‘That’s just more lies,’ I said, my heart hammering in my chest.
‘I just want rid of her now, Clare – we don’t need this. I can get the money through the business. I’ll pay it back, just siphon some off – I’m in charge now.’
I was alarmed at how Dan was so quick to try and buy his way out of this. But perhaps having watched his mum remove Carmel and Marilyn from our lives, he figured he could just click his fingers and do the same with Ella.
‘No.’
‘But we can borrow it.’
‘Dan, no. Even if she breaks up with Jamie and they divorce, she’ll still be in our lives and back every few months for more money. She could hold this over us for life.’
‘But if we do it now, it will buy us time.’
‘By paying her you’ll make yourself look guilty if she ever went to the police.’
‘No. If she went to the police, I’d tell them she blackmailed me – that’s illegal, and I’ll have proof.’
‘Just say no. We don’t have the money and—’
‘I… I told her I’d pay her.’
‘Oh Dan, you idiot.’ I wanted to cry. That was almost half my annual salary. We couldn’t afford it and what made it even worse was that I’d feel like I was working to keep Ella in manicures and shoes.
‘Look, leave it with me, Clare. She wants me to drive her to the airport, doesn’t want to say goodbye to Jamie – she’s going to an audition. Apparently some TV bigwig saw her on Instagram and they want to make her into a star – sounds a bit far-fetched if you ask me.’
So she was sticking with the story? I’d played a trick on her and she was now even turning that around and making it work for her.
‘Dan, you can’t take her to the airport.’
‘I can – I’ll get rid of her, tell her to keep quiet or she won’t get anything – then put the money in her bank next week when we’re home.’
I wanted her on that plane as much as Dan did. But alone in the car she’d tell him what else she knew about the Taylor family, specifically me – and that couldn’t happen. She could have told him about me when she accused him of improper behaviour, but she didn’t – she wanted to destroy us individually, then leave. Telling Dan about me and Jamie would be her parting shot. Mission accomplished, we’d all be torn apart.
‘I could take her?’ I said.
‘You aren’t insured, and you’ve never driven abroad. To be honest, I’m not sure she’d want you to take her anyway.’
I went cold. ‘Me?’ I laughed.
‘Yeah. Like you’d have something to hide.’ He shrugged, not believing for a minute that dependable old Clare had ever done anything he didn’t know about.
‘Yes, she’s quite the drama queen, isn’t she?’ I said and called the kids for lunch.
* * *
‘Darling, do you have a minute?’ Joy asked, as the children and I ate lunch in the kitchen. My heart sank – what did she know?
‘Okay,’ I said, finishing my sandwich.
‘I’ll be in the sitting room,’ she answered.
I couldn’t tell from her demeanour if meeting her in the sitting room was a bad thing, or a gin thing. Either way, I wanted to know what she had to say, so, leaving Violet in charge, I went into the next room, where Joy sat in her 1950s-style beachwear.
‘I had to get you on your own, dear,’ she said, beckoning me in and making a movement with her hand that told me to shut the door.
‘What is it?’ I sat down in one of the velvet armchairs.
‘It’s about Ella. And I don’t know… what I mean is, I don’t know if this is a thing—’ Joy braced herself. ‘Look, I don’t want you to overreact when I tell you this, I want you to be calm…’
‘Okay.’ All I could think was, What the hell is she about to tell me? Could I take any more?
I was glad I was sitting down because by now my legs would have buckled under me.
‘When I saw Ella and Dan talking in the garden, I was confused, and intrigued, as you can imagine,’ she started. ‘And I overheard them talking. Clare, I think she’s accusing Dan of something… not very nice.’
I might have known Joy would pick up on this. What could I say? Probably better to hear it from me than Ella, so I told her what Dan had told me about Ella’s accusations of impropriety.
‘Oh, Clare, Dan wouldn’t… I mean that’s not our Dan.’