Page 152 of The Jealous Girl

‘It’s addressed here, Mum,’ he said, holding the bank statement out towards her.

Denise didn’t respond.

‘What did you do?’ Ryan asked.

‘I did what I had to,’ Denise said, pushing her shoulders back as she glared at me, her eyes dark and hard.

Ryan gasped, horrified. ‘Mum!’

Something snapped within me.

‘You set me up!’ I shouted, charging across the room. There was a time I’d been intimidated by her.

But not any more.

Ryan moved faster, grabbing my arm before I reached her, pulling me aside.

I struggled against him. Anger surging through me. He’d already attacked Ben, and now he was getting in my way. I wasn’t going to let him stop me from getting answers.

‘Why did you do this?’ I demanded.

‘It wasn’t Denise’s fault,’ Martin said, stepping in front of his wife. ‘The fraud was Charlotte’s idea. She’d worked out the stables were in trouble. Said she wanted to help.’ He shrugged slightly. ‘It was only supposed to be one foal,’ he added, as though that made it acceptable.

‘I know,’ I snapped, as I tried to tug my arm free from Ryan’s grasp. ‘The one you sold to her father,’ I added, repeating what I’d learned from David Harcourt.

Martin blinked. ‘Yes, how did you⁠—’

‘I told you she was clever,’ Ryan said.

I stopped tugging against him and stared at him, stunned. Now he believed in me?

My gaze shifted to Ben, still lying unconscious on the floor by Martin’s desk. He’d always believed in me.

‘Charlotte said it was safer that way,’ Martin continued. ‘If her dad ever realised what we’d done, he wouldn’t do anything about it. Not to his daughter.’ Martin shook his head. ‘But it wasn’t enough. We were in too much debt – one sale wasn’t going to get us out of it.’

‘So, you reckoned it had worked once, why not again?’

‘I was desperate.’ He reached for Denise’s hand. ‘I couldn’t lose our home. Our livelihood.’

‘And it was Charlotte,’ Denise said quietly. ‘She was practically part of the family. We thought—’ Her voice cracked.

‘I think she saw her involvement as proof of her worth,’ Martin said. ‘Not just to the stables, but to us. To Ryan. But we didn’t realise it until it was too late.’ He looked at Ryan. ‘It was like she thought she deserved to be with him. Marry him. Be part of the family. Everything. We didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t risk her exposing the fraud, we were in too deep.’

‘Her dad wasn’t around much,’ Ryan added. ‘I think that’s one of the reasons she spent so much time here. Perhaps that’s part of the reason she didn’t care about stealing from him.’

I stared at him, the ground shifting beneath my feet.

‘You knew?’

‘Not at first,’ Ryan said quickly. ‘But my parents filled me in, recently.’

‘How long?’ I asked, finally jerking my arm free from his grip and turning to face him. ‘How long have you known?’

‘Just over a week.’

I struggled to catch my breath. Ryan reached out to steady me, but I shoved his hand away.

‘You knew before you broke up with me?’