Claire’s heart dropped like a stone as realisation dawned. Swallowing back a sick taste in her throat, she looked over her shoulder to find Luke standing behind her, his weight on his good leg, his face white, their baby girl nestled close to his shoulder.
The emerging sun filtering in through the open entrance door threw slanting shadows across his strong features as he stared hard at her. ‘Did you mean the house?’ he asked her. ‘When you were talking about what was yours, did you mean Bernard’s house?’
Claire couldn’t answer. She didn’t know how to. How much had he heard? How much had he seen? Her back had been towards him, but she had no way of knowing.
‘The proceeds of which were to pay for his care home fees,’ Luke went on, pressing Ella closer as she stirred in his arms. ‘Unless, of course, there are no care home fees.’
He knows. Claire read what was in his eyes: disbelief, slowly giving way to stunned comprehension.
‘Did you know Bernard was dead, Claire?’ he asked her bluntly. ‘When Myers told you. Did you already know?’
‘No! Of course I didn’t!’ Seeing the accusation now in his eyes, panic clutched at Claire’s chest. ‘How could I have?’
Luke appeared to consider, then, ‘Tell me something,’ he said quietly. ‘Did it ever occur to you to think about the effect on Ella when you sought this woman out? The effect on anyone, not least Bernard?’
Claire scrambled to her feet. ‘Of course I thought about the effect on Ella,’ she said tearfully. ‘Ella adored her. And I know she’s just a child, but… Oh God…’ She squeezed her eyes closed. ‘Please try to understand, Luke. I needed someone who would be there for me. I didn’t even know whether she would make contact, but when she did… I thought I’d found that someone.’
‘And your father?’ Luke asked, his expression unimpressed.
Claire searched for the right answer. There wasn’t one. How could what she’d done ever be right in Luke’s eyes? She tried desperately to explain. ‘I had to find out,’ she said. ‘My dad wasn’t going to tell me. I don’t even know whether he remembered. How else was I going to do it? I didn’t know Sophie would turn out to be a monster. I thought it was better to be aware of anyone out there who might make some claim against his estate, before…’ She faltered, realising that she was about to confess to having contemplated her father’s imminent death. ‘I never wanted to harm anyone,’ she went on, her heart squeezing painfully as she acknowledged that she had, irrevocably. ‘Not you. Never Ella. I would have died before doing that. Things got out of hand, and the more you told me that Sophie might not be who she appeared to be, the more obsessed I became with the idea that she was. I should have listened to you. I know I should have.’
‘Right,’ Luke said flatly. ‘But your first priority when she fell…’ he indicated Sophie ‘was to go to her, rather than find your daughter?’
‘I didn’t know where Ella was.’
‘She was here!’ Luke shouted. ‘She brought her down, left her behind the bar! There’s broken glass everywhere!’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Claire cried. ‘I thought she might have hidden her in some dark, lonely place where we would never find her. Don’t you see?’
Luke continued to study her for a long, silent moment. Then, ‘No, Claire, I’m not sure I do,’ he said. He shook his head sadly and turned away.
‘Luke, please…’ Tears squeezing from her eyes, Claire followed him towards the entrance, where rotating blue lights indicated that the emergency services had arrived. ‘I’m sorry! For everything. For not believing you. I never stopped loving you. I just couldn’t bear the thought of you not loving me. Please forgive me. Please… don’t walk away.’
Luke hesitated, then squeezed his little girl closer and limped on.