The Passengers(98)
Libby’s eyes brimmed with tears, before she wiped them away with her cuff. ‘You know what really hurts? That you made a fool of me … that I let down my guard and you made me believe that you were something you were not. How can I ever get over the lies and the manipulation? If you were me, could you?’
‘I have risked so much to be here, doesn’t that tell you something?’
Libby couldn’t deny that it did. She remained motionless and studied Noah with unwavering attention. His eyes appeared filled with hope and desperation. If the man in front of her had been the man she had met in Manchester, she would have believed him. But this was Noah, and she didn’t know him any more than she did a stranger. Yet try as she might, she couldn’t deny something was pulling him towards her, an invisible magnet that made her want to go against her rationale and believe him.
‘How can I ever forgive you for what happened?’ she asked. ‘We have everything – and I mean everything – going against us.’
‘We can work through it, I know we can. Just say you’ll give me a chance. Me appearing out of nowhere, making you this offer … I know what I’m asking you is utterly insane; I’m one hundred per cent aware of that. But I was willing to give up my freedom to come here because of what I’m sure is between us.’
A trickle of sweat made its way from the nape of Libby’s neck and down her spine. She refused to let her gaze leave Noah’s until she was ready to answer him.
Then, almost imperceptibly, she began to nod her head. In response, Noah’s eyes opened wide and his face lit up.
‘Really?’ he asked. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘But we have to leave now before I come to my senses.’
This time when Noah approached her, Libby didn’t recoil. She allowed him to throw his arms around her and draw her in close to his chest. As he leaned in to kiss her, Libby closed her eyes and forgot everything that had gone before it. For a moment, she was back in the pub garden a year ago, surrounded by the creamy glow of lanterns hanging from the trees. A stranger’s lips were locked upon hers and she breathed in the scent of his cologne and his warm skin. Back then, it was the start of a new chapter, she had thought; something inside her was awakening. The memory was fleeting and when it left, she pulled away from him.
‘Where will we go first?’ she asked.
‘I know people who can get us out of the country tonight.’
‘But I need my passport, what about my job, my house, my family, my friends – how will I explain to them?’
‘We will work it all out as we go along, I promise.’ Noah grinned and with his fingers entwined around hers as he made for the door.
‘Don’t forget your phone,’ she said, pointing towards the table where he’d been sitting.
‘Do you see the effect you have on me?’ he said as he moved towards his device.
‘Can I ask you one more question?’ Libby said suddenly.
‘Anything.’
‘What really happened to Noah Harris after his family died?’
Libby watched as the man in front of her ground to a halt. He remained with his back to her. ‘I don’t understand?’ he asked. His tone suggested otherwise.
‘I was there, at his family’s funeral. I couldn’t take my eyes off Noah as he stood at the altar, having to be physically propped up by his friends because he was so wracked with grief. I watched him place a white rose on each of their coffins, then follow the undertakers out to their cars before they continued to the crematorium for a private service. For a second, his and my eyes locked. The image of that poor, desperate man will never leave me. And you are most definitely not Noah Harris. Are you?’
Chapter 67
All that could be heard in the space between Libby and the man she had once been infatuated with was her escalating heartbeat. ‘You’re Noah’s brother Alex, aren’t you?’ His answer came with his silence.
There was no better time for her to make her escape and the Libby of old would have run hell for leather out of the door for help. But Alex hadn’t met the post-hijack version of Libby Dixon; the resolute, steadfast woman who was determined to see this confrontation through to the bitter end. And now that she had the upper hand, she stood her ground.
‘Noah is dead, isn’t he?’ Libby continued. ‘It was your brother who changed his mind and didn’t want to go through with the plan to hijack the Passengers. You were the one who took it to another level and killed all those people.’
Alex took a moment before he replied. ‘Be careful what you say, Libby. The next words to leave your mouth could change the course of everything.’
But Libby had no intention of paying his thinly veiled threat any heed. ‘If I hadn’t seen Noah at the funeral, I’d have believed you were him. And especially in the way you were looking at Stephenie and Gracie in those photos and videos. That’s because you were in love with them, weren’t you? Noah might have been your brother, but your heart was with Stephenie. And you weren’t looking at her daughter like a caring uncle, but as a proud dad.’
Libby could just about detect Alex nodding his head. ‘When they died, it was your grief that made you take such extreme measures to get your revenge, not Noah’s.’