Vanessa sat back on the floor and picked up the one boot that she could find. She should have been thinking about what Billy had just unloaded on her, but she was thinking of Wren, of how devastated he must have been. Frustrated, she blew out a breath that sounded more like the raspberries that she used to blow on Wren’s tummy, listening to him giggling with delight. Instantly, she was transported back. Rolls of baby fat; skin as soft as velvet; wide, inquisitive eyes. Wren had been her salvation. Every day she was thankful that she had him. She suppressed a sob; she didn’t want Billy to hear her crying. It would show too much weakness. She thought about what he’d said, but the desire to finish what she started trumped everything else. Vanessa crawled back into the wardrobe, still looking for her other boot. She touched something hard and felt round the edges. It felt like a book. She grabbed it and pulled it out.

It was one of Olivia’s diaries. It must have tumbled into the back when she’d thrown them into the wardrobe so Billy didn’t destroy any more. Great, she’d have to return it to Ryan. She wondered if she could just post it. It seemed like both the coward’s way out and a great idea. She looked at it a bit more closely. The other ones had broken spines; you could tell they’d been used. This one, however, was pristine. Like it had never been written in. She opened the book to the first page. There were two words written down.

Wren knows.

Wren knows what? A sinking feeling settled over her. Her body turned into a mass of pins and needles that punctured her skin. What did Wren know? That Olivia was going to commit suicide? Maybe she confided in him and that’s why he was so depressed, because he knew what was coming and there was nothing that he could do about it. She put the diary with its offending words down and dove back into the wardrobe, looking for Wren’s phone, which she’d discarded in there after reading his messages.

She found the phone and held it in her hand for a long time before putting the phone and the diary into her bag. She made her way down the hallway and out to her car. Billy had already left after he’d spoken to her – well, at her.

She had a week’s grace. A week to solve this mess, to wrap it up and get a confession from Justin and Wade so she could take it to the police. If she hadn’t finished it by then, she had two choices: keep at it and lose Billy, or keep Billy and lose Wren. She wasn’t prepared for either of those options.