‘Yes…’
‘She told you?’
I nodded, but he couldn’t look at me, and I didn’t blame him.
‘She seems hell-bent on destroying me, Dan… but we have to think about the family and forgive. We can move on from this.’
‘Do you think so?’ He looked hopeful.
He put his head in his hands and I sat there a while, thanking God that Freddie was asleep and Alfie and Violet were distracted by a game of ball. Dan eventually emerged, running his hands through his hair, looking distraught.
‘None of it’s true, Clare. I never tried to touch her.’
This threw me; what had she said to him?
‘What?’ I tried to work out how to approach this without giving anything away. ‘What exactly did she say?’ I asked.
He was slowly shaking his head. ‘That I’d tried to kiss her, that I touched her inappropriately, that I’d said…’
‘You’d love to see her naked?’ I offered. Had she not even mentioned me and Jamie?
He looked up at me. ‘God, did she tell you I said that?’ He was horrified.
‘Yeah.’
‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘She’s invented all this and threatened to tell you… but she’d already told you?’
I nodded. It looked like Ella was playing both of us.
‘But, Clare, that isn’t all… she’s saying it’s harassment. She’s threatening me with the police!’
‘Shit.’ She certainly knew how to turn the screws.
Violet and Alfie were wandering back, so Dan gestured for me to stand up so we could talk out of earshot. Freddie was on my knee, so I put him on my shoulder, my heart was racing.
I struggled to get up. Dan didn’t help by taking a sleeping Freddie off me, like he usually would. He didn’t even seem to register; he was pacing up and down, his hand over his mouth, his eyes darting everywhere.
‘She can’t call the police for something like that… can she?’ I asked. ‘And none of it’s true so she won’t have any proof.’
‘God knows what she can do to me, she could tell the police anything. A man can’t say or do anything these days without some woman threatening the police.’
‘Wow,’ I said, sounding like Ella. ‘I can’t believe you just said that.’
‘You know what I mean… and she said she’s telling Jamie, and Mum and Dad.’ He looked dreadful, pale and fidgety, like he was going to be sick.
I didn’t know what to say, what to think. Did I believe Ella or Dan? Let’s face it, both had shown they were capable of lying to get what they wanted.
‘Tell me the truth?’ I asked urgently. ‘Is there anything she can get you on… did you ever do or say something that could be misinterpreted?’
He sighed. ‘She’s an attractive girl. I may have glanced at her, might have given her the odd compliment, but touching her in an inappropriate way? God, no!’
‘I suppose it’s your word against hers, and if you’re telling the truth you’re okay,’ I said bitterly. I was angry at Ella for causing this and angry at myself for not completely trusting my husband, but most of all at Dan who’d been bloody stupid and possibly put himself in the way of trouble with an innocent remark. I’d told him I didn’t trust her, but he wouldn’t have it and now he could see how manipulative and deceitful she was. But it may already be too late.
‘I don’t know what to do.’ He was panicking. ‘What if she doesn’t stop, and continues to accuse me when we’re back home? Even if I could talk her out of going to the police, she could hold this over me forever…’
Welcome to my world, I thought.
‘She’s trouble,’ I said. ‘And it looks like she and Jamie are on the rocks too.’ I didn’t tell him why.
He didn’t ask either. I suppose it was inevitable, a woman like Ella didn’t hang around.
‘Well, good riddance, it’s for the best. Jamie’s like her puppy dog. She saw him coming, didn’t she?’
‘Yes,’ I sighed.
He looked at me, hesitated, then went ahead, ‘Thing is – she said if I paid her £10k she’d keep quiet, go away, and we’d never hear from her again.’
‘You can’t let her blackmail us, we can’t afford that kind of money,’ I gasped, feeling like I was suddenly in a gangster movie. People in my world didn’t ask for £10k to keep quiet. That was a hell of a lot of money.
Dan, as always, wasn’t listening, he was lost in his own thoughts. ‘I wasn’t sure whether to believe her – I thought as she was married to Jamie, she’d be with us a while, but if they aren’t working out?’
‘No, Dan. We don’t have the money.’
‘But it would be worth it just to get her off my back.’
‘But if you’re innocent…’
‘It doesn’t matter. Like you said, it’s her word against mine and I don’t stand a chance. And she says there’s other stuff too – things about other members of the family.’
‘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.