Page 44 of A Game of Lies

‘No, no, no, no, no!’

It’s not clear if he’s responding to her suggestion, or to the prospect of what’s under the purple cloth. Angharad weighs up her choices. If Ryan keeps watching, he is likely to become even more distressed. But if she turns it off without his agreement … She cannot win.

‘Ready?’ Aliyah says. Her fellow contestants nod, and Aliyah whips off the cloth. The items are eclectic. A pregnancy test, a single red rose, a condom, a birthday card, a wedding ring, a twenty-pound note and a pair of stockings. Despite herself, Angharad, who does Sudoku every morning to keep her brain sharp, finds herself leaning forward to see what can be gleaned from these mundane yet supposedly significant items.

Ryan’s forehead glistens, one knee bouncing up and down so fast it becomes a vibration. Angharad can feel it through the sofa, and for the first time since she took Ryan in she feels a kernel of unease. There is not a malicious bone in Ryan’s body, Angharad is quite sure of that. But Ryan is not himself right now.

Ceri’s eyes flit to the other end of the tray. The money? The birthday card? It irritates Angharad that she’s been sucked in, that she’s positing theories about which object belongs to whom. The pregnancy test will be Aliyah’s, she thinks. Perhaps the girl terminated a pregnancy, or gave a child up for adoption, although neither act should be shamed. Angharad is beginning to understand Ryan’s vitriol towards Miles.

‘How about this rose, then?’ Henry brandishes it like a sword, then tickles Lucas’s nose with it. ‘Been buying flowers for a lover, have you, Reverend?’ It gets a laugh from Ceri and Aliyah, but their mirth is cut off by the look on Lucas’s face. He catches himself and laughs too, but the damage is done.

‘You’ve got a lover,’ Ceri says, her eyes wide.

‘You’ve got the wrong end of the stick,’ Lucas says.

‘You have!’

‘Back off!’

There’s a stunned silence.

‘He’s making them turn on each other,’ Ryan says. His knee is still going – up down, up down, up down – and now he’s pinching his fingers, left on right, then right on left. Over and over. Angharad steals glances at him, her mind whirring. She won’t call the police – a custody cell is no place for a man in the throes of a mental health crisis – but could she summon a doctor? Angharad has little faith in modern medicine, but even she is beginning to realise Ryan needs more than the camomile tea growing cold by his side.

On screen, Henry picks up the stocking.

‘That’s supposed to be mine, isn’t it?’ Ryan says. ‘The stocking. I’m not even there, and Miles is still twisting the knife. He’s determined to expose me, even though I walked.BecauseI walked!’

‘Maybe this relates to Jason’s bigamy?’ Henry is suggesting.

Ceri shakes her head. ‘The wedding ring would be his, surely?’

‘Why do you keep looking at the birthday card?’ Aliyah is staring at Ceri.

‘I don’t.’

‘You do! You lied about your age, or something?’

‘Don’t be stupid,’ Henry says. ‘That’s not a proper secret. Not like Jason being a bigamist, or Pam taking bribes.’

‘What was Ryan’s secret, do you reckon?’ Aliyah says.

In Angharad’s tiny living room, Ryan emits the sound of an animal in pain. Angharad reaches for her mobile phone; makes a show of checking the time. ‘Only ten minutes left. I can turn it off—’

‘Must have been bad, him running off like that.’ Ceri leans into the conversation, visibly relieved to no longer be at the epicentre of it.

Angharad starts typing a message to Elen Morgan.

Don’t panic, I’m fine, but can you ask Dr Alwen to come? I’ll explain everything later. It’s urgent.

Henry runs the stocking over his fingers seductively, then looks up with a laugh. ‘Maybe this is Ryan’s.’ He gives a pantomime pout. The roar of laughter it prompts is fuelled by self-preservation and fear, but the sound is pure cruelty.

Ryan’s moans intensify. ‘Jessica will leave me.’

‘She loves you.’ Angharad doesn’t know this for sure, but there are times when you have to say what needs to be heard.

‘She’ll be disgusted.’

‘There’s nothing disgusting about it.’

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