‘Thank you,’ Diana said, her voice shaky. ‘And you’ll call me if there’s a problem?’

‘I promise,’ Jason assured her.

Diana nodded. She hadn’t been wrong about him. Whatever he was doing with these silly dating apps, at his core he was a good man, she was certain he was. ‘Jason, about the meeting you had with Robert,’ she said hesitantly, ‘did he—?’

‘I’d rather not discuss it, Diana,’ Jason cut in bluntly. ‘I’m sorry, but I’d prefer not to.’

‘I see. It’s none of my business, I know, but I just…’ Diana faltered. She wasn’t inclined to expose her vulnerabilities, but she needed to get to the bottom of what Robert had disclosed to him before putting in motion any wheels of her own, which she’d no choice but to do if she was going to help her daughter. ‘I need to know, Jason. To understand what’s going on in his head. Did he offer you the money?’

Jason didn’t immediately answer, then, ‘Yes,’ he said simply.

‘And you refused it?’

‘That’s right.’ Jason’s tone was short.

‘But why? When you’d gone there ready to accept a loan, why would you turn it down?’

Again, Jason paused. ‘You don’t know about me then?’ he asked curiously.

‘Know what?’ Cold foreboding travelled the length of Diana’s spine.

‘You should talk to Robert. You need to,’ Jason said. ‘I have to go.’

Realising he’d ended the call, Diana placed her phone on the breakfast table and stared at it. Surely, Robert hadn’t done what the sick feeling inside her told her he had? Why? After all these years? Damn the man. Could he not just have let sleeping dogs lie?

Swallowing back the acrid taste of fear in her mouth, Diana pulled herself from her chair and headed towards the lounge. She didn’t drink often, but she felt in need of a medicinal brandy. Up until these last few weeks, she’d bided her time, seeing Michael to keep her sanity alive whenever she could, and made preparations, sure that Robert’s day of reckoning would come. She hadn’t imagined she would have to be instrumental in ensuring that it did, and sooner rather than later. Diana had thought she’d prepared herself; that she would be emotionally ready for the fallout when the news broke, as she had always known it might. Now, she wasn’t entirely certain.

But she had no choice, she reminded herself. She would have to find a way to establish that Robert had done the unimaginably callous thing she had long suspected him of. She wasn’t sure how she would do it – he would lie through his teeth – but she would. And if he had opened that ugly can of worms, then he would suffer the consequences.