cliffs—“that she seemed to realize that I would follow through on my threat to tell you.”
“Which is probably why she reacted the way she did,” says Rachel.
Ali nods and a tear escapes onto her cheek. She raises a shaking hand to wipe it away.
“I thought she was going to throw me off the edge. She had me by the shoulders and went to push me.” Her shoulders cave in and her chest convulses as she sobs. “I’m sorry,” she cries. “It’s really shaken me up.”
Rachel refrains from going to her, a part of her still not convinced that she’s telling the truth. Yet how can she not be?
Tears spring to Rachel’s eyes as she realizes that all the time she thought Paige was looking out for her, feigning concern that something was going on between Ali and Jack, she was only ever protecting her own interests. She clenches and unclenches her hands, desperate to feel something in her numb stupor.
“Does Will know…？” she whispers. “Does he know what’s going on?”
Ali shakes her head. “I haven’t told him because I was hoping that Jack would come to his senses. I thought if Paige was out of the picture, we could go back to how the four of us used to be and I didn’t want Will to lose respect for his brother. Though, I’m beginning to regret that now because if I’d been honest from the outset, he wouldn’t have insisted she come to the wedding, and we wouldn’t find ourselves in this situation.”