‘He knows what?’ I say.

‘Your dad. He knows about you, Becca, about the abduction. I had to tell him, on the way over in the car.’

Anger sweeps through my body like a tsunami, wiping out every other emotion.

‘What the fuck?’ I shout. ‘You told him?’

‘I had to, nothing was making sense to him.’

My mouth opens but all I want to do is spit on her. How dare she? And how does she even know?

Holding her hand out as if diverting an assault, she says, ‘I had to, Becca. He wanted to know how Danny knew Katie Collins.’

‘How did you know?’ I growl through gritted teeth.

‘Danny told me the week before we got married, said he couldn’t marry me unless I knew the whole truth.’

‘You shouldn’t have told him,’ I say, pushing her arm out of the way and stepping in closer until my face is inches from hers. ‘You’re just an interfering bitch. You had no right, but you had to be the one to tell him, didn’t you? Had to be the one taking control.’

‘I… I…’

‘Shut up.’

The ground below my feet feels like it’s shifting. I know it’s not, that it’s just in my head, but I walk away from her anyway, attempting to calm down. What will I do now? Dad knows I was abducted, thanks to Joanna sticking her nose in. She’s still there, by the wall where I left her, staring over at me. My mouth is completely dry, my head burning, I need to get some water.

I wanted to tell him, to assure him that as far as I was concerned, it changed nothing, that he was still my dad. He didn’t know anything about the abduction so I have no reason to blame him. I wonder what his reaction was when he discovered his favorite daughter was really buried at the end of his yard.

‘He cried,’ Joanna says when I eventually muster up the courage to go back over and ask her. ‘He wanted to know if you knew but I said I didn’t think so.’

‘Does he know Katie Collins was my sister?’

‘Yes.’

I don’t want to continue talking to Joanna about this because she feels like an intruder in our secret. It’s our secret, it doesn’t belong to her. Danny had no right telling her. She must have really loved him to marry him, even after hearing what happened. Weird that, I’d have run ten miles in the opposite direction rather than get involved with such a fucked-up family.

‘I’m parched. I need to get some water before I go in and face him or I’ll collapse.’