She backs away. ‘Very well,’ she says.

And just as she is turning from them, she sees him. There, in the window gazing down, is Anton, his arms wrapped around his chest, his face pressed right up against the window. All she can manage is a snatched glance at him, but Hilary is sure – she would swear on it – that he is looking down on this scene of disaster, smiling.

22

Leah

‘I think you’d better go,’ Jake tells Hilary, and Leah watches the swish of her purple skirt disappearing into the gloom of the flat.

Overhead, the day has darkened.

‘Come inside,’ Jake says. ‘I’m not doing this out here.’

He scowls up at the house as he disappears indoors. She follows, weakness in her legs. There’s a smeary, indistinct feeling in her head, thoughts muddled, and when she comes inside, the darkness of the flat disorients her. Her face hurts where Jenna struck her, and the memory of that hard slap, all the venom within it, frightens her. She puts a hand out to hold on to the back of a kitchen chair, steadying herself.

Jake is walking around the room, one hand clasped to the back of his neck. He’s still holding the newspaper. She’s never seen him so agitated.

‘Can I please see that?’ she asks, pointing to the newspaper, trying to keep calm.

He moves quickly towards her, throws the paper on to the table in front of her. His face is white, a thin-lipped expression of barely controlled rage.

She glances down and sees the headline:

A MATCH MADE IN HELL

Killer’s New Love Interest Has Her Own Dark Past

She sits down quickly. Even though one part of her knows she ought to remain standing, face him on her feet, the horrible plunge of nerves going through her has made her weak. Her eyes scan the text.

Convicted killer Anton Woodbury has found love again after serving an eighteen-year sentence for the cold-blooded murder of his wife. Pictured last week leaving Anton’s home in the early hours of the morning is sultry twenty-six-year-old Leah Sullivan. Miss Sullivan, who appears to have taken up residence with the newly released killer, has her own dark history. For in 2007 she was at the centre of a case involving the death of a baby that chilled the small midlands town of _____. Eight-month-old Cian Hannigan had been left in the care of Sullivan, his teenage babysitter, when he died under suspicious circumstances. Although never formally charged, rumours continue to swirl around Leah Sullivan’s involvement in tragic Cian’s wrongful death. When contacted by this newspaper, Cian’s parents declined to comment, however several neighbours we spoke to confirmed that the babysitter had sole charge of the child in the crucial twenty-four hours leading up to his death.