Christmas Secrets Collection. Laura Iding

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,