‘Get off of me!’ I yell. I try to fight him off but he’s too strong. ‘Oh, God, Tom. Stop, please.’ I’m resorting to begging. I just want this whole nightmare to end. I feel the energy seep away from me and Tom lets go of my arm.
‘You should never have gone poking around,’ says Tom. ‘I don’t want to hurt you, Clare, and there is still a way out of this.’
‘If it was money you wanted why didn’t you just ask? I could have helped you.’
‘And what a lovely gesture that would have been. Clare Tennison giving not only her husband handouts but her ex-boyfriend too.’ Tom is almost snarling. ‘I do have some pride, you know.’ His rapid mood swings frighten me.
‘So you and Martha hatched a plan to get the trust fund money and split it between you?’
‘You’re quite good at all this, but then that’s why you’re such a good solicitor.’ He takes a step closer.
‘How did you know she was Martha and not Alice?’
‘At the party. I’d gone up to use the bathroom because someone was in the downstairs toilet and her bedroom door was open. She was on her hands and knees looking for something. I thought it was an earring. I went to help her, but she was really quite rude, demanding I leave,’ says Tom. ‘She wouldn’t look at me and then I saw the contact lens box. She made the mistake of looking up at the box and then at me. I saw it straight away.’
‘Her eyes?’
‘Yeah. Well, one of them. She’d lost a contact lens and was trying to find it. When she looked up, she had one blue eye and one green eye. It was game over for her.’
‘And that’s what you two were talking about in the garden later?’
‘That’s right. She took a bit of persuading but she had no choice,’ says Tom. He smiles at me. ‘What do you think happened next?’
Jesus, he’s loving this. He has that smug little look on his face, the one he always has when he thinks he’s been particularly clever.
‘I don’t know. I’m not as smart as you,’ I say, going for the flattery angle.
Tom sighs and looks up to the dark sky in an exaggerated look of despair. ‘I had things I needed to repay. Not just the financial kind. I needed to repay you.’
‘Me?’
‘For our Oxford days. For loving Luke. For having the life with him that I wanted to have with you.’
‘I had no idea you felt like this,’ I say, genuinely shocked by the intensity of his words and emotions.
‘Of course you didn’t, you never fucking asked. I tried to tell you, but you always rejected me and made me feel this small.’ He holds up his finger and thumb millimetres apart. ‘Even tonight, when you have no one to turn to, you still turn away from me.’
He rests his hands on the railings and looks out over the water. ‘Course, this could all come down to Leonard. He has, after all, been cooking the books of the trust fund and creaming money out of it for his own needs.’
‘But it’s not Leonard, is it?’ I feel such a fool to have been taken in for a while with all the crap Tom told me. ‘Those files, they’re such fiction. You’ve made them all up. You knew I wouldn’t be able to understand them just at a glance like that. You knew I’d take your word for it.’
‘I’ll be honest with you, Clare. You and the money were two separate issues, which happened to dovetail quite nicely in the end.’
‘And you really think I want anything to do with you after all this? You can’t get away with it.’
‘I’ll give it a damn good try. Like I said, I have it pretty much covered.’ He pushes himself up from the side rail and takes a step closer to me.
‘Leave me alone.’
‘It can be good between us. You do know that, don’t you?’
‘Over my dead body.’
‘Tut, tut, you really shouldn’t say things like that.’
I go to walk away, to call his bluff, but he grabs me, pinching my broken arm at the top, which makes me squeal in pain. ‘You’re hurting me.’
‘Not as much as you’ve hurt me.’ He releases his grip a fraction. ‘Why you stay with Luke, I don’t know. He’s a freeloader. Sponging off you while he ponces around painting fucking pictures. What sort of job is that? You deserve better than him. He can’t be trusted. I showed you that photo of him and Martha. What more do I have to do?’
‘I don’t care. I love him. I don’t love you.’ And it’s true. Whatever has happened between Luke and Martha pales into insignificance after everything else that has happened. I love my husband and we’re strong enough to sort things out. I won’t let my family be broken, not without putting up a fight.