Page 70 of The Girlfriend

Laura eyed her warily, but didn’t speak.

She saw her phone, where she’d left it, and wondered if she could get to it and dial for help without being noticed.

But then, surely, Cherry would hear it being answered and she was very unsure about the girl’s state of mind.

Laura knew she should probably be trying to talk to her, reason with her or something, but she was nervous, didn’t know what she was dealing with.

Laura slowly opened up a cupboard, took out a glass, and slid it across the worktop. Cherry looked at it in pleasant surprise.

“Thanks. See, it’s not so hard. Being nice.

” She poured some juice. “You’re making Daniel miserable too, you know.

” She saw Laura’s eyes light up at the mention of her son and sighed impatiently.

“He doesn’t know I’m here, and he’s not currently in any physical condition to come over.

He’s asleep. ” Then Cherry added, to Laura’s look of alarm, “And he probably won’t wake for some time. ”

“What have you done to him?” Laura asked angrily.

Cherry stopped mid-drink. “You know, you should listen to yourself sometime. He’s a grown man. He doesn’t need his mummy interfering in his life.” She looked at her. “We make a good couple, he and I. I’m a good person. I’ve done nothing wrong. I worked hard for this.”

“So you admit it?” Laura said quietly.

“What?”

“That you set out to get Daniel. You picked him because of what he’s got.”

Cherry banged her glass on the table in anger. This woman was so narrow-minded, wasn’t prepared to see things from another’s point of view. Laura didn’t like the fact that she wanted to get on, to better herself.

Christ, poor people were allowed to think about money because they didn’t have any. “Oh, for God’s sake.” She walked over to the back doors and looked out. It was dark, but the garden lights had been left on.

Upset, Laura watched her, and unable to hold back any longer, she unleashed all her pent-up fear and worry.

Her voice wavered. “You say you’re a ‘good person.’ I’ve never heard anything so outrageous in my life.

You’re a conniving, manipulating liar. You’re only interested in one thing, and that’s what you can get for yourself. ”

Cherry tensed her shoulders. “No—”

“You’re nothing but a self-serving parasite—”

“No, I’m not—”

“. . . and my unfortunate son just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when he walked into that real estate agency—”

“Stop it—” Cherry put her hands over her ears.

“. . . and you are systematically ruining his life, and even your mother is embarrassed to call you her daught—”

“SHUT UP!”

Cherry’s scream hung in the air; for a moment, neither said anything.

Cherry tried to calm her breathing, control the impulse to fly at Laura, rip the self-satisfied and judgmental expression off the face of this privileged woman.

She concentrated on the garden, taking measured breaths and forcing back the fury that threatened to engulf her.

Shaking, she tensed her arms, bunching her hands into fists.

All of a sudden, Cherry was engulfed by sadness, a sense of defeat, which threatened to destabilize her. She’d offered Laura friendship, respect, had even been willing to form a mother-daughter bond. What had she gotten in return? Rejection and hostility. I will never fit in.

In anguish, Cherry leaned her hands against the window, and it was then she saw it. Right in the middle of the lawn. She looked again carefully, just to make sure she hadn’t made a mistake. It was definitely empty; the pane of glass had gone.

She turned.

“Laura, I’m sorry you still feel that way, but I don’t think you understand what I’m trying to say. Daniel and I love each other.” Before Laura could expostulate further, Cherry put her hand on the door handle.

“Do you mind if I just get some fresh air? I’m finding this all a little stressful.”

She unlocked the bifold door and folded out the first section. Then she took one step onto the patio. It was chilly, but the freshness sharpened her mind further, and there was something about the darkness that made her nerves alive with the moment.

Laura watched warily, her heart hammering against her rib cage.

The second she’d finished her tirade, she’d regretted her impulsiveness.

Cherry’s calmness was disquieting and now she’d gone into the garden.

What should Laura do? She weighed the possibility of slamming the door shut and locking it, but Cherry was still too close.

Cherry could turn in half a second and put a foot in the door—no, she’d never get it closed in time.

She took a step forward, half-thinking that this action might make Cherry move forward too, deeper into the garden and away from the door.

Cherry suddenly turned and slid the door open all the way back to the wall. “Come on, it’s a beautifully clear night,” she said, and gestured for Laura to step out.

Laura thought for a moment. If she followed Cherry out there and got her far enough into the garden, while maintaining enough distance, she could, maybe, race back into the house and lock her out there. She left the house and went outside, and Cherry started to walk across the lawn.

It’s like a miracle, thought Cherry, as if it was meant to be. That hole, right in the middle of the garden. Laura could make her own accident.

It was the kind of thing that could easily happen, even if she wasn’t there. Cherry knew she had to make Laura angry again, as that was when she got upset, careless.

“What if you were to offer me something to make me stay away?” Cherry made her way a little farther toward the hole in the ground as she spoke. Not too fast. Little steps, little steps. She smiled to herself when she heard Laura follow.

“You want money?” said Laura, breathless with outrage. “Money to stay away from Daniel? You must be mad. I pay you off and then you tell him it was all my idea? Do you think I’m stupid?”

No, not stupid, thought Cherry, just nicely distracted.

She walked a bit farther, as if mulling over what Laura had said.

“I wouldn’t do that. I’d leave and neither of you would see me again.

” She’d gotten as near as she dared without making Laura suspicious.

Laura was quite close now, only a couple of yards away.

She needed to circle her now, get behind her.

Then she would run at her so she’d stagger back and have her accident.

An unexpected stumble and a tragic fall to the basement below.

Then Cherry would just go home, get back into bed.

Wake up with Daniel and wait for the news, and she wouldn’t have laid a finger on her.

She started to maneuver her way around Laura. “Or I could just tell Daniel that it’s not working out, I’ve met someone else.”

Laura’s stomach twisted. “Don’t. Don’t do that. Just leave.”

“Let’s make it a hundred grand. No, two. That’s peanuts to you.”

“Please. I’m asking you now. Just get out of my house.”

“If I disappeared, that run of bad luck might stop. What’s it worth, Laura?”

Laura was shaking now, pleading .

“Leave me alone. You say you want to be friends—that’s what I wanted, right at the beginning. That’s what I tried to do.”

Cherry was now almost directly behind Laura.

All she had to do was move a tiny bit more toward the house and she’d be in the right position.

She couldn’t walk it; she had to invisibly shift from one foot to the next as she spoke.

Undetectable, minuscule movements. She began to edge backward, giving herself enough of a run up.