Twins for a Christmas Bride

by Josie Metcalfe

  Walking over to the side of Zara’s bed, he tipped out a piece of plastic onto her lap.

  ‘Do you know what that is?’ he asked in a quiet conversational tone.

  Sara almost gave herself away with a gasp of surprise. The last time she’d seen a piece of plastic like that had been in the garage when they’d been asking about the damage to Zara’s car.

  ‘Of course I don’t know what it is,’ she said with a dismissive shrug. ‘It’s just a bit of scrap plastic.’

  ‘Actually, it’s a bit more than that,’ he said with a noticeably sharper edge to his voice as he retrieved it and put it back in the bag, without touching it with his fingers. ‘It’s part of the light from your BMW—the one you broke when you ran your sister down and left her lying in a side street, not caring whether she was alive or dead.’

  ‘That’s a lie!’ Audrey gasped, clearly shocked out of her unaccustomed bystander’s role. ‘That’s a wicked, wicked lie. Danny, why are you doing this to Zara? She’s your wife and she’s ill. You should be supporting her, not spouting this ridiculous nonsense that Sara’s been feeding you.’

  ‘Audrey—’ Dan said forcefully, trying to break into her tirade.

  ‘I know why you’re doing it,’ she continued, condemnation in every stiff inch of her. ‘The two of you have got your heads together and made the whole thing up to cover up the fact that you’ve got a thing going between you. You’re an adulterer and she’s no better than a …’

  ‘Mrs Walker,’ Dan barked, apparently reverting to formality as nothing else seemed to be getting through. ‘If you dare say one derogatory word against Sara, I shall assume you’re hysterical and slap you.’

  ‘What?’ Her eyes and mouth were wide with shock but she must have seen something in his face that made her believe he would do what he’d threatened because she subsided ungracefully into the chair on the other side of Zara’s bed.

  ‘As I was saying,’ Dan continued, apparently calm again, but from her position Sara could tell from the way his veins were distended that his anger must have sent his blood pressure up. She would have to suggest that he have it checked, but for now she was still amazed that he would have sided with her against the rest of her family. No one had ever done that before. ‘Unfortunately, it’s the truth. I took that piece of plastic from the BMW and gave it to the police because I saw that there were fibres caught in it. Their forensic labs have confirmed that they were strands of top-quality vicuna and that they were an absolute match for the fibres in Sara’s coat—the one you gave to her and that she was wearing when you knocked her down.’

  There were several seconds of horrified silence at the end of his recitation and Sara almost felt sorry for her parents when she saw the way they were staring at their beloved daughter … almost as if they didn’t recognise her any more … as if she’d suddenly grown a second head, or something.

  ‘All right!’ Zara snapped. ‘So it all went a lot further than I expected, but I still didn’t get what I wanted, and that was to get rid of the kid.’

  It was all too much for her mother to cope with and she burst into noisy tears, unwilling even to be consoled by her husband.

  ‘Why did you have to go poking around? Why couldn’t you just leave it alone? After all, bones heal and she’s still carrying your precious baby … Oh, I’m sorry, it’s babies, isn’t it? There’s two of the ghastly ankle-biters in there, gradually bloating her body until she’s going to look like a hippo.’

  ‘Why, Zara?’ Frank demanded, obviously completely confused. ‘What went wrong? You seemed so happy until you couldn’t have children, but then Sara offered—’

  ‘Sara didn’t offer,’ she interrupted rudely. ‘Mum virtually blackmailed her into it because I said I couldn’t get pregnant.’

  ‘Well, there was very little likelihood that you’d be able to while you were taking the Pill,’ Dan supplied dryly.

  Zara blinked, as though surprised that he knew that she’d been lying to him, but he was already moving on. ‘What I don’t understand is why you went through the whole pantomime in the first place.’

  ‘Typical man!’ she scoffed, tossing her head in a wellpractised move that sent her hair tumbling over one shoulder. ‘It’s obvious. It was all a game, just a bit of fun seeing how easy it was to take you away from Sara, especially when I could tell that she had already fallen head over heels for you. I didn’t love you—never really wanted you, if you want the truth—I certainly never had any real intention of going as far as marriage.’

  Her mother gave a little whimper of distress but that only seemed to enrage Zara further and she turned her fury on her parents. ‘If you two hadn’t been so bloody eager to put on the big flashy fairy-tale wedding, none of this would have happened. I’m a successful model and there’s a possibility that I might get a part in a Hollywood film. The last thing I want is to be stuck at home, nothing more than a housewife with two brats.’

  ‘So, let me get this right,’ Dan said icily. ‘Everything you’ve done—married me, almost killed your sister because she’s pregnant with the child you said you wanted, and taken an overdose of drugs—which, by the way, you carefully timed so that, if I hadn’t been taking care of Sara, I would have found you before they’d had time to get into your system—all of that is somebody else’s fault and beautiful Princess Zara is the innocent victim? I think not.’

  He took a step closer so that he positively loomed over her and his words had the precision of surgical steel.

  ‘The police are waiting for me to report back before they charge you with the attempted murder of your sister and her unborn children. If you’re found guilty … which I hardly think is in doubt … you can expect to be sentenced to a minimum of twelve years in prison, but it’s more likely to be eighteen years.’

  ‘Eighteen years!’ Audrey wailed, but Zara didn’t say a word, at last speechless now that she’d been confronted with the probable consequences of her actions. ‘She didn’t mean to do it.’ Audrey turned pleading eyes on Sara, as ever protective of her favourite daughter. ‘You couldn’t possibly send your own twin to prison.’

  ‘I really didn’t mean to do it,’ Zara said suddenly, the subdued tone of her voice and the ghastly pallor of her skin telling Sara that perhaps she really was telling the truth this time. ‘I’ve had a couple of photo shoots on the West Coast—of America,’ she added, in case they weren’t following. ‘And when the possibility of this acting job came up and then became a probability, I suddenly felt trapped because the baby … babies,‘ she corrected herself, ‘weren’t due until a couple of weeks after filming’s due to begin.’

  ‘That still doesn’t explain why you would decide to run your sister over. Why on earth would you want to kill her?’

  ‘Why? Because she’s too bloody perfect,’ she snarled. ‘She got all the brains in the family and just sailed through school and medical training, and she got the beauty as well.’

  ‘That’s why you did this,’ Sara murmured as she traced her original scar, the one Zara had given her so many years ago. ‘I thought it was because you wanted people to be able to tell us apart. I never dreamed it was because you hated me.’

  ‘No!’ It was the first time that her sister hadn’t rushed to claim that it had been an accident and the fact that her first instinct had been to deny that she hated Sara thawed something deep inside her that had been frozen for a very long time. ‘Oh, everything just got so muddled in my head, probably because of the tablets one of my friends gave me.’

  ‘Tablets?’ Dan demanded instantly. ‘What tablets? Where did you get them from?’

  ‘My friend said she got them from America, on the internet. They call them designer drugs. They’re gone now,’ she added hastily. ‘I flushed them when I got back to the flat after I … after …’ She shook her head and started to shed what were probably the first genuine tears in years. ‘My friend and I were high on them when she said my only option was to get rid of the baby, then I wouldn’t have to be
stuck in England, and my head was so messed up that it seemed to make perfect sense. Then, when I was driving towards Sara in that lane and her first thought was to save the baby … I was just so angry that she always … always did the right thing that I … that I aimed straight at her and … Oh, God, I’m sorry, Sara,’ she gasped. ‘And I’m just so glad that I didn’t … didn’t k-kill you …’

  One part of Sara’s brain must have been registering the changing figures on the electronic monitors because somehow she wasn’t in the least surprised when Dan reached for her sister’s wrist to feel for himself just how fast her pulse was beating.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Audrey demanded. ‘What’s the matter with Zara?’

  ‘Probably nothing more than too much stress in the last half-hour,’ he said soothingly.

  ‘It’s not her liver, is it?’ her father suggested fearfully. ‘It’s not packing up completely, is it?’

  ‘It’s unlikely that it will pack up.’ This time his tone was reassuring. ‘That was one of the reasons why I started investigating Sara’s accident, because if it had been Zara responsible for running her over, then it meant the drugs probably hadn’t been in her system long enough to do serious permanent damage.’

  ‘So, what’s the matter now?’ That was her mother again, holding onto Zara’s hand as though it was a lifeline. ‘Why are the monitors peeping and pinging like that?’

  That, in far more clinical terms, was Mr Shah’s first question when he appeared in the doorway a few seconds later, obviously alerted by the member of staff at the unit’s central monitoring station.

  ‘Her pulse and respiration were probably elevated by a family discussion,’ Dan said blandly.

  ‘In that case, I think I will have to ask you to leave,’ the consultant said formally. ‘There has been a slight improvement in my patient’s condition and I don’t want anything to reverse it. Please, if you could return at the next visiting hour?’

  Her mother obviously knew from the man’s quiet air of command that there was no point trying to persuade him to change his mind and she bade her daughter a tearful good bye before leaving the room with her husband’s arm supportively around her shoulders.

  She was so wrapped up in her misery that she barely glanced in Sara’s direction, so nothing had changed there.

  ‘You, too, please,’ Mr Shah said to Dan and Sara. ‘I know you are both doctors in this hospital so you will know how important proper rest is for a body when it is recuperating.’

  ‘Of course, sir,’ Dan said respectfully, and walked round behind Sara to take charge of the handles of her wheelchair.

  At the last moment before she left the room, Sara glanced back over her shoulder to meet the golden hazel eyes that were the absolute double of her own.

  ‘The authorities will not be informed,’ she said cryptically, and saw from the dawning relief on her sister’s face that she had understood what Sara was trying to tell her.

  ‘I take that you meant you won’t be preferring charges against your sister,’ Dan said in a low voice meant for her ears alone.

  ‘I’m presuming that you didn’t give those authorities enough information to work out what happened with the car?’ she countered.

  ‘So you’re just going to let her get away with it?’ he asked in a voice that was as unreadable as the face in front of her in the lift.

  ‘As there was no permanent damage done …’ she agreed, very conscious that they had a captive audience. ‘The penalty seems out of proportion.’

  ‘I wouldn’t know,’ he admitted with a fleeting glimpse of a grin. ‘I made that bit up.’

  Sara nearly choked trying to subdue her sudden laughter. ‘Remind me not to play poker with you.’

  ‘Shame,’ he teased as he pushed her across the reception area. ‘I was thinking of suggesting a game after we eat tonight. What do you think?’

  What she thought was that she’d completely forgotten to tell him that she’d moved out of his flat today.

  ‘Um … Actually, Dan, I’ve moved back into my own place, so I won’t be—’

  ‘What? When?’ he demanded, clearly startled, and just for a moment she tried to persuade herself that he looked disappointed, too. ‘And how did you get there?’

  ‘St George rescued me from the dragon,’ she said, opting for laughter rather than tears as she suddenly realised that she had absolutely no idea where she stood with him any more.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THERE had been no mistaking the expression on Dan’s face that time, Sara thought while he drove her towards her flat in complete silence. That had definitely been more than disappointment on his face, it had been hurt.

  ‘Can you manage by yourself from here?’ he asked briskly, and she suddenly realised that he had pulled up outside the front of her house.

  She sighed heavily, wondering when she was ever going to get anything right.

  ‘Dan, you saw how difficult it was for me to get into the car once I was out of the wheelchair. There are only two ways of getting up the four flights of stairs once I get in there, and that’s either on my bottom the whole way or if someone helps me.’

  ‘So why did you move back here, then?’ he demanded impatiently. ‘My place is eminently more suitable for someone in your position because it’s got a lift.’

  Unfortunately, it had far more than a lift. It had Dan living there, too, and she just couldn’t cope with staying with him any longer.

  ‘And it’s Zara’s place, too, and with any luck it won’t be too long until she’s ready to come home to it.’

  ‘And?’ Those green eyes were far too astute. Sometimes she was convinced that he could read her mind.

  ‘And there’s no way that Zara and I can live in the same flat, not after what’s happened,’ Sara said bluntly. ‘She said she’s sorry and she didn’t mean to do it, but she said the same thing about this …’ She pulled her hair away from her race to reveal the first scar her twin had inflicted on her so long ago. ‘And she’s said it over and over again until … Well, let’s just say I don’t really trust her because the only one who matters to Zara is Zara.’

  He reached his hand out towards her and gently laid it over hers where she’d unconsciously splayed it protectively over the hard curve of her pregnancy.

  ‘You don’t trust her to be too close to the babies?’ he asked, but they both knew it wasn’t really a question.

  He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath then opened them again and gave a brisk nod as if he’d just come to some momentous decision.

  Rather than telling her about it, he released his seat belt and slid out of the car, leaving her feeling strangely dissatisfied.

  ‘Come on, then, let’s get you up those stairs,’ he said, and hauled her unceremoniously to her feet.

  ‘All I can say is it’s a good job you’re not coming into work for a few weeks yet, or you’d have to set off the previous day to get there in time for your shift,’ he teased when they finally reached the top floor.

  That’s what you think, she mused as she lay in bed later that night and contemplated the prospect of weeks of sitting around, twiddling her thumbs.

  ‘It would drive me completely mad, just staring at the walls when I could be making myself useful at work,’ she continued aloud.

  She tried to remember a precedent for a member of staff coming in to work a shift while they were sporting a cast and couldn’t, but … ‘There’s that doctor who uses a crutch on that American hospital drama!’ she remembered. ‘She can get up a fair turn of speed on it and still manages to take care of patients.’

  She gave a quiet snort of laughter, trying to imagine herself using an actress in a fictional hospital to argue her case for an early return to work.

  ‘Well, that character may be fiction but I’m not. This is reality and the hospital is chronically short of staff. And even if I have to put up with weeks of being stuck in minors until the cast comes off, that’s what I’m going to do.’

  An
hour later she was still lying there wide awake, her brain going round and round the same scene, even now unable to believe that her sister could have wanted to harm the infant she was carrying. It was hard to drift off to sleep when all she could see in her mind’s eye was the harsh glare of the headlights bearing down on her.

  ‘Did I do the right thing in promising not to press charges?’ she wondered aloud. ‘Should I have made some sort of formal complaint so that, if at some time in the future something should happen to the babies, they’ll investigate Zara first?’

  That hadn’t been the right thing to think about as she was trying to sleep. She felt sick at the very thought of something or somebody hurting them.

  But what would she be able to do about it once they were born and she’d handed them over? On that day she would officially become their aunt rather than their mother and would have no legal say in what happened to them.

  A feeling close to panic started to fill her and for several mad moments she imagined herself grabbing her passport and slipping out of the country. There was a whole wide world out there and in almost every country there were people crying out for doctors to treat their sick and injured. Surely she would be able to find a way to support herself and the two precious lives inside her?

  Then she imagined how Dan would feel, knowing that somewhere in the world there were two children bearing his genes and he’d never seen them … beyond a fuzzy ultrasound picture.

  Just the idea of the man she loved gazing longingly at that image year after year was enough to bring the hot press of tears to her eyes and she knew she couldn’t do it to him.

  So, what was she going to do?

  A strange sensation deep inside drew her attention away from that insoluble conundrum and she pressed her hand over the firm curve, remembering with a smile the way Dan had placed his hand over hers.

  Oh, yes, he was going to be such a good father to this little pair. Kind and gentle and endlessly patient and …