Page 84 of The Jealous Girl

‘You didn’t get me fired,’ he said.

I waited for the scoff of disbelief to follow. Some form of rejection. But there was nothing.

He held my gaze. The anger had faded from his expression now, he just looked thoughtful, as though he was processing what I’d said.

‘I don’t understand, how did Charlotte manage to get Denise on board with that?’ I twisted the ends of my hair. ‘Denise had never spoken to me about Charlotte’s claims. She didn’t check what she was accusing you of. And, even if she believed it, why would she care? She hated me.’ I paused. ‘Unless…’

‘Unless?’ Ben repeated.

‘She was part of it.’

‘Seriously? You’re talking as if there’s some kind of conspiracy.’

‘Maybe there is.’ My gaze dropped to my laptop. ‘Maybe it wasn’t just about you and I being friends. Maybe it was because you were helping me.’

‘I was just showing you how to file the records, fill in the spreadsheets.’

‘Exactly,’ I said, certainty growing within me. ‘I think that was the problem. Charlotte didn’t want me looking around their files. On my own I was pretty clueless, but with you helping me…’

I ran my finger over the laptop trackpad, and opened the sales document.

‘I’ve been going through the Blackwater records and⁠—’

‘Wait,’ he cut in. ‘I thought you left. How do you have their records?’

I shifted uncomfortably. ‘It’s a long story.’

Ben’s eyes narrowed. ‘That sounds suspicious.’

‘Just look,’ I said, pivoting the laptop towards him.

He glanced at the screen and shrugged. ‘It’s a sales contract for one of the foals they bred.’

‘Look at the signature,’ I instructed him.

He hesitated for a moment before scrolling down the page. He leaned closer to the screen. ‘Does that say…?’ His brow furrowed. ‘Is that your name?’

‘Yes.’

He drew back. ‘Why did you sign a sales document?’

‘I didn’t,’ I replied flatly.

He frowned. ‘But you just said⁠—’

‘Someone forged it.’

Ben froze.

‘I never signed anything while I was at Blackwater,’ I assured him. ‘I didn’t know enough to do that. And I certainly didn’t have the authority for it.’

‘But who…? Why…?’

‘Precisely,’ I said, a sense of satisfaction washing over me, as Ben reiterated my own questions.

‘Martin and Ryan were the only ones who ever signed things like this,’ he said slowly.

‘Were they the only ones to deal with the vet too?’