Breaking Point (Drew Ashley 1) (34 page)

I exhaled. This was absurd. "The marriage was a forced Rwibyan marriage!"

"It's still a marriage. The Rwibyan's are watching us. If we get an annulment they'll know."

"I can't believe this!"

We were both quiet for a moment.

"Did Kale get mad?" Harvey asked.

"He doesn't know."

"So you haven't told him?" Harvey's wicked smile was back.

I was not going to be distracted. "Can we talk about our divorce?"

"No, I want to talk about you and Kale. I was surprised yesterday at the airport. Is that how he welcomes the woman he loves after she's been away and she almost died?"

There was a knock on Harvey's door. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Larry, the CEO, was waiting outside. I got up immediately. "I'll talk to you later."

Larry had turned away to talk to one of the PA's when I emerged from Harvey's office. I hurried out of the director's suite before he could notice me. No doubt he'd think Rosie and I had been captured due to our own carelessness.

***

That evening, Destiny and I were watching TV and eating greasy takeaway food when I felt my phone vibrate in my jeans pocket. I took it out, hoping it wasn't Kale. My guilt over my marriage to Harvey made me wary of talking to him.

"Who is it?" Destiny asked.

"Harvey."

"Oh, your husband. What's he saying?"

"Hey sweetie," I read aloud. I frowned. "Maybe he's got the wrong number."

Destiny was giggling. "Carry on."

"I'm on my way home now. It's been a pretty stressful day so I wouldn't mind a massage. I want steak for dinner. Love you lots. Kiss kiss."

Destiny laughed. "Harvey cracks me up."

I replied telling Harvey to get lost. This situation wasn't funny. At this rate, Kale and I may not be able to get married next year as I was secretly hoping. I'd have to wait for my divorce from Harvey to go through.

Kale and I went for dinner on Saturday night. I tried to act as normal and as innocent as I could, so that he wouldn't suspect anything. Afterward, I wondered why I hadn't just told him about it. I knew he got touchy when it came to Harvey, but surely he would understand.

***

Jon and Derrick were back when I got to work on Monday. They were sporting lovely tans. Life was just all good for some people. While Rosie and I had languished in a Rwibyan jail, they'd been out and about soaking up the sun.

I remembered the intensity of the heat in Rwibya and shuddered. Actually, I didn't envy them a bit.

Rosie started collecting mugs. I handed her mine. "Two sugars for me today," I told her.

"Should you be in work, Drew?" she asked, glaring at me.

"I'm feeling better."

She muttered under her breath as she went to make the drinks. When she returned with the mugs of steaming hot coffee, I accepted mine gratefully.

"I can't remember the last time I had a cup of coffee," Jon said, after taking a relishing swig.

"They don't drink coffee in Rwibya?" Eva asked, appalled.

"I don't think so," Jon said. "It's probably too hot for it."

We started exchanging Rwibyan horror stories. Somehow, Rosie made our jail-time and my deliriousness sound hilarious. We could laugh about it now, but it hadn't been funny at the time.

I started feeling funny around half an hour later, but I refused to focus on it. Twenty minutes later, I was feeling dizzy and my head was throbbing with pain. I went to the toilet to try and calm down and ended up throwing up.

Thoughts of pregnancy sprang to my mind, but I pushed them away. I wasn't pregnant. I knew that much. I wasn't having a vision either. What on earth was making me feel so ill?

I rinsed my mouth and was wiping it with tissue when Rosie came in. "Are you okay, Drew?"

"Yeah."

"You've been away from your desk for a while so I thought I'd come check on you. Are you feeling ill?"

"Yes." I sucked in a deep breath.

"I think you should go home."

I didn't argue. "I'll just go and get my bag."

"Go to the doctor's on your way," Rosie added. "In fact, don't come back to work until you've seen a doctor and whatever you've got has been diagnosed. This has got to be more than malaria. You were already ill before we went to Rwibya."

On my way home in the taxi, I called my local GP Surgery and booked an appointment. The earliest they could see me was tomorrow morning.

The next morning, my mum insisted on coming with me. I'd been throwing up all night, getting little to no sleep. My stomach was cramping like it was going to implode.

When we got to the doctor's, he did a few tests: blood pressure, urine, and all that, and then said I needed to go straight to hospital.

"Why?" my mum asked.

The doctor removed his white gloves. "We found some suspicious compounds in her urine, but we don't have the facilities to do proper tests here."

My mum and I called a taxi and dashed across town to the hospital. I wondered what compounds could be in my urine. I just hoped it was nothing pregnancy-related. The doctor wouldn't have sent us to hospital if it was just pregnancy, would he?

When we got to the hospital my mum called her office to let them know she wouldn't be in at all today. A part of me wanted her to go to work, because she was starting to stress me out, acting like I was on the verge of death. But another part of me was grateful for her presence.

"I can't wait until your dad gets back next week," she lamented as we sat in the waiting room. "This is all too much for me. All this crime and sickness."

There were only a few other people in the waiting room, so before long, my name was called and I was taken to an emergency ward. I lay on the hospital bed and submitted to the nurse's needle. Then we were left alone for hours. A nurse checked on me occasionally.

My mum was pacing now, wiping the occasional tear from her eyes, sitting, standing. Hello, it was me who was ill not her.

"I'm married to Harvey," I blurted out, just to get her mind onto something else.

My mum stopped pacing. "What?"

"I'm married to Harvey. He had to marry me to get me out of Rwibya."

My mum gave me a weird look. "Drew, we're in a very precarious situation. Now is not the time for you to go off on one!"

"I'm not. We're really married."

"It was a fake marriage."

I was surprised. "You know about it?"

"Yes, Harvey told me his plan for rescuing you."

"Oh, well did you know that we have to stay married for a year before we can divorce?"

My mum looked like I was aggravating her to no end. "Drew, it was a fake marriage you don't need a divorce."

"We do. It was fake, but it still stands."

"How can it stand if it's fake?" my mum snapped.

"Never mind," I muttered. She was too upset to understand.

It was mid-afternoon before a stern looking doctor parted the curtain around my bed. "Drew Ashley?" he asked reading from a clipboard.

"Yes?"

"Hi. I'm consultant Stephen Blake."

"Hi."

"Have you recently used any over-the-counter eye drops or anything like that?" Dr Blake asked.

"No."

"Does anyone in your household use them?"

"No, we don't have anything like that in our house," I said, looking at my mum.

Dr Blake glanced at his clipboard again. "We found tetrahydrozoline in your blood."

My mum screamed. I grabbed her hand. "Calm down, mum. You're making me nervous." If anyone should be screaming, it was me.

"What's that?" my mum demanded, as if it was the doctor that put the stuff in my blood.

"It's used in over-the-counter eye drops and nasal sprays," the doctor explained.

"Well, how did they get into her body?"

Doctor Blake removed his glasses and looked from me to my mum grimly. "I suspect you've been poisoned."

It made sense.

My mum was crying now. "Why would anyone want to poison you, Drew?" she wailed. "I wonder what's going on."

I was told I hadn't taken in very high levels, so I should just go home and rest it off, although I'd have to come back for an x-ray to check that no lasting damage had been done.

"What if it's Jazz that's poisoning you so that you'll die and she can have Kale?" my mum whispered as we left the hospital.

"I don't think so," I told her. A few things started clicking into place in my mind. When I got home, I went to my room to iron out my thoughts.

That evening, I called the police and told them I had a lead. Two hours later, an officer showed up to question me.

I explained what had been going on the past few weeks. The weird illness usually started at work and then improved while I was off sick from work, then started again when I returned to work.

"Do you think it relates to the car bomb and the vandalism?" the police officer asked, scribbling away as I spoke.

"Possibly." My heart was heavy, but I had to report it. "I hate to suspect anybody, but it's whenever my boss makes me a cup of coffee that it happens. I didn't see the connection until today.

***

I considered not going to work on Wednesday, but I had too much to do. A taxi dropped me off at half seven. I entered the building, feeling a little anxious, but telling myself that I was not going to fear Rosie. She was the one who should fear because she was facing jail.

I'd been awake most of the night thinking about it and trying to come up with a possible motive. Why would Rosie do it? I wondered what to say to her when I saw her today. I couldn't let her know that I knew. I'd have to act normal.

Something bright pink caught my eye when I got to my floor. It looked like there were flowers on my desk. And they were huge. That told me all I needed to know about who'd sent them.

I marched across the open plan office and glared at the flowers. They were pretty tacky, which was surprising because Harvey usually had such good taste. I snatched them up and went up to confront him.

Harvey was tripping. I was going to set him right today and put an end to all this foolishness. I smiled at the one PA who was in this early, and knocked on Harvey's door, which was closed today. He looked up and saw me through the glass, but didn't answer. His head bent over his work again. I opened the door anyway.

"I don't have time to talk to you, Drew," he said, continuing to write, not looking up.

"I'm not here for you to talk to me. I'm here to talk while you listen."

Harvey looked up, an amused expression on his face. "Ooh, you go, girl."

"You can't send me flowers at work. If something possesses you to do so, at least don't sign your name."

Harvey looked at the flowers. "I didn't send those."

I frowned. He didn't. "Well, who did?"

"I don't know, and I really don't care."

I checked the bouquet for a card, and found one hidden under a glittered leaf:
Dear Drew, I love you so much. Kale.

I met Harvey's mocking gaze, mortified.

"Drew, I'm up to my eyeballs in board reports, so if you don't mind, can you excuse me?"

I turned to leave.

"Actually, wait," Harvey said. "I'm not sure if you've heard. Rosie won't be in today. She's been arrested over some poisoning allegations."

I turned to face Harvey. "When was she arrested?"

"Last night. She called me from the police station to let me know she wouldn't be coming to work."

"Yeah, you know I've been sick on and off for a while. Well, apparently—"

"I know all about it," Harvey said, waving a dismissive hand. "Rosie told me, and I'd rather not discuss it with you. I'm a suspect in your case, too. I'm not sure if you know?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I think Kale said something about me when he got arrested."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because I was called in for questioning about the car bomb just before I went to Rwibya. They asked if I was jealous of your relationship with Kale."

I crumpled the card from the tacky flowers in my pocket, before I remembered again that they were from Kale, not Harvey. I didn't know what to say.

"I was told that if they can prove that I did it, it'd be attempted murder. Life sentence."

"You're joking."

"I'm not."

I would tell the police myself that it wasn't Harvey. But to be objective about it, how did I know it wasn't? What did I really know about Harvey, or about his character? Nothing at all.

Harvey put down his pen. "Drew, I'm surprised. Do you really think I would harm you?"

"I don't. But I think you'll understand if I say that I don't know who to trust or what to believe."

"Fair enough." Harvey said with a shrug of a broad shoulder. "By the way, we don't need a divorce."