He kisses my head and pulls me closer. “Babe, when do I ever let you down?” I don’t answer, because this isn’t the same. I worry that his extreme optimism stems from a fear of losing me. I can’t afford to be unrealistic right now.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THEO
I’ve invited Jane to meet us at the hotel. I need somewhere private. You can’t really discuss murder openly in public.
She’s coming at ten o’ clock. Lilly is pacing back and forth with her phone in her hand. It’s been ringing all morning, and every time she sends it to voicemail. She’s twitchy and agitated, but well…she has good reason to be. Truth be told, it will be a miracle if we can pull this off. I can’t show any glimmer of doubt though. This plan can only succeed if Lilly is one hundred percent believable.
There’s a knock at the door. Lilly’s eyes dart to mine, uncertainty written all over her face.
I stop on my way to the door. I hold her shoulders and place a kiss on her forehead. “You can do this. Just hold onto the anger. Summon it. Remember, she has nothing on you. You own her. You have the power here, not her.”
She takes a deep breath and nods her head. She moves away, and takes a seat in the living area of the suite.
I open the door and come face to face with Jane Sampson. Her appearance has improved, no doubt due to her improved finances, but her features are still the battle hardened ones of a woman who has endured a hard life. No amount of money can cover up the filth that lays beneath. She’s wearing a maxi dress which flows around her ankles, but looks so at odds with the hard lines of her face. She purses her lips into a thin line as her eyes dart around the suite behind me.
I open the door, but say nothing. She steps past me, and her eyes immediately fall to Lilly. “You told her?” She sneers at me.
I nod. “Of course.”
“And here I was thinking you were too chivalrous to put your precious Lilly through any more heart ache.” She mocks with a sadistic smile.
I smirk at her. “You really don’t know your daughter at all do you?” She says nothing as her eyes flick between the two of us. Lilly fixes her with a hard stare, there’s no emotion. She looks at her mother much as you would look at an obsolete object.
“Jane.” She greets her, her voice cold. Jane doesn’t respond.
“Take a seat.” I gesture to the sofa opposite Lilly. She begrudgingly sits. I take a seat next to Lilly. I don’t touch her though. Jane needs to see Lilly as a stronger opponent. At the moment she see’s her as the child she once knew, innocent and at the mercy of others. Jane believes that Lilly has my protection, which of course she does. Her error is in thinking that Lilly needs my protection.
Yes, I could pay her to go away, but Lilly doesn’t want me to. She wants to deal with her. She wants her gone for good.
There’s along silence as they seem to size each other up. Jane’s worn features contrast heavily with Lilly’s blatant beauty. “You’ve always been a low life, but black mailing someone so that you won’t make accusations against your own children…well, that’s bad even for you.” Lilly looks her up and down like a piece of shit. Jane says nothing, just glares at Lilly across the coffee table. “Here is what is going to happen.” Lilly continues. “You are going to go, with the money that Theo has very kindly already given you. You are never going to come back, and you are going to forget that you have children, not that it should be too hard for you.” Her voice is icy and concise.
Jane laughs like some kind of mad hyena. “Why would I do that? I could finish you, and he will pay any price to protect you. I’m not stupid.” She snaps.
Lilly smirks at her. “You really think to frame Harry and I for something you did?” Silence. You could hear a pin drop. Lilly holds her gaze, never backing down. This is where the plan gets tricky. Can Lilly really make her mother think she killed her boyfriend? One slight falter, and this could all come crashing down around us. All she really needs to do is place a seed of doubt. Jane just needs to question the possibility, and she will have to walk away. She can’t accuse Lilly and Harry if there is a chance that she in fact killed him.
Shock ripples over Jane’s features before she starts to turn red. “How dare you! I did not kill him. I loved him.”
Lilly’s face is a picture of pure disgust. “That doesn’t change the facts. You killed him, and you made Harry and I dump the body. You made your teenage children dump the body. Why do you think we ran?”
“Don’t you think I would remember killing someone?” She says confidently.