Keep My Secrets by Elena Wilkes (management books to read .txt) 📕

then back at the photograph. She sees herself in that face, around the mouth and chin. Her heart clenches with another emotion: she sees she has Martin’s eyes. She traces a finger down her cheek. ‘Oh my god, Jack. You don’t know what this means.’

‘I can imagine.’

‘You were always so kind to me. I don’t know what I would have done without—’

But he puts a hand on the photograph. ‘Please stop. I should have done more, had more balls. I was spineless. I know you must hate me. I caused you years of pain.’

She looks across at him. She can see how awful he feels.

‘After everything that happened, I think I was in shock for a long time…’ She speaks slowly, choosing her words carefully. ‘It was as though I couldn’t think, couldn’t feel stuff. And then, I have to admit, I was angry: beyond furious, particularly the way Peter and Vanessa stopped me from seeing Chloe after they promised I could. But you weren’t to blame for their actions, Jack. You were at the mercy of them in the same way that I was. Think of us – we were bits of kids, that’s all! How could we have taken on Peter? A man that worked for Children’s Services, for pity’s sake! There was no way!’

Jack shakes his head angrily. ‘You know what really gets me? There he was with a job like that; with power like that, all those people falling over themselves to hang on his every bloody word – and yet at home, what had he got? A son he could walk past in the street and a step-daughter he obsessed over.’ His face goes hard and dark.

‘And the danger you were in from those people, Jack! What happened to you?’

He looks out of the window. ‘Well, I’m still here and breathing, so I clearly have my uses.’ His mouth sets in a grim line and he shakes away whatever thoughts have gathered. ‘You remember that address you went to… Sean’s house?’ Frankie nods. ‘Well, I picked up the packages from there. My dad thought he’d paid my debt and that would be it – Of course my dad is naive about these things – The truth is I’m caught in their net until the day I die.’

Frankie shakes her head, appalled.

‘Which is one of the reasons I’m here now.’

‘Why? What do you mean?’

Jack hears the panic. ‘Hey… No… I didn’t want to scare you, it’s just—’

‘What’s the matter?… Has something happened? It’s not Chloe is it?’

‘No, she’s absolutely fine. She’s happy. She’s a very together kid.’

‘So what is it?’

‘It’s my dad, he’s—’ He breaks off, shrugging.

Frankie looks at him. ‘What?’

‘He’s got problems. Serious problems. It got so bad that he and Vanessa split up.’

‘But I thought…?’ She replays the earlier phone conversation. She had no inkling.

‘Things with him got worse after you left. I did tell you I thought that might happen, didn’t I?’ Jack looks out through the windshield at the empty street. ‘High-powered job, loads of stress and totally unsuited to that kind of work. He was a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode.’ He blinks away at the houses. ‘I think he had some kind of breakdown when Chloe was about five. That was the catalyst for it. He was hospitalised on and off for the next five years and then they finally parted. I got to see a bit more of my dad then. It was nice, y’know?’ He looks across with a sad smile. ‘Without Vanessa controlling him. I got my dad back. But then—’

‘Go on.’

‘It was the obsession with Martin Jarvis; it brought them back together: Jarvis came up for parole. It’s been like a wound for them both that would never heal.’ He looks at her. ‘But Chloe has been like a bright light in the middle of their darkness. She’s kept them going. They’ve told her she’s adopted; I don’t think she’s asked many questions. She thinks her dad died.’ He shakes his head. ‘They don’t want her to know the truth.’

‘And me?’ she blurts suddenly. ‘What have they said about me?’

‘I don’t know.’

He looks away but she knows he’s lying. The thought crucifies her. She suddenly can’t bear to hear any more. Her hands come up to her eyes to try and shut it all out.

‘Hey… Frankie.’ His hand reaches out for hers again and she feels the comforting warmth. ‘Stop punishing yourself.’

She nods, knowing all the time that she can’t.

His palm flinches for a second and he takes a breath.

‘Listen to me, Frankie. I have to tell you what’s going on.’

‘What?’ Her heart thuds.

‘My dad, like I said: he’s not thinking straight; he’s not in his right mind. He lost his job, his friends, his self-respect. Jarvis comes up for parole, and then Vanessa’s back on the scene—’ He pauses. ‘Things happened. He ended up in court and got sent down.’

‘Oh my god!’

‘I don’t want to talk about what he did, but he blames Jarvis and he blames you, Frankie. He thinks that somehow none of these things would have happened if it weren’t for you two.’ He shifts uncomfortably in his seat. ‘He’s seriously unwell. I’m petrified he’s out of control. His thoughts, the stuff he’s doing – he’s not right. I can’t go anywhere near the police, not in my position, but I’m really, really shit scared.’

‘How scared?’ Her hand comes to her heart. ‘I mean, is he really that unwell? Is he dangerous?’

Jack nods slowly. ‘Dangerous enough for me to believe he’ll try and kill Martin Jarvis.’

Chapter Twenty-One

The journey back home is a blur.

Would Peter do such a thing?

The craziness whirls around and around in her head.

Martin’s face… Martin’s face keeps coming back to her. He’s grinning; that infectious playful grin that even now wipes out everything and sends her stomach somersaulting. How she wishes she could hate him cleanly and sharply, like a razor blade slicing through skin – the pure, unadulterated loathing that Peter and Vanessa feel – but she