Page 32 of The Girlfriend’s Secret

‘When did you land back here?’

‘You know when we got back. You were at the airport to meet us,’ Joel says.

‘Are you sure you didn’t come back earlier than that?’ I have to know.

‘What? No?’ Joel says, and when I look at Haven, I can see she is trying to read me. I think she’s trying to figure out why I am asking these questions. That tells me there is something here worth digging into.

‘Are you lying to me?’ I ask Joel. ‘If you are, you are only making all of this worse for the both of you.’

Joel hesitates then, and now I sense I am getting somewhere.

‘What is it?’ I urge him to tell me. ‘What are you keeping from me?’

Joel and Haven share a glance then, as if they are silently making the decision on whether or not to share a secret with me. Then my son speaks.

‘I don’t know how you found out, but yes, we came back to England a few days earlier than you thought we did.’

I can’t believe it. Calvin was telling the truth.

‘I don’t understand,’ Frederik says suddenly, and I’d almost forgotten he was with us given how quiet he has been over the last few moments. ‘We saw you come out of the Arrivals gate at the airport. How could you have come back, yet arrive from there, if you were already in England?’

That is a very good question.

‘Because we left England again for a few days,’ Joel says, and as my husband and I frown, Joel quickly starts explaining.

‘Look, I didn’t think it was a big deal, and I didn’t think you’d ever find out, but the truth is, I told you the wrong date that we were getting back from Australia.’

‘Why would you do that?’ I cry.

‘Because Haven and I wanted a few days to ourselves before we came to meet you,’ my son goes on. ‘We knew it would be pretty hectic once we got here with Grandma’s funeral and Haven meeting you all for the first time. She was nervous about that, and I was still upset after hearing about Grandma’s death, so we both decided to give ourselves a few days before we actually got here.’

‘What did you do?’ Frederik asks, but I already know one of the things Haven did. She went to see her brother, though I wonder if she will tell us that or keep it quiet.

‘I was really jetlagged when we got back so I slept for most of a day while Haven went to see her brother,’ Joel says, and yep, that matches the story I got from Calvin. ‘Then the two of us caught a flight to Amsterdam because we both wanted to go and do something fun, before we got here for all the heavy stuff.’

I can’t believe this, but it’s hardly the worst thing I’ve heard tonight.

‘So that’s why you came through Arrivals,’ Frederik says. ‘You had actually flown in from an international airport. Just not the one we thought you had.’

‘Yeah, our flight landed at a similar time to one from Australia, so it was easy to make you think I was on that particular plane.’

‘Wow,’ Frederik says. ‘You could have just told us. Why all the secrecy?’

‘Because I felt bad if I came back and didn’t come straight home,’ Joel says. ‘I thought you’d all be upset if I wasn’t here to help with the funeral or Grandma’s things or whatever. But the truth was, I just needed a little more time to deal with it all.’

‘He was really upset when we got the news,’ Haven adds then, putting an arm around Joel, and as I see how much she genuinely cares for him in this moment, I’m once again feeling bad for doubting her. But I still haven’t forgotten the crazy thing she said earlier.

‘What you said earlier about Scott,’ I say. ‘Why would you say something like that?’

‘I can explain if you’ll just all sit down and listen to me,’ Haven pleads, and there’s something in her eyes that makes me follow her request. She’s calmer now, and she still has her arm around my son, which seems to be making him feel better.

Is she lying?

Or have I got her all wrong?

As Frederik and I take a seat, Haven and Joel do the same, and I watch as the young woman takes a very deep breath. Then she launches into one of the craziest stories I’ve ever heard.

TWENTY-TWO