Page 125 of The Chalet Girl

‘Poor Jenny.’

‘I know.’ Cassie shook her head. ‘She was so shocked– and uncomfortable. Lexy begged her to keep schtum and not leave, but I think she’d made Jenny’s life so difficult before that– she wasn’t the nicest boss…’

Emme nodded. That much she knew.

‘Jenny knew it was game over for her job. A secret like that would weigh too heavily on her.’

‘And Lexy was panicking about losing her nanny,’ Emme said wryly.

‘Plus Bill finding out, you’d hope…’ quipped Cassie.

‘So that’s why she was pleading. That’s why Jenny looked angry.’

‘Looked angry?’ Cassie asked.

‘I saw some of it on the doorbell footage, but there was no sound.’

‘Jenny just needed to get back to the kids, so when she came back with the buckets she was totally in bits. She knew this terrible thing about the kids’ mother, and she knew it wasn’t going to end well for her…’

Emme shook her head.FuckingTristan. Fucking uptight Lexy Harrington. She wondered where in the apartment they were screwing when Jenny walked in.

‘That night, after Jenny had put the kids to bed, Lexy hardened. She gave her an ultimatum. Keep it quiet or she’d fire her. Jenny had no option. She couldn’t lie. She’s so sweet. She had to walk. She handed in her notice there and then. She just wanted to get home to Jon.’

‘What did Bill think?’

‘I don’t think Bill ever found out why she went so suddenly. Who knows what Lexy told him. Jenny just wantedto be out of that toxic place. I mean, Jenny said Lexy was a nightmare for months before that. I thought my family here were crazy…’

Emme shuddered.

‘What a bitch.’ Emme started to cry. ‘What an utter bastard!’

Cassie rubbed her back. Vivian Steinherr walked past and stopped in alarm to see a customer not looking happy.

‘Everything OK?’ she asked Cassie with a sympathetic smile, trying to gauge Emme’s face. Cassie nodded as if to say it would be OK, and Vivian moved along to meet and greet diners.

Emme felt even more ridiculous to have Vivian bear witness to her tears. It served her right. She remembered what Lexy had said to her in the laundry, the night of the Kivvi Christingle.

‘Be wary of anyone who can break three hearts in one callous hit.’

She meant Vivian, Anastasia and herself, of course. He hadn’t broken Emme’s heart then. Not yet.

And Tristan. What a shit. His sunny FaceTime calls from Stellenbosch had all been such bullshit. She hung her head.

‘I can’t believe I was excited about spending Christmas with him.’ She shuddered. ‘I feel sick.’

‘I’m so sorry babe, it’s utterly shit. They’re as awful as each other.’

Back in room 319 of the Steinherrhof, Emme paced in circles, trying to work out what to do: Bill would be home by now– should she go back and tell him why she had fled? Should she tell him about Lexy and Tristan? Should she hand in her notice? She couldn’t work in that family withthat atmosphere any more. Poor Jenny having to walk in on that. But poor Jenny wasn’t hooked on the guy she’d walked in on, fucking her boss. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream.How dare they?

Tristan phoned on FaceTime, a fourth missed call, and she ignored it, not knowing what to say or how to coherently tell him to fuck off.

What do I do?

With Bill home, the kids were not abandoned. She would take the weekend to work out what to do. Maybe Lexy would have to start looking after her own kids.

The phone rang again. Tristan on FaceTime, followed by a worried text.

Are you OK babe? Got a bad feeling x