Warning: Episode may contain strong language, violence and sexual content. Reader discretion is advised.

PREVIOUSLY…

• Nick and Jasmine’s engagement party got underway at Ashbourne House.
• Having hired a P.I. to dig up dirt on Emma, Julia was shocked to learn that she had in fact conducted an affair with Paul, the man married to her husband’s sister.
• Jack and Lee’s marriage collapsed after Jack discovered that Lee was using Grindr for casual hookups as well as conducting an affair with someone called T.
• Julia promised Emma to tell Nick the truth – that Emma and Julia’s deceased brother, Michael, were his biological parents – after the engagement party.
• Having made a toast to the happy couple, Julia was horrified to see Emma arrive at the engagement party.
• Having taken an accidental overdose at the party, Lee collapsed in the bathroom from a seizure.
• Nick’s phone pinged with a notification from the ancestry DNA program he and Jasmine had subscribed to. The message notified him of a DNA match with his mother. Nick was stunned to see it connected him with Emma instead of Julia.

Ashbourne House,
Glendale

“I love you,” Nick Harrington-Jones whispered softly to his fiancée, Jasmine Atkins, before kissing her tenderly on the lips.

As the engagement party guests cheered and whooped at the young couple’s display of affection, Nick’s iPhone vibrated with a sudden ping. Parting from Jasmine, he reached into the pocket of his tailored suit trousers and pulled it out. It was a notification from the ancestry DNA testing service that they had subscribed to a few weeks ago. Nick opened the app, expecting to see a breakdown of percentages with some English, Irish, and possibly German heritage, but instead was greeted with a message that made his word stop.

DNA MATCH: MOTHER

He frowned, surprised that his mother, Julia Harrington-Jones, would have followed a similar path. Nick scrolled down a little further, and his breath caught in his throat as he saw a photo of the new village doctor – the same woman who he felt had developed an unhealthy fascination with him – above three fateful words:

EMMA BLAKE – MOTHER

Nick felt his world tilt on its axis. His heart thundered in his chest like a wild bird trapped in a cage. Blood swished through his ears. A hot, prickly sweat spread across his body, and his vision blurred as he stared at the words, scrambling to make sense of them.

“What is it?” Jasmine asked quietly. Her smile dropped as she saw her fiancé’s expression change, and the pale look of shock spread across his chiselled features. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Without uttering a word and with shaking hands, Nick passed the phone to his fiancée. There had to be a mistake. DNA tests could be wrong, right? He tried to convince himself, but deep down, he knew they weren’t. Just as he started to feel faint, Nick saw movement in the doorway. Against the backdrop of a dazzling flash of lightning, there, in a red sequined gown, appeared the woman who was his mother – Emma Blake.

-:-

Julia’s one-of-a-kind midnight blue long-sleeve Alexander McQueen gown shimmered in the light as her hazel eyes skimmed across the partygoers. Her radiant smile, regal yet somewhat menacing, made her almond-shaped eyes sparkle, while regular Botox shots had ensured that her face remained wrinkle-free. As she held her flute of champagne aloft after delivering a successful speech, movement in the doorway caught her attention. Julia’s smile soured as Emma entered the ballroom, accompanied by Ben Granger, against the backdrop of a blinding flash of lightning.

Suddenly, the world seemed to slow to the pace of a snail. Out the corner of her eye, Julia caught sight of a commotion between Nick and Jasmine. She turned to look at her son, who was in turn staring at Emma. Jasmine looked up from a phone that was in her hands and turned to Julia with her mouth agape. There was an unidentifiable look in her eyes that struck Julia’s core. Something monumental was happening.

Emma looked from Nick to Julia and back again with a smile that diminished with each passing second as she too felt the enormity of the moment.

Julia tried to gulp, but her mouth and throat were dry. Her eyes rolled in the direction of her brother-in-law, Paul Halifax, and she caught the look of shock that slowly moved across his face as he recognised the woman from his past before she returned her attention to Emma. The sound of the band distorted, and a feeling of being surrounded by strobe lights washed over her. Julia was frozen to the spot, unable to stop the slow-moving car wreck from unfolding before her. She saw Nick make a frenetic move in Emma’s direction while, out of the corner of her eye, Paul did the same. Her eyes locked with those of her sister-in-law and Paul’s wife, Victoria, and she felt an unusual sensation of guilt crash over her. Julia lowered the flute of champagne in her left hand while her right arm dropped, allowing the microphone that was used to deliver her heartfelt speech seconds earlier to tumble to the ground with a booming thud that seemed to draw everyone’s attention and silence the room. Then, Julia felt a hand at the small of her back and warm breath laced with the distinct smell of beer on her cheek, followed by a jumble of words that she couldn’t decipher. The voice was deep and familiar. She heard it again. It was male. It was urgent.

“Julia?” James Harrington-Jones said, desperately trying to get his wife’s attention as she stared out across the guests in an almost comatose state. “Are you okay? Talk to me! Are you alright?”

Ripped back into reality, Julia brushed her husband aside, freeing herself from his grip. “Emma!” she said, glancing back at James with an unmistakeable look of fear in her eyes. “She’s here!”

James looked to the doorway and saw his son marching across the ballroom towards the village doctor with determination. “He knows!” James muttered in a tone that made Julia’s blood run cold. Struggling to comprehend how, James knew instinctively that the truth was out and the situation was about to explode. “He knows!”

-:-

Without thinking, Nick crossed the ballroom, his focus firmly fixed on the woman the DNA results stated was his mother.

Ben squeezed Emma’s hand, altering her to the imminent arrival of her son, as the booming thud of the dropped microphone silenced the ballroom.

“Nick, congratulations,” she said with a smile that masked the nervousness and anxiety that churned within her. The fierce intensity in Nick’s eyes scared Emma, and she wondered whether he had discovered the truth. “This looks amazing! You and Jas—”

“Get out!” Nick angrily cut her off as his voice drew the attention of the hushed guests. Anger, hurt, and frustration coursed through him as he invaded Emma’s personal space. “Get the fuck out!”

“Hey!” Ben stepped in and pushed Nick back a pace or two. “Back off!”

Emma’s smile faltered. She glanced around, sensing all eyes in the room on her. “W-what?”

The air in the ballroom crackled with tension, mirroring the storm outside, while Julia hitched up her gown and ran through the crowd as shocked gasps and murmured comments rippled through the guests. “Nicky! Stop!”

“Nick!” Jasmine appeared at her fiancé’s side and tried unsuccessfully to pull him away from the situation before it became a bigger spectacle than it already was. “Come on!”

Julia felt her body trembling with a sensation she wasn’t used to – fear. “Nicky, what has got into you?” She said as her mother, Judith Bancroft, quickly appeared by her side.

“Anything you want to tell me?” Nick turned his head in the direction of the woman he believed to be his mother. The sheer fury that flared in his eyes terrified Julia and left her with absolutely no doubt that the truth was out. “Anything you want to confess to? Huh? Either of you?”

Emma and Julia glanced at each other in silence. The day of reckoning had arrived, and neither one felt prepared.

“Darling,” Julia began in her most pacifying tone, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bullshit! You’re a fucking liar!”

“Nick!” James’ commanding voice boomed around the ballroom as he hurried to his wife’s aide. “What has gotten into you?”

Jasmine felt herself shrinking under the watchful stares of the gathered guests. “Nick! Stop! Please!”

“Nicholas, enough!” Came the authoritative voice of his grandmother, Hazel Harrington-Jones, as she moved through the partygoers with a sense of regal dignity. “What on earth is going on?”

Marion Atkins appeared at Emma’s side and tenderly touched her arm in support as she struggled to fathom just what the hell was going on with her friend, her daughter, and her daughter’s fiancé. “Emma, are you okay? What’s happening?”

Emma choked on her words, unable to respond.

Nick’s anger bubbled over, fuelled by confusion and hurt. “She’s a fucking liar!” he barked, jabbing a pointed finger in the direction of his biological mother before turning his attention to his adoptive one. “They both are!”

“Nick! Please! Stop!” Jasmine pleaded. Normally able to quell any anger that rose within her fiancé, this time she struggled to know how to calm him and make him see sense, let alone come to terms herself with the shocking revelation the DNA results had brought to light. “This isn’t the place!”

Ed Atkins, who by this point had joined his wife, Marion, was confused. He frowned at their daughter as he tried to piece the puzzle together. “The place for what?”

“They’re fucking liars! They’ve lied to me!” Nick cried out, stinging tears pooling in his eyes as he looked around at his family, or the group of people that he thought were his family. Who were they now? He looked from James to Julia and Judith, his eyes pleading with them for answers while he struggled to comprehend how the faces he had known his whole life now seemed like those of strangers. His body shuddered as he began to sob, and his voice choked with emotion. “They’ve all lied to me!”

Julia’s heart clenched as she saw her son break. His face scrunched, and tears began to flow freely down his cheeks as the enormity of the truth crashed into him. Loathed to admit it, Julia realised that Emma had been right – they should have told Nick the truth earlier. She moved towards her son and tried to calm him the way she used to when he was a niggly baby by cupping his little cherub face in her hands. Only now, his apple cheeks had given way to sharp, masculine features, yet deep inside, Julia could still see the little boy she cherished and adored. “Nicky, please. Just calm down.”

“Don’t you dare touch me!” Nick bristled and brushed aside his mother’s attempts to soothe him.

Confusion reigned. The guests whispered and murmured as they watched the dramatic melodrama play out before them. Emma began to sob, wanting to be given the chance to explain but unable to find her voice. Hazel watched the scene play out with a look of horrified confusion as the illusion of her family’s regal superiority crumbled before her eyes. Winnie Atkins, Jasmine’s grandmother, appeared at her side and rubbed her granddaughter’s back, trying in some way to quell the hurt that was so evidently pulling them all apart, while Julia’s chin quivered and her eyes welled with tears.

“Nicky, please.” Julia persisted and tried one last time to break through to her heartbroken son. She cupped his face in her soft hands and wiped the tears from his cheeks with her thumbs. “I’m your mother.”

The declaration sent a surge of hostility tearing through Nick’s body, and he violently shrugged off her touch, knocking his adoptive mother from her feet. As Julia fell to the ground with a heavy thud, the guests gasped.

Nick didn’t care; he was too angry to care. “But you’re not! You’re not my mother! She is!” Spittle formed in the corners of his mouth as he pointed in Emma’s direction.

A shockwave rippled through the guests as another flash of lightning lit up the ballroom.

Marion turned her head and looked at Emma in disbelief. “What?” she mumbled barely above a whisper. “Emma? What’s he talking about?”

There was a long silence, punctured only by a deep, rolling rumble of thunder. Emma’s face grew pale, and she opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

“This!” Nick tossed his phone at Marion, and it crashed to the floor with a crack. “We did DNA tests, and according to my results, she’s not my mother,” he snarled with his lips curled before firing a look of disdain at Julia as she was helped to her feet by James and Winnie. Nick’s eyes moved from Julia to Emma. “She is!”

Ed felt his stomach lurch as a sense of panic consumed him. “You did DNA tests?” He asked Jasmine.

Marion noticed Ed’s concern and mentally filed it away before picking up Nick’s phone. She read the results on the cracked screen and, slack-jawed, slowly turned to Emma as if dumbstruck by the truth. “Emma?”

Emma gulped heavily and moistened her lips. She felt a strong hand rub her bicep in support, and she knew instructively it was Ben. “I can explain.”

Watching the carnage unfold, Paul looked at Emma in disbelief. The woman he had conducted an affair with was the biological mother of his nephew. He tried to remain cool and keep an even expression across his face, but he could feel Victoria’s eyes boring into him as she began to piece together the puzzle.

“I told you this would happen!” Judith hissed at her daughter Julia through gritted teeth, devoid of any maternal care or motherly compassion.

Hazel stepped into the battlefield, positioning herself in the middle of the triangle that had formed between Nick, Emma, and Julia. She was acutely aware of what a sideshow attraction her family’s implosion had become to those at the party. “I think we’d best take this somewhere more private.” She turned to the silent crowd and greeted them with a painted-on smile and a royal wave. “Thank you everyone for attending. If you could please see yourselves out while we attend to a family matter in private.”

As disappointed chatter erupted between the guests, Emma’s body trembled. “We thought it was for the best.”

Nick’s eyes sharpened. “We?”

“We didn’t want you to find out like this, Nicky.” Julia acquiesced to Emma’s line of explanation.

“Find out what? That everything you’ve ever told me was a lie? That you’re not really my mother?”

“I am your mother!” Julia’s voice strained with frustration as she tried to get through to the son she felt slipping through her fingers.

Nick dragged his hands through his cropped, dark hair and fought the urge to pull out large chunks and scream. Every nerve ending in his body fired with fury and agitation. “No, you’re not! She is! You’re just a fucking fraud!” His voice boomed around the room and brought the exiting guests to a halt.

Like Julia, Emma felt Nick slipping away. His anger and fury were palpable, and unless they managed to reason with him soon, there was a chance they could both lose him forever. “Nick, please, let me explain.”

More concerned with reputation than relations, Hazel panicked. “Thank you everyone; the show’s over,” she said to the guests, although they remained unmoved. “Victoria! Charlotte! Get everyone out of here. Now!”

Ignoring her increasingly desperate mother, Victoria’s attention flicked between the unfolding scene, her husband, and back again. “It… it can’t be true.”

Charlotte Sinclair looked to her older sister and let out a resigned sigh. “It is. James told me.”

Jasmine overheard. “You knew?” She uttered in shock as the level of deception began to dawn on her.

Nick was incredulous. “You all knew?”

Emma stepped forward, her red gown swishing and sparkling in the light. “We were going to tell you. We just wanted you to have this special night, just you and Jasmine. I promise you.”

We. One word. Two letters. That was all it took for Nick to break. We. As his body heaved with sobs and tears stained his cheeks, he looked at his family one by one. Julia. James. Charlotte. It was evident that everyone he knew and loved was in on the secret. “You all knew?” he said almost breathlessly and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. His eyes settled upon Ben. “Did you know?”

Ben lowered his gaze, unable to look him in the eye.

A short exhale of breath escaped Nick’s lips. The response, or lack thereof, spoke volumes. He looked to Judith. “Grandma?”

Judith rolled her lips, squared her shoulders, and met her grandson’s pleading stare. “Nicky, I…”

That was all it took. She knew. They all knew. A deep, defeated exhale of air left Nick’s body, and his shoulders sagged.

Jasmine felt the familiar roughness of her grandmother’s hand in hers. Winnie squeezed, silently giving Jasmine the love and support she needed in a time of crisis.

Julia looked to Emma, a silent pleading in her eyes. “Nicky, please,” she began, stepping forward to once again try and connect with the man she had raised. “Please just let us explain. You don’t understand. Please.”

Emma moved to Julia. Side by side, the two women, who loved Nick and both considered him their son, faced reality head-on, determined to get through to Nick before they lost him forever. “Nick, I—”

“This is why you’ve been following me,” Nick said and looked to Emma. A heavy frown moved across his brow as he began to piece everything together. “This is why you’ve been stalking me.”

Emma felt affronted by the accusation. “What? Stalking? No, I—”

“Don’t touch me!” Nick baulked as Emma moved to connect with him in some tangible way.

“Nick, please,” she begged, “just let your mother and I explain.”

“Who? Oh, you mean her.” Nick spat the words in Julia’s direction. “The sociopath who for twenty-five years has lied to my face.”

“Nicky, please.”

Nick ignored Julia and turned his attention to James. “Are you my father, or is that all a lie too?”

The question hung in the air as James allowed the silence to stretch while he contemplated his answer. “No,” he admitted with a resigned sigh. “I’m not. Michael is your father.”

Dumbstruck by the revelation, Nick frowned.

Jasmine looked at her fiancé. “Michael?”

“His uncle,” Judith clarified. “My son.”

Nick felt the world shift beneath his feet as betrayal crashed over him in waves. Names and faces popped into his mind. His parents weren’t his parents; they were his aunt and uncle. The man who he had known, loved, and adored his entire life as ‘Uncle Mikie’ – the man who had died when he was eight – was his father. He looked to Emma. “You and Uncle Mikie? You… you’re….”

Emma’s eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t wipe them away. She nodded, confirming the truth. “Yes,” she choked as she heard Michael’s voice in her ears and felt his breath on her neck. “Michael is your dad, and I’m your mum. Please let me explain it properly to you.”

Nick stared at her in disbelief before slowly shaking his head. “I… I can’t do this.”

Julia could see her son disappearing into the shadows. “Nicky, please.”

A tremor of anxiety rippled through Nick’s body as the first signs of a panic attack loomed. “I can’t do this,” he repeated with his voice trembling. He tugged at the collar of his shirt, desperate to free himself from the suffocating vice that felt clamped around his throat. “I can’t be here! I can’t do this!”

With that, Nick ran from the ballroom as fast as his feet could carry him, all the while tugging at the collar of his shirt and gasping for air.

“Nicky!” Julia called out in desperation as she set off in pursuit.

As the family gave chase, Natalie Sinclair collected a flute of champagne from the bar. “Well, hasn’t this been fun?” She said, toasting the drama and winking at the young barman before taking a sip.

-:-

Breathless, Nick burst through the front door of Ashbourne House and ran into the torrential downpour as he fumbled in the pocket of his trousers for his car keys. The sharpness of the rain cut across his skin like razor blades, and the cold wind lashed his face.

“Nicky!” Julia screamed as she and the others gave chase, her voice drowned out by a deep rumble of thunder.

A bolt of fork lightning splintered across the sky as a deafening crack punctured the air. The storm was perilously close by.

“Nick! Stop!” Jasmine pleaded as she ran out into the rain without hesitation.

Nick’s dark hair, soaked from the rain, hung down over his eyes, and he pulled the car keys from his pocket as he reached his 2024 Aston Martin DB12. He unlocked the powerful vehicle and slipped into the driver’s seat, slamming the car door before locking it.

“Nick!” James yelled, racing through the pounding rain with Ben and Ed close behind as they tried desperately to reach the vehicle before Nick took off. Their heavy steps splashed through puddles as they ran down the gravel driveway with fervent urgency.

With her gown hoisted above her ankles, Emma gave pursuit. Within seconds, the rain had her soaked through. “Nick, stop, please!”

Under the portico, Hazel and Judith huddled together against the wind and rain, watching on helplessly as their respective families imploded.

“Nicky!” Julia kicked off her Louboutin heels and ran barefoot down the gravel driveway, oblivious to the pain of the small stones underfoot. “Nicky! Stop!”

Jasmine reached the Ultramarine Black Aston Martin first and frantically banged against the driver’s side window as Nick started the engine and the car roared to life with terrifying power. “Nick! No!” she screamed, tears rolling down her cheeks. “No! Don’t do this! Stop! No!”

Nick gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His body trembled, and he cried, almost hysterically. The engine revved one, twice, three times.

James, Ben, and Ed reached the vehicle.

James pushed Jasmine out of the way, tugged at the doorhandle, and smacked his hands frantically against the window. “Nick! Don’t do this!”

Ben tried to open the passenger door to no avail, while Ed tried to break the back window.

Marion reached Jasmine and, wrapping her arms around her hysterical daughter, clutched her tightly to her chest.

The engine revved again.

Julia ran to the front of the car and placed her hands on the bonnet. The sky illuminated in the most dazzling display of lightning before a deafening crack of thunder made them all instinctively duck for cover. But not Julia; she remained unmoved and eyeballed her son. “Nicky! Turn it off!” She commanded, hoping to get through to him before he did something stupid. “Please, don’t do this! Turn it off! Please! You’re my little boy, my little Nicky. Please. I’m sorry,” she sobbed, her face contorting as she cried. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I love you.”

A flick switched in Nick’s brain, and in one swift motion, he shifted the car into gear and released the handbrake. The tyres spun and screeched against the wet gravel as he slammed his foot down on the accelerator. As the car moved, Emma rushed forward and pushed Julia out of the way, knocking her from her feet. Nick’s car took off, narrowly missing the two women, who both considered themselves his mother, as they crashed down onto the wet and muddy driveway. The vehicle drove away with terrifying speed and disappeared into the haze of the rain. Julia scrambled to her feet and let out a bloodcurdling scream of “no” that would haunt them all for the rest of their lives.

-:-

Back inside the ballroom, a hum of chatter murmured through the guests about the shocking revelation, while the remaining members of the Harrington-Jones clan huddled off to the side, unsure of what to do or just what exactly was going on.

“When did James tell you?” Victoria asked her younger sister, Charlotte, as she fiddled anxiously with the diamond and emerald Bvlgari earring attached to her left ear.

Charlotte politely waved her decline at a waiter who offered her a flute of champagne as he moved about with a full tray. “Monday,” she said with a soft sigh as she returned her attention to Victoria. “He was worried that Emma was going to tell Nick the truth and asked for my help to silence her.”

“Who is this Emma woman? She looks familiar.”

Paul shifted on the spot, uneasy at his wife’s line of questioning but trying to remain cool, calm, and composed.

“Emma Blake,” Mark replied, “the new village G.P.”

A frown stretched across Victoria’s forehead, as well as it could, thanks to her monthly Botox routine, and her eyes narrowed. The beginnings of a memory fizzed in her mind. “Emma Blake?” She tapped an index finger at her lips as she mentally searched through a rolodex of faces. “Why do I know that name?”

“You might also know her as Emily Barlow,” Charlotte said. “That’s her real name.”

“What?” Paul blustered, betraying the calm he was so desperately trying to remain.

Victoria looked to her husband as a seed began to sprout. “Emma Blake. Didn’t you work with an Emma Blake?”

“Um…”

Mark frowned at Charlotte, struggling to make sense of what his wife just mentioned. “What do you mean her real name is Emily Barlow?”

Charlotte shifted as her feet grew uncomfortable in her Manolo Blahnik satin pumps. “Exactly that,” she replied with a shrug as if it weren’t breaking news to everyone but her. “Her real name is Emily Barlow, and she was Michael’s girlfriend when they were teenagers.”

“Michael Bancroft?”

The name of the man that killed his wife struck Mark like a lightning bolt.

Charlotte pressed on, ignorant of Mark’s unease and the tragic link that tied her husband to Nick’s biological father. “They were together, more so linked by addiction than love, I would imagine,” she said with a slight bitterness at the realisation that she might not have been the love of Michael’s life as she had always believed. “She fell pregnant, and Judith convinced James and Julia to raise the baby as their own. It is all so awfully sad and tragic, really.”

The ease at which Charlotte fired off facts as if they were nothing troubled Victoria slightly. Lives had been changed forever, but there was a deliberate coldness to her usually kind sister that made Victoria sense something was amiss. “And that baby is Nick?”

Charlotte nodded.

Victoria’s mouth tightened as she continued her line of questioning while keeping a cautious eye on Paul’s growing agitation. She fidgeted with her earring again. “Nick is the son of this Emily… Emma woman and Julia’s brother.”

Charlotte nodded again.

“I hope he’s rotting in hell for what he did to Jen,” Mark snarled through gritted teeth as his expression darkened.

Charlotte suddenly became acutely aware of what she had missed and silently chastised herself.

“Oh my God! Of course,” Victoria gasped and reached out, gently rubbing her brother-in-law’s forearm in sympathy. “Oh, Mark, I’m so sorry.”

Mark was green. As much as he tried to convince himself the events of that fateful day in September 2007 were behind him and he had moved on, Michael’s ghost still haunted him. “I need some air.”

“I’ll come too,” Charlotte said and followed her husband out of the ballroom.

Victoria turned and looked at Paul. “You’re awfully quiet.”

Paul rubbed his highly polished right dress shoe against his left as he avoided Victoria’s questioning glare. Confusion creased his brow as he tried to process everything he had just heard. The last thing he had expected was to see Emma, the woman he had conducted an extramarital affair with – the woman he had fallen totally and completely in love with, only for her to break his heart – looking so stunningly beautiful at his nephew’s engagement party. Paul sensed that Victoria had caught a whiff of the trail and that it wouldn’t be long until she began to piece it all together. “It’s just a lot to take in. I need another drink.”

As Paul moved through the crowd on his way to the bar, Victoria watched him suspiciously.

-:-

“Nick looked so broken. So devastated,” Carol Kennedy said with concern as she stared blankly into space while she absentmindedly traced the rim of her champagne glass with an index finger.

“Well, I still can’t quite believe it,” Kate Spencer replied in her usual thick Welsh accent as she stood with her back to the bar and cast an eye over the remaining clusters of whispering partygoers that were scattered throughout the ballroom. “I mean, Emma is actually called Emily, and she’s actually Nick’s mother. What are the chances?” She shook her head in disbelief. “You think you know someone, but I guess it just goes to show you don’t really know anyone at all. I just don’t know why she didn’t tell me.”

“Well, it’s not something you just blurt out the first time you meet someone, is it?”

“Do you think I should go after her?”

“Maybe just leave it for now. She’ll come to you when she needs you.”

“True,” Kate conceded with a nod. She turned around and looked for the bartender to replenish her almost empty champagne. “Well, I guess we should the rounds in while we can before they call the whole thing off. We haven’t even had any hors d’oeuvres!”

Carol looked back at her daughter-in-law and shook her head, a faint smile playing on her lips.

Kate shrugged. “What? I’m bloody starvin’ I am!”

A few feet away, Natalie approached the bar again and waited for the bartender. Carol looked to the young woman she used to look after as a baby – the one who used to be so full of love and joy and call her ‘Aunty Carol’. “How are you holding up?”

“Fine. Why?” Natalie frowned and gave Carol a side-eye glare that left no doubt she wasn’t in the mood to chat.

“It must be hard hearing about Michael again after all these years,” Carol replied with a sympathetic look as her mind turned to Jennifer, her best friend and Natalie’s mother, who was killed in a head-on car accident that Michael had caused in 2007. “I know it has stirred up a few things in me. Your poor mum and poor Julia.”

Natalie baulked at the name of the woman she believed had killed her mother. “Poor Julia? That bitch deserves everything that’s coming to her!”

Kate’s mouth dropped open, and Carol’s eyes widened in shock.

“What happened to that sweet little girl that I used to babysit?” Carol asked.

“She grew up.”

“She grew into a monster,” Kate muttered under her breath as she turned her head away and took a sip of champagne.

-:-

A few champagnes past tipsy and a few short of inebriated, Jack Campbell hurried to the downstairs guest bathroom. He had been holding it for what felt like an eternity, too wrapped up in the melodrama of the evening to realise he was absolutely busting. But now, as the party guests began to disperse and the evening appeared to have come to an abrupt end, he suddenly realised the urgency of his situation. He grasped the handle and tried to open the door, but it was locked.

“Hello?” he called out as he knocked gently. He tried the handle again, but the door was most definitely locked. Jack pressed an ear to the wood and could make out what sounded like a rhythmic thudding coming from inside. “Hello? Is someone in there?”

There was something about the noise that made Jack uneasy. Something didn’t seem right. Getting down on his hands and knees, he flattened his head against the floor and peeked in through the gap under the door. Someone was lying on the ground having a seizure.

“Shit!” Jack jumped to his feet and began trying to break down the locked door with his shoulder. “Help!” He yelled with panicked urgency. “Help! Someone help!”

-:-

Outside, a jagged lightning bolt crackled across the sky, followed almost immediately by a deep, bone-chattering boom of thunder. The torrential rain, falling in heavy grey sheets, made visibility almost non-existent and soaked the few that were in it.

“I’m going after him!” Ben said to Emma as he fished the keys to his Land Cruiser out of the pocket of his black suit trousers.

“Ben! No!” Emma ran after her boyfriend and tugged at his arm, trying desperately to stop him as he hurried towards his car. Her red sequined gown was weighed down by the rain, and the gentle waves of her brown hair, which had taken nearly an hour to style, now hung over her face like wet spaghetti. “It’s too dangerous.”

As Emma tugged on his arm once again, Ben allowed himself to be moved and spun on his heel to face her. He cupped Emma’s face in his wet, rough hands and looked into her eyes. “We can’t leave him like this,” he said with a calm tone. “He’s your son, and we can’t leave him. It’s fine. I’ll be fine. Everyone else has been drinking. So, I’ll go.” He planted a tender kiss on Emma’s lips.

Soaked through and trembling from a combination of adrenalin and cold, James rushed towards Ben’s Land Cruiser. “I’m coming with you!”

“Me too!” Julia yelled as she moved towards the car, her cheeks stained with trails of mascara from a combination of rain and tears.

“No! You stay here!”

“James, please!”

“I’ll get our son back,” James said as he rubbed Julia’s arm and tried to reassure her with a smile. “You stay here in case he comes to his senses.”

Another flash of lightning lit up the sky, and Emma noticed for the first time that the clouds seemed an ominous, purply-grey colour while the rain, already torrential, seemed to grow in intensity, if that was even possible.

“I’ll be fine. I promise,” Ben said and kissed Emma one last time. “I’ll get your son back. I’ll bring Nick home.”

As Ben and James jumped into the graphite-coloured Land Cruiser and sped off down the long gravel drive, Jasmine shivered in the rain. With her father’s arm wrapped around her shoulder and her iPhone pressed to her ear, she desperately tried to call her fiancé. The call went straight to voicemail. She tried again and again and again, each time getting the same outcome.

“He’s not answering,” she sobbed.

“Because his phone is here,” Marion said and held up the damaged device that had been thrown at her earlier.

With his arm around his daughter, Ed rubbed his hand against the wet fabric of Jasmine’s vintage-inspired white gown. “He’ll be okay,” he said, trying to reassure her. “Come on, let’s get you back inside before you catch your death.”

Soaked through to the bone, Julia stood barefoot in the middle of the muddy gravel driveway, blankly staring in the direction in which Ben and James had just left. The weight of her wet gown pulled down her shoulders, and her trademark tight blonde chignon bun had disintegrated into a mess that better resembled a rat’s nest. Her body jerked with each sob, her short puffs of breath billowed in the cold air, and her face was stained with mascara and smeared lipstick.

As another flash of lightning lit up the sky, Emma was struck by the haunting image of a dishevelled Julia standing alone in the driveway, destroyed and broken by the events of the evening, against the backdrop of stormy skies and the structured beauty of the Ashbourne House gardens. She moved the short distance towards the powerful woman and wrapped a sympathetic arm around her shoulder, hoping to comfort her.

“Get off me!” Julia roared and pushed Emma away, knocking her to the ground as she fell into a muddy puddle.

“Julia!” Marion scolded and rushed to Emma’s aid.

“This is all her fault!” Julia was apoplectic with rage, and her voice roared louder than the thunder that rumbled overhead. She jabbed an angry finger in Emma’s direction as she struggled to her feet. “None of this would’ve happened if she hadn’t come here stirring up shit that didn’t concern her! If anything happens to my son, Emma, then on your head be it!

-:-

“Help me, please!”

Jack’s frantic pleas echoed around the foyer of Ashbourne House as Mark, having heard the commotion, came rushing to his assistance.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“There’s someone in there!” Jack yelled as he threw his weight against the door, and his shoulder slammed into the wood with a jarring thud that reverberated up his spine. “They’re having a seizure or something.”

With one final, bone-jarring slam, Mark and Jack crashed against the door, and it gave way with a loud crack. As the two men stumbled forward, Jack’s breath caught in his throat when he saw his husband, Lee, convulsing on the floor.

“Shit!” Mark gasped, startled by the troubling episode unfolding before him.

Jack’s heart raced with an urgency he had never felt before as he rushed to his husband’s side and dropped to his knees. “Lee!”

“Here,” Mark said, removing his black designer suit jacket and tossing it to Jack. “Put this under his head.”

Folding the jacket into a makeshift cushion, Jack lifted Lee’s head to gently put it in place, but his hand pooled with blood. Jack’s face drained of colour as he started at the thick red liquid. He looked at Mark in horror. “Call an ambulance!” he urged with a trembling voice. “Now! Quick!”

While Mark fumbled with his phone, Jasmine and Ed entered the foyer of Ashbourne House, followed close behind by Marion, who was comforting and guiding Emma. Marion frowned when she heard Jack’s panicked instructions.

“Is that…” Her voice trailed off as she saw Mark standing in the doorway of the bathroom and very quickly realised that it was the same direction her son-in-law’s desperate pleas had come from. Marion rushed over. “Mark? What’s wrong?”

Mark didn’t answer and held his iPhone to his ear as his call was answered. “We need an ambulance urgently to Ashbourne House, Glendale.”

The room seemed to spin as Marion turned her head and caught sight of Lee convulsing on the bathroom floor, while Jack hovered over him in tears. “Lee!” she said, struggling to retain a steadiness to her voice as she instinctively took to her son’s side. “Lee, sweetheart. Lee, it’s mum. I’m here.” She saw the blood on Jack’s hands and immediately noticed the large gash on the back of her son’s head. “Mum’s here. Hang on, darling. Hang on!”

–  G L E N D A L E  –

London Road,
Glendale

The windscreen wipers struggled to wipe away the rain as Ben’s Land Cruiser hurtled down London Road at a speed he wasn’t comfortable with in such treacherous conditions. As they approached the dangerous hook bend, known to locals as Devil’s Elbow, Ben remembered the roadworks he and Emma had passed earlier in the evening on their way to Ashbourne House. Although no works were being carried out, the road was partly closed and the signage had blown over in the wind.

Ben slowed the vehicle, and then, as they approached the bend, a horrifying sight greeted them. The crumpled wreckage of Nick’s Aston Martin was wrapped around a tree on the verge. Ben slammed on the brakes, and the Land Cruiser came to a sudden stop.

“Oh, God, no!” James muttered as he unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door, and instinctively jumped out. The rain hammered down on him as he ran across the road as fast as his feet would take him towards the horrifying scene. Broken glass and twisted metal lay strewn across the road, and it was clear Nick’s car had careered into the tree at a horrifying speed. “Call an ambulance, Ben! Now!”

Shaking, Ben exited the vehicle, removed his phone from his pocket, and dialled 999.

“No. No. No. No. No. No.” Tears burnt James’ eyes as he rushed to Nick’s side. The engine steamed, and as the terrified father reached the driver’s side door, he choked on his own breath.

Bloodied and broken, Nick’s lifeless body lay slumped over the steering wheel. “Nick!” With a strength he never knew he had, James yanked open the car door. “Nick!”

“We need an ambulance to London Road,” Ben instructed the operator. “There’s been a vehicle accident. Please, you need to hurry. It’s bad. It’s really, really bad.”

With trembling hands, James pressed two fingers against Nick’s neck. There was no pulse. “Ben!” he screamed with an urgency that sent a tingle down the farmer’s spine. “There’s no pulse! Tell them there’s no pulse! He’s dying!”

In the driving rain, Ben watched on with horror as James dragged Nick’s lifeless body from the car and placed him on the roadside before beginning CPR. “He’s dying,” Ben muttered almost breathlessly. His eyes filled with tears as he watched James frantically try to save his son’s life. “There’s no pulse. Hurry. Please.”

“Don’t do this to me!” James sobbed uncontrollably as he performed chest compressions on Nick’s lifeless body and blew air into his lungs. “Don’t you leave me, you hear, Nicky, don’t you dare leave me!”

While the pouring rain tumbled down, a bright flash of lightning illuminated the surroundings. On the verge, barely a few feet from where James frantically tried to save Nick’s life, was a roadside memorial to Michael Bancroft and Jennifer Sinclair, who had both lost their lives in the exact same spot almost seventeen years ago to the day.

NEXT TIME…

• Nick and Lee’s lives hang in the balance.