Steph glanced at her watch and frowned. They had arranged to meet at ten o’clock but the person she was meeting was already ten minutes late.
She turned as the door to the coffee shop opened and an attractive, well-groomed woman wearing a black leather-look mac and tight leggings with heels tottered in, heading straight for her table.
‘Hi, Steph, sorry I’m late, my Uber didn’t turn up, I had to order another one.’
‘That’s OK, shall we skip coffee and get going right away?’ She laid a hand on the woman’s arm. ‘It’s good to see you again, Daniela, you’re looking great.’
They walked down the road together and turned into a side street. Steph took the key out of her pocket and thirty seconds later they were in Darcy’s house.
‘Bit of a dump, isn’t it?’ Daniela wrinkled her nose. ‘You said it was a nice little Victorian terrace.’
‘It is! Well, sort of. It’s a Victorian terrace and it’s small,’ Steph remarked. ‘Let’s face it, you’re not planning on living here, are you? Soon as you’ve got her out you can flog it again.’
‘Seems like a whole lot of trouble just to get even.’ Daniela pulled a face. ‘I wouldn’t have even looked at a place like this as a sound investment.’
Steph’s mouth felt dry. The last thing they needed was Daniela losing interest. It would be so much harder to achieve their aim if she did so. When Darcy had told her the landlord was selling the house, she immediately thought of Daniela who’d told Brenda she’d bought one or two buy-to-let properties in the Manchester area.
‘If Darcy struggles to get somewhere else, Mum can put her up. That way we can make sure the boys are OK, see if she’s coping.’ Steph hesitated. ‘You said yourself you’d get revenge on her one way or another, after Joel.’
She still didn’t seem that keen. Perhaps it was time to avail Daniela of Darcy’s troubling pastime.
‘There’s something you ought to see,’ Steph said, walking into the kitchen. Daniela followed. ‘I wasn’t going to show you but… well, I think you should know.’
Steph opened a wide narrow drawer and pulled out Darcy’s laptop. She opened it up on the kitchen counter and keyed in some numbers. ‘Password is Harry’s birthday.’ She smirked.
Daniela looked uncomfortable. ‘Are you sure she’s out of town? If she comes back and catches us—’
‘No fear of that. I told you, she’s in North Yorkshire, playing happy families with her new boyfriend and his kid.’ One side of Steph’s mouth twisted down as she opened the photo of the lodge that Darcy had sent her on her phone and slid it over for Daniela to see. ‘She couldn’t resist boasting, of course. Those poor boys will be calling him “Dad” soon and my brother’s memory will be non-existent. Mark my words.’
Daniela looked at her, sliding the phone back. ‘As you know, there are parts of Joel’s memory I’m quite happy to let fade into oblivion.’
‘Hmm. Well let’s keep focused on the job in hand,’ Steph said hastily just as the computer screen leapt into life. ‘The best way to avenge the past is to stay on the path we’ve agreed.’
Daniela glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘I haven’t got long and I want to see the rest of this dump before I instruct my solicitor to go ahead with the purchase.’
‘And you will. But first, look at this.’ Steph turned the laptop so Daniela could clearly see the screen.
Steph smiled when Daniela took a sharp intake of breath.
‘I haven’t touched anything.’ Steph held her hands in the air. ‘I opened it up and your profile was the last thing she looked at.’
‘That’s impossible.’ Daniela frowned. ‘My Facebook account is locked down and I’m certainly not friends with her.’
‘You’re not friends with Darcy Hilton, but you’re friends with this person… who is also Darcy Hilton.’
Steph double-clicked on the image of a pair of glossy lips and Daniela’s mouth fell open.
‘Meet Tana Philips, aka Darcy Hilton. She’s used a false profile for years,’ Steph told her. ‘She got drunk one night and told me she spends most of her waking hours tracking your every move online.’
‘That’s crazy!’ Daniela’s face fell. ‘And actually quite sad.’
‘Don’t go feeling too sorry for her,’ Steph remarked. ‘She used to watch your house before you moved to Manchester. And take a look at this.’
Steph tapped around the keyboard and Darcy’s photos loaded. ‘Look, you even have your own album, tagged with your initials.’
Daniela bent forward, squinting her eyes in disbelief when Steph double-clicked on the album entitled ‘DF’ and hundreds of Daniela’s photographs downloaded from her social media accounts filled the screen.
‘But why?’ Daniela shook her head. ‘Why would she even do that?’
‘Because – and I’m sorry to be so blunt – she hates your guts, Daniela. She blames you for everything and at the same time is obsessed with you.’
‘She blames me? What about Joel? What about her own behaviour?’
‘You don’t have to convince me.’ Steph shut the laptop, eager to get the subject away from Joel and back to the reason for her asking Daniela over here. ‘The point is, she’s obviously unstable and we’ve got the evidence of that right here. You’ve seen how obsessed she is with you and it will only get worse. Who knows what she might do?’
Daniela swallowed and hugged her shoulder bag closer.
‘We’ve got a chance to stop all this now, Daniela. You’ve seen for yourself that she’s not right and there have been signs recently that she’s slipping back into her old ways. She’s been distancing herself from us and lying to cover up why she’s not around to care for Kane and Harrison. She’s not fit to look after the boys and what she’s been doing to you, basically stalking you online, it’s got to stop.’
Daniela raised an eyebrow. ‘Let’s hope it all works out as you have so meticulously planned.’
‘We just need to push her a bit, that’s all.’ Steph’s voice brightened. ‘The boys need stability and routine and you need your privacy and a sense of justice done. I’ll show you around the house and then you can get cracking with the purchase.’