‘So it’s not me, it’s you?’

He laughed thinly, relieved at the apparent offer of levity. ‘Yeah. Exactly.’

But he’d misread her. ‘You know what your problem is, Vincent?’

‘Tell me.’

‘You’re a fucking coward.’

‘Sure. Okay.’

Petra said nothing, which was probably a mistake – it gave him time to draw in a deep breath.

‘You know what, Petra? All this time, you’ve never listened to me. You appear out of nowhere and suddenly you want to take on my personal battles. You think through the force of your personality, your entitled, newly woken conscience, you’re going to make up for centuries of injustice.’

‘Hang on—’

‘I never needed you to rescue me. I never asked you for help. I never needed revenge.’ He paused, building up the final thrust with a tremor of anger she could feel through the phone. ‘I never asked for your reparation.’

‘Vincent—’

‘So now that we’re on the topic, that’s your problem. You can keep your guilt to yourself.’

He hung up.

27

27 After what Curtis Worthing had done to him? After what he had done to them both? After Beccie had strained beyond herself to give him one final instruction? Did Vincent even understand how lucky he was to know what she wanted from him? She needed him to do one clearly defined thing, and he wouldn’t help her. Some people would give anything to know how to help the person they loved.

So it was up to her, then. And Vincent’s rejection made things easier. It forced her to reflect; and he was right. All this time, she’d been pretending to empathise with him, with the injustice in his life, but she now realised her rage was hers. She would have to make Worthing pay. For cramping Helena’s creative, expansive life to a point of lightless, hand-to-mouth misery, all to afford care that failed her when she needed it. How many people like Helena had Worthing’s greed killed? And all the while, he was blithely having his new sports cars polished and his new houses flipped. He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

Of course he didn’t directly murder Helena, but they never do, do they? They invented a system that destroys lives and gathers profit. Getting rid of Worthing wasn’t going to bring the system down, but he was here, brought into her life, and she had to start somewhere.