‘And it hurts.’ She presses a hand to her chest. ‘It hurts so much that all this time I’ve done everything they asked of me, I’ve been the daughter they could be proud of and I’m not their child at all. It was a lie, all of it – the respectability, the family name, everything. My whole life is a lie. I don’t even know who I am.’

‘Jenna.’ Tom crouches beside her and presses a hand to her arm as she sobs. ‘You will get through this. You’ll never feel this much pain again. I promise you that.’

She peels the hair from her face to look at him. She wants to believe him but she’s not sure she can.

Chapter 32

Now

KATE

Just looking at Geraldine, stepping into the harness and pulling it up her body, makes Kate feel sick. She can’t stand the way the woman’s been making comments about how unattractive the harness is whilst quizzing the instructor about its sturdiness. Now, the poor man’s being bombarded with questions about the number of accidents per year and the rigorousness of the testing procedure for the equipment. Kate’s almost certain Geraldine’s mentally adding everything he says to the article she’s penning – ‘As well as trying to drown their guests, SoulShrink attempted to humiliate them by getting them to leap to their deaths whilst revealing their gussets to the world.’

All she has to do is climb up the pole and jump off it, for god’s sake. Although, Kate thinks idly, if the harness is faulty, then Geraldine won’t be around to write her bloody story. Hoorah.

Sighing, she reaches for the pile of coats the guests have thrown over a nearby log, grabs an armful, and trudges back to the Wilderness Adventures lodge. General skivvy, that’s her. At least she doesn’t have to jump off the bloody pole. Once the coats have been hung up she’ll be able to grab a cup of tea and sit down for five minutes. She’s been running around for days, ushering guests to their one-to-ones, preparing the therapy room, tidying the living area, cooking the food, serving it up, double checking the morning activities are booked and reviewing the spy cam footage. She hasn’t stopped. Last night, heading out to her car to retrieve a book for Tom, she spotted Phoenix and Renata chatting in the hot tub room. Renata, perched on the edge of the tub in a tiny bikini, was sobbing into her hands as Phoenix hovered awkwardly beside her. Kate hurried over to find out what was wrong. Surprise, surprise, Geraldine Bloody Rotheram had been sniffing around and she’d upset Renata. She’d quizzed her about Gozo, demanding she tell her exactly what had happened on the final evening of the retreat and then she’d headed off to question Phoenix too.