Page 53 of The Half Sister

‘Oh, you know...’

‘No, I don’t,’ she says.

He turns to look at her as he unfastens his tie. ‘I’m detecting a little jealousy,’ he says.

Kate can’t help but flinch at the irony of his statement.

‘Or is it regret?’ he asks, smiling.

‘Regret at what?’ she says sharply.

‘That you turned down my invitation to go for a drink on a lovely summer’s evening.’ He looks at her with raised eyebrows. ‘You should have come – you would have enjoyed it.’

She wouldn’t bet on it. ‘Who was there?’

He turns away from her again and goes into the en suite bathroom. ‘Oh, you know, just the usual lot.’

If Katehadn’tseen her husband flirting with a woman in a pub, if shehadn’tknown it was the woman who was causing the destruction of her family, then perhaps she wouldn’t have noticed the flippant, ‘Oh you know...’ A sure sign that he’s on the back foot.

‘Who? Ben, Jamie...?’ she asks.

‘Yeah,’ he calls out from the bathroom. ‘They came a bit later, along with a few of the others.’

‘So, what? You were a Norman No-mates until they arrived,’ she says, piling on the pressure.

These were not the jealous thoughts she was used to having. This was not the kind of marriage they had. Kate prided herself on being a laid-back wife, at one with her husband’s career, friends and social life, on the rare occasion it didn’t include her. Whilst her girlfriends bickered and bitched about their partners going out without them, berating them when they dared to return later than 10 p.m., she would smugly declare that she trusted Matt with every bone in her body.

Now, she can’t shake off the ominous feeling that her complacency might be about to turn around and bite her on the behind.

‘No, a couple of us were there,’ he says. ‘Including the new junior reporter. You should have come; you’d have liked her. She reminds me of you when you were first starting out.’

Kate’s head feels as if it’s about to explode. She doesn’t know whether she feels relieved or even more suspicious. Jess is the girl heemployed?

‘How’s she getting on?’ Kate asks.

‘Really good,’ he says. ‘She’s got a good nose for a story.’

‘What was her name again?’ Even she can hear the forced nonchalance in her voice. She holds her breath, waiting for him to answer.

‘Jess,’ he says. And in that moment, she flips the resounding question of,What the hell isheplaying at?toWhat the hell issheplaying at?There’s nothing to suggest that he knows anything more than he’s letting on, but it’s too much of a coincidence to think that Jess justhappenedto get a job with Matt.

‘You okay?’ he asks, as he comes back in and lies on top of the bed naked. ‘You look a bit pale.’

She nods, consumed by the unsettling feeling that Jess is up to something. There’s no doubt in Kate’s mind that she knows what she’s doing – the problem is, what is it?

Matt reaches across and pulls her into him, but although nothing’s changed between them, she can’t help but feel that everything’s different. If she doesn’t recoil from him physically, she ashamedly shirks from him emotionally, knowing it’s not his fault, but blaming him all the same.

‘You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?’ he asks, as if able to sense it.

‘Of course,’ she says, whilst wondering where she’d even begin.

As soon as she hears Matt’s breathing change, she slides herself out from underneath his arm, looking back to check he’s asleep. She pads quietly to his side of the bed and carefully unplugs his phone. Their pin codes for everything have always been the date of their wedding anniversary, and although they’ve often joked that they’re a criminal’s dream, right now she’s thankful that he hasn’t changed it.

There’s just enough light filtering in from outside for Kate to make her way into the living room, avoiding the brutal corners of the coffee table, to sit on the sofa. She opens up Matt’s emails and runs her eyes down the list, waiting for something or someone to jump out. She tells herself she doesn’t know what she’s looking for, except she does. As her eyes dart over anonymous names and meaningless subject headings, she can no longer tell whether her stomach is churning with nausea because she’s pregnant or because she’s doing something she never believed she’d do.

Kate is immediately drawn to the numerous emails from ‘[email protected]’, which prove that she works with Matt. Seeing the evidence that he was telling the truth in black and white is a relief. The content is innocent enough, as they bounce back and forth on news items and feature ideas, but they tell her nothing more of who Jess really is, or where she’s from. Kate’s eyes trail down the list, looking for something more.

She searches for Jess’s name and finds more correspondence under the subject heading of ‘Junior Reporter’. Sent from a personal email address, Kate is taken aback by the image that fills the screen as she clicks on the attached CV, shocked to be face to face with the woman who calls herself her half sister. There’s a familiarity about her dirty blonde shoulder-length hair, wide-set eyes and straight nose, but Kate tries to convince herself that it’s because they’ve already met. She will not allow the resemblance to Lauren to infiltrate her brain.

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