Chapter 6: What Daniel Said
Verity called back forty minutes later.
I picked up before the second ring.
"He cried," she said.
I waited.
"I rang him and I told him I was struggling and he asked me what had happened and I said Jessamine had called me and I barely got the words out before he—" She stopped.
"Mum, he cried.
He said he hadn't spoken to Jessamine about me.
He said he barely speaks to her at all.
He said the last time he saw her was at the party."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"Did you tell him what she said?
About the texts?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
"He said there are no texts.
He said he's never sent her anything personal about me.
He said if she has texts claiming to be from him then they're—" Verity's voice dropped.
"He said they're not real."
I stood up from the table and walked to the window.
"Verity.
Did Daniel say anything else?
About Jessamine?
About any contact with her?"
A pause.
"He went quiet for a while after I said her name.
And then he said there was something he hadn't told me because he didn't want to upset me before the engagement."
The window glass was cold.
I pressed my fingertips against it.
"What was it?"
"He said that about a month ago, Jessamine rang him.
Out of nowhere.
He didn't even know how she had his number.
She said she was calling to welcome him to the family and that she wanted to take him to lunch.
Just the two of them.
She said there were things about our family — about me — that he should know before the wedding."
My chest felt hollow.
"Did he go?"
"He said no.
He said it felt wrong and he made an excuse.
But she rang twice more after that and he ignored it.
He said he didn't tell me because he thought she was just being strange and he didn't want to cause trouble before we'd even had the party."
I turned from the window.
"So she tried to get to him first.
Before the party.
And when that didn't work—"
"She came to the party and destroyed it instead." Verity's voice was very quiet.
"Mum.
Why does she hate me this much?"
I didn't answer that immediately.
Because I still didn't have the full answer.
I had pieces.
The lunch with Daniel, confirmed now by him.
Three attempts to reach him.
The gift bag in Simone's photograph.
The two full seconds of satisfaction on Jessamine's face before she remembered to look shocked.
This wasn't hatred of Verity, exactly.
This was something more specific.
Something that needed Verity's happiness to not exist.
"I don't know yet," I said.
"But I'm going to find out." I looked at the clock.
"Daniel needs to know about the photograph."
"What photograph?"
I had not told Verity about Simone's photograph.
I had been trying to protect her from one more thing, but that time was over.
"Simone saw Jessamine and Daniel at a restaurant three weeks ago.
Together.
Before any of this.
She took a photograph through the window."
Silence.
"Together."
"Daniel didn't go to the lunch she invited him to," I said carefully.
"But I need to ask him directly whether he was with her at any other point."
"Mum." Her voice had gone tight.
"Are you saying—"
"I'm saying I don't know.
And that's exactly why I need to ask him."
Another silence.
Longer.
"I'll put you on with him," Verity said.
There was a muffled sound.
A pause.
Then Daniel's voice — younger than I always thought of it, and now strained and careful.
"Mrs.
Hartley."
"Daniel.
I'm going to ask you something and I need the truth."
"Yes."
"Were you ever in a restaurant on Whitmore Street with Jessamine?
A corner booth.
About three weeks before the party."
The silence that followed was not the silence of someone searching their memory.
It was the silence of someone deciding how much to say.
"Daniel."
"Yes," he said.
My eyes closed.
"She rang me a fourth time.
She said it was urgent.
She said it was about Verity and that she couldn't say it on the phone.
I thought—" He stopped.
"I thought if something was actually wrong with Verity, I needed to know.
So I went."
"And?"
"She didn't say anything about Verity.
Not really.
She just — she asked me questions.
About us.
About how serious we were.
Whether I was certain about proposing." He exhaled.
"And then she put her hand over mine and said that if I ever had doubts, I could talk to her.
That she understood things about me that Verity never would."
The kitchen was completely silent.
"I left," he said.
"I paid for my coffee and I left.
I didn't tell Verity because I was ashamed I'd gone at all.
I should have just — I should have told her immediately."
Verity said something in the background.
Low and shaking.
"Daniel," I said.
"Do you still have her number?
The one she called from?"
"Yes."
"Don't delete anything.
Not the calls.
Not any messages.
Not a single thing." I paused.
"And I need you both to meet me tomorrow morning."
"Why?"
"Because Jessamine has forty-five minutes left to threaten my daughter.
May you like
And after that—" I looked at the clock one last time.
"It stops."
