Page 16 of Don't Believe A Word

As Anna’s eyes rounded, Astrid laughed and said, ‘Never underestimate those Winters women, is my advice. They’ve always been as canny as they come and twice as shrewd, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Lottie’s playing you from the grave. It’s the kind of thing she’d have a lot of fun with.’

Amused by that, Cristy said, ‘Does that mean you don’t believe in the story Sadie’s unearthed?’

Astrid shrugged. ‘From what Anna’s told me about it, and what I knew of Lottie, I’d say it probably contains elements of truth, but exactly what those elements are …’

Unable not to notice David leaving the room with Juliette, Cristy forced herself to listen as Anna said, ‘If you’re thinking Lottie set this up, remember she died suddenly, so there was no time …’

‘But you don’t know when she did it,’ Astrid pointed out. ‘Listen, all I’m saying is I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot more to this story than you might think.’

‘As if we don’t already think that,’ Anna muttered.

Astrid said to Cristy, ‘It’s interesting, certainly, that the Winters sisters chose to come here twenty-odd years ago. It can’t have been long after Sadie was found on the beach – if we’re presuming that part of the story is real …’

When she didn’t continue, Cristy prompted her to finish her thought.

Astrid smiled and her voice was a little slurred as she said, ‘Speaking as a member of the Gaudion family … We know how easy it is to keep secrets on this island, don’t we? Your last podcast proves that. In fact, there’s nowhere better, given that the whole place is practically built on them.Nullas quaestiones, nihil mentitur,or something like that.’

‘What does that mean?’ Anna queried.

‘Ask no questions, told no lies,’ Cristy provided.

‘It’s the unofficial motto in these parts,’ Astrid explained. ‘So where better for two wealthy women to relocate when planning to pass off a small child as their own?’

Refraining from saying that they’d already figured that part of it out, Cristy watched David come back into the kitchen, grab a bottle of wine and disappear again.

Distracted by her phone, she saw it was a family What’sApp from both her children who she hadn’t yet spoken to this year. ‘I need to take this,’ she told Astrid, and after asking Hayley and Aiden to give her a moment she headed through to the summer room.

Once comfortably seated with the noise of the party barely audible through the closed door, she broke into a smile to seeHayley’s and Aiden’s cherished faces on the screen – although neither, she realized, was looking particularly happy.

‘How are you?’ she asked. ‘Isn’t it a bit early in LA for you to be calling now?’ Even as she said the words her heart gave a jolt of unease. ‘What’s happened?’ she asked before either of them could speak. ‘You’re OK, are you?’

‘We’re fine,’ Hayley assured her, ‘but you might need to be sitting down for this.’

‘I already am,’ Cristy told her.

White-faced and clearly not celebrating, Hayley said, ‘Marley’s had the baby.’

Cristy’s insides turned cold. Marley, the unpredictable, irrational child bride who’d stolen Cristy’s husband and wrecked her family, and who’d turned out to be quite unlike anyone Cristy had ever known, had given birth to Matthew’s child. Hayley and Aiden now had a half-brother or -sister.

Given her children’s expressions, Cristy’s first thought was that there was something wrong with the newborn, until Aiden said, ‘Dad’s not allowed to see it.’

‘Notallowed?’ Cristy echoed incredulously.

‘It’s a boy,’ Hayley continued. ‘Two weeks early, but he’s OK and so is Marley, apart from the brain hiccup that’s making her keep Dad out of the room. He’s going nuts, shouting at people, demanding his rights, and then he got into a fight with a security guard.’

‘Someone called the cops,’ Aiden ran on, ‘and he’s been arrested.’

‘Arrested!’Cristy choked, certain she couldn’t have heard right.

Both children nodded.

‘Where is he now?’ she asked.

‘In some cell, I guess,’ Aiden answered miserably. ‘Scott, Marley’s dad, is talking to a lawyer to try and get him out, but, Mum, we really don’t want to be here any more.’

‘I’ve checked flights,’ Hayley said, before Cristy could respond, ‘and there’s availability on one tomorrow night – well, tonight I guess, it’s three in the morning here. It’s just massively expensive so we were hoping …’

‘We feel really bad bailing on Dad,’ Aiden cut in, ‘but we thought we’d be one less thing for him to worry about if we weren’t here any more. And you know we didn’t really want to come anyway.’