Sara was determined that her own children would never experience that sort of horror. But that meant she had to make sure nobody ever knew about her theft. And that in turn meant she had to pay James back, or their deal still stood. It was all such a risk. The more she thought about it, the greater the risk seemed to become.

James is playing a game with me. Cat and mouse. He has all the power and he’s loving it.

Her hands balled into fists. Rage at what he’d allowed to be done to her burned in her belly, firing up her resolve. He’s not going to win. I won’t let him.

The only way to get out of the deal was to find evidence of the game he was playing with her. But how on earth was she going to do that?

Chapter Thirty

Ezra was worn out after all the upset and his afternoon playing on the moors. They’d been out for hours after Hailey had left them to go back to work. Sara realised how much she’d missed time with her son while she’d been working – time she’d never get back – and the thought of going to prison, being separated from her children for goodness knew how long, weighed heavy on her mind as she bathed him and put him to bed.

Matt had called several times; she hadn’t answered, and he’d left increasingly angry messages asking when Ezra was coming home. Eventually she’d sent him a long message explaining why it was better that Ezra stayed with her. So far, she’d had no reply, but she didn’t expect him to come charging over to Skipton to demand his son’s return, because realistically, he wouldn’t get any work done over the next week with Ezra at home. The girls would entertain themselves, but Ezra definitely wouldn’t. Sara thought he’d leave things as they were now until after half-term, but she couldn’t help listening for the sound of a car pulling up, the door banging shut, angry footsteps slapping up the path.

She went downstairs and poured herself a glass of wine, and as she sipped at her drink, she started to separate the threads of her problems, trying to work out how to untangle everything and move forward. She pictured James, the expression on his face when she’d told him about the video; his confusion, which had seemed completely genuine. She remembered the gentleness of her previous interactions with him, his generosity. He’d lent her the money to help her out of a sticky situation. He’d given her a meaningless way of paying it back, making her believe that her company had some currency for him. Then the job offer, which made no sense at all because he’d be paying her. It really didn’t add up.