Elodie began to cry even harder at the harshness of her mother’s words. Bella put her head back and rolled her eyes. ‘For Christ’s sake!’ she muttered, before turning her gaze towards Charlotte and increasing the pressure of the knife a tiny bit further, stabbing agonizingly at her skin through her jeans. ‘Right, I’m going to get into the back seat but don’t even think about trying anything, or I will slit your throat.’

The strangely matter-of-fact tone of voice Bella used made her threat sound even more sinister than if she had shouted or snarled it and Charlotte’s heart pounded with terror and tears of pain and fear filled her eyes. Was that what she had done to Ben? The only reassurance she could give herself was that the knife looked clean, although she was sure she could see traces of streaks of blood on Bella’s hands.

Bella twisted her body until she was in a precarious crouching position, facing into the back seat, with one foot on the central console and the other on her seat. The knife was in her left hand, still pointed in Charlotte’s direction, but less forcefully than before, as she also had to hold onto the backrests with both hands, in order to manoeuvre herself into the back of the car.

Up ahead, Charlotte could see a set of traffic lights on green but as the car approached at speed, the green light turned to amber and instinctively, Charlotte pressed the brake to slow down.

Immediately, Bella gripped the knife more firmly and thrust it dangerously close to Charlotte’s cheek. ‘Do not slow down!’ she yelled, glancing over her shoulder at the lights. ‘Go through!’

Charlotte’s heart lurched with fear. ‘But it’s on red!’ she screamed back, her foot hovering over the brake.

Bella jabbed the knife into Charlotte’s cheek and she immediately felt the warmth of her own blood as it oozed down the side of her face. ‘I said, keep fucking going!’ Bella roared.

Charlotte whimpered with fear and said a mental prayer that there would be nothing coming from the other direction. She sped through the red light but clearly no one was listening to her prayers, as a white van smashed into them from the front, left-hand side and the car spun and spun and spun.

The world seemed to stand still as Bella flew backwards, almost as if in slow-motion, towards the windscreen, which shattered into a million pieces, as her beautiful head made contact, and then she kept on flying through the air. Until she was gone altogether.

Part Four

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Three Years Later

‘Happy birthday, Bertie!’ Jo cried, placing a huge chocolate cake with three lit candles onto the wooden garden table in front of him.

Bertie’s big blue eyes widened in delight and he grinned from ear to ear, as he knelt up on his chair to get closer to the cake. He brushed his blond hair out of his eyes and waited patiently while they all sang an enthusiastic but tuneless version of ‘Happy Birthday’, before leaning forward and puffing as hard as he could.