And Mark had wanted him to hear it all. He wanted Jamie to know what Rebecca had come from.
What kind of upbringing had moulded her into the woman she’d become? Letting her speak meant that Jamie had heard it all, first-hand, straight from the bitch’s mouth.
‘Let her go,’ Jamie said, the nervous tone to his voice betraying him as he stood haplessly in the middle of the lounge, watching the scene unfold before him, a metal pole in his hand for protection.
Which looked almost comical seeing as Mark was holding a blade to his wife’s throat.
‘Let who go? Alex… or Rebecca?’ Mark sneers, disappointed that even after everything he’d just heard, he still wanted to help this murdering little bitch. ‘Because she’s not who she claims to be. You’re not even legally married. You can’t be, she’s not real!’
Jamie’s eyes searched Rebecca’s for a hint of some truth. What he’d heard had to be lies, surely? This man wasn’t right in the head. He was crazy, unhinged. Talking in riddles.
Only as Rebecca looks down, not quick enough to hide her guilty expression, he realises that whoever this man was, he was telling the truth.
‘Rebecca?’
‘Her real name is Alex.’ Mark raised his voice as Jamie paled, shock flashing across his face as he realises that Alex knows this man. That he’s not just some random intruder. ‘Finally, the dumb fuck gets it. You can’t trust this bitch, you know that, don’t you? She’s a liar and a murderer. Now, why don’t you put that down before someone gets hurt,’ Mark instructed, nodding at Jamie, indicating for him to put the pole down on the floor and take a seat on the sofa.
Eyeing the fresh cut that’s forming on Rebecca’s throat, a small trickle of blood running from where the sharp blade is piercing her skin, Jamie doesn’t need to be told twice.
‘She’s not all she cracked up to be, is she? This wife of yours. A murderer. A liar. An Oscar-worthy actress. She had everyone fooled. Me too, once upon a time.’
Jamie scanned the coffee table, his eyes going from the pile of medication in front of him, back to Rebecca, as he wondered how many tablets she’d already been forced to take.
She looked awful. Her eyes, red and puffy from crying, were fixed on him. She was scared. He could see the genuine fear radiating from her.
Whoever this man was, he was trying to kill Rebecca, and he looked capable of going through with it too.
‘What is it that you want? Money? Because I have money. I can give you whatever you need.’
‘Money? Is that what you think will fix this? You heard the conversation. You saw the newspaper articles I sent you. You should know what she did. It was her. She was driving that car.’ Mark shook his head, incredulously, the disgust clear in his voice that Jamie still wasn’t getting it. That somewhere inside his skull, his brain still couldn’t comprehend that Rebecca wasn’t who he thought she was. ‘She killed two people.’ He bit his lip, his face twisted into an expression of complete hate.
‘She killed Jessica. My child died. MY CHILD. And this bitch here fled the scene and saved herself. She’s been trying to save herself every day since.’ Mark was shouting now. Bellowing. Spelling out the obvious to this imbecile in front of him who thought he could just throw some money at him, and Mark would go away.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
Not yet.
Not until he’d done what he’d come here to do.
‘She’s using you. All she ever wanted was a new identity. A new life to hide inside. She used you, just like she uses everyone. And you gave her everything she needed. Yet here you are, like a mug, coming to save a woman who doesn’t really give a shit about you.’ He turned back to Rebecca then. ‘But then that’s Alex, exactly as I remember her. She’s only ever looked out for number one. Putting herself before others, no matter what the cost. And the cost this time was an innocent child’s life.’
Mark stared at Jamie.
Jamie’s face had paled. He looked directly at Rebecca now, willing her to tell him that it was all lies. That none of it was true.
Only she didn’t speak.
She couldn’t.
‘Go on, Alex. Tell him,’ Mark said. ‘Fucking tell him what you did!’
‘It was an accident,’ Rebecca spluttered, feeling the knife pressing harder against her skin, as Mark riled himself up, his temper taking over, making him unaware of the strength he was using. ‘I never meant to kill her. And I didn’t want to lie to you, Jamie. But how could I tell the truth?’
‘Because you’re a liar, Alex. You lied to him. You lied to everyone. Everything about you is fake.’
‘No, we were real.’ Rebecca turned her pleading eyes to her husband. ‘Me and you, Jamie. I never lied about how I felt about us.’
Tears streaming down her face, she gulped, the pressure of the heavy blade against her windpipe making her scared to breathe too hard or talk too loud. She could see the look of disgust on Jamie’s face, and worse than that, something else.
Doubt.
He didn’t believe her.
And part of Rebecca knew that he’d already started to put two and two together before today.
Because he’d seen the emails.
He would have been piecing everything together.
Only the truth was much worse than Jamie could have ever suspected.
‘Her name is Alex Besley. And all of this – this house. This marriage. None of it’s real. Even now, what she’s saying. It’s all lies. Alex isn’t capable of loving anyone. You heard her yourself. The life she had before me. Her murdering nut job of a mother; she’s just like her. They are two of the same. And now she’s sucked you in too, she’s using you for her own devices. Trust me. I know her, better than she knows herself.’
Jamie drops his gaze, his eyes fixed at the floor. His body deadly still.
Unable to look Rebecca in the eye.
Because this man, a complete stranger to him, was right.
Their entire marriage, relationship was all based on complete lies.
Jamie didn’t have a clue who she really was.
Mark laughs then, victoriously.
‘Even your husband doesn’t want you now, Alex. How does that feel, huh? But then, he hasn’t wanted you for a while, has he?’ Mark says with a smirk, his sarcasm clear to them both.
Knowing full well that Jamie would come around to his way of thinking, now that he could see Alex for exactly what she really was.
A lying, child murdering bitch.
Chapter Forty-Three
‘Lisa, what time did you last see Rebecca in the office?’ Officer Blythe asks as Lisa returns to the lounge holding Ella in her arms.
‘I don’t know, it was about ten minutes before I called you, I guess. So about forty minutes ago… Why? Can you see her?’
‘No, I haven’t seen her yet. But I think there might be something up with the recording. You said you saw Rebecca tearing the office apart? But it looks immaculate now?’
‘Yeah, I thought that was odd, you know. One minute it was a complete mess. She must have tidied it back up?’
‘Well, I’ve been wondering about that.’ Clicking the link, the officer zooms in on the office. Pointing at the clock on the office wall.
Lisa leans in close and peers at the time.
‘The batteries have stopped?’ she says with a shrug.
‘The tapes have been looped. This isn’t the real time.’ Officer Blythe shakes his head and makes a grab for his radio.
‘Why would the tapes be looped? I don’t understand… So what we’re seeing now isn’t real?’