‘I was drunk…’ Sadie says, rubbing her hands over her face. ‘I know it’s no excuse, but I was upset about Caro and I said some things I probably shouldn’t.’
‘So did Rupert from what I can see.’ Steely Emily is back, and I eye Sadie closely, scrutinising her face as if to check for clues that she is lying. ‘I want to know the whole conversation.’
‘I told you, this isn’t what you think. Rupert loves you. This is just…’ Sadie waves a hand towards the phone, before she turns and walks into the kitchen. ‘Emily, please listen to me. This is not what you think. You said yourself that someone has it in for you and Rupert.’
‘And I seem to recall both of you telling me that I was overreacting, that I was just being ridiculous.’
‘Well, I was wrong, I’m sorry,’ Sadie says, sharply. ‘Someone clearly does have it in for the two of you. Clearly, someone doesn’t think that you and Rupert should be together.’ Sadie lets her eyes fill with tears and takes a huge gulp from the glass in front of her. It looks like a Bloody Mary, and I watch as she swallows it down, before going to the fridge and pouring herself another one.
‘I think it’s pretty obvious that they do. And neither you nor Rupert would believe me when I told you that. You told me I was overreacting, that I was mad. This is real—’ I wave the mobile phone, ‘I know what I saw and what I heard.’
‘Taken out of context,’ Sadie says, ‘Emily, I am your friend. I’ve known Rupert for years, of course we love each other – as friends. Someone is trying to cause trouble, that’s all this is, and by reacting this way you’ve given them exactly what they want.’
I pause for a moment. Sadie does have a point – reacting this way gives whoever sent the video the response they were after – but I can still hear Rupert’s voice telling Sadie he loves her.
‘Maybe if you find it so easy to believe that Rupert would cheat on you, then perhaps your relationship isn’t as secure as you believe it to be,’ Sadie says gently, and I begin to feel the fight go out of me.
‘I don’t believe that for a second. Rupert and I are strong together, we love each other, but whoever is doing this…’ I break off, distracted by a shriek from upstairs.
‘Excuse me a moment.’ Sadie strides from the room, shouting the nanny’s name. I wait, sniffing at Sadie’s glass – it definitely is a Bloody Mary – and running my fingers over the shiny, black marble counter tops. I pause as I look over the vast American-style fridge, with magnets stuck all over it. I never would have put Sadie down as a woman who would stick magnets all over her fridge. There are pictures drawn by the children stuck on with magnetic letters, scribbles all showing ‘my family’, ‘my house’, ‘my dog’ – wishful thinking on someone’s part, as Sadie would never have a dog – and a shopping list, written in familiar handwriting.
I peer at the slip of paper, an unsettling feeling resting on my shoulders. The writing is familiar, but I just can’t place it; all I know is that it has awoken a creeping sense of dread. I close my eyes and breathe deeply, letting the scrawl sit in my mind’s eye, and then it comes to me.
The Christmas gift. The one that was left on the doorstep, the photograph of Rupert and Caro on their wedding day. Mags had come over to deliver my post, but Sadie had been there that day too. My name was written in gold pen across the top of the gift in this very handwriting, I am sure of it.
Shock makes my eyes ping open, and my heart starts to race. I slide my gaze across to the key hooks that are fixed to the wall next to the fridge. I step closer, reaching out, looping my fingers around the one at the very end. It’s my key – the spare key to my (our) house. I tug it from the hook, as things start to slowly, gradually click into place. The handwriting. The key. All this time Sadie has had access to our house. She knows what perfume Caro wore; what’s to stop her from walking in when no one is home and spritzing it around the bedroom, making me think that someone – Caro, even – had been in there? I think of the day I had found Lola lying broken in the driveway, my heart twisting as I picture her tiny face. That was the day we’d been invited to Amanda’s for lunch, the day she announced her pregnancy. Sadie had arrived late to the lunch, making some bitchy comment about how I had been early. Couldn’t she have waited for me to leave before hurting Lola, and then coming to lunch as if nothing had happened? I want to kick myself – she practically told me herself in the video, her arms looped around Rupert’s neck – ‘it should have been me’. I feel sick, hot, the room starting to spin a little and I sink into the nearest chair.
‘Darling, are you OK?’ I look up to see Sadie’s concerned face looming over me. I’m not sure if I am imagining it, but I think I see the corner of her mouth tug up into a little smile.
‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ I say after a moment, raising my eyes to her. ‘You did all of this.’
‘All of what? You haven’t been sipping out of my glass, have you?
