‘She came over last night. We were just talking. She was upset – we both were. I had some weed, and she made us cocktails. I felt she understood something about me. That we were alike—’

‘Slow down,’ Mark urged, seeing how worked up Callum was getting.

‘We were just talking. She said there was something she needed to do. Something big that people would never forget. I remember her saying that. But I think I blacked out. She must have spiked my drinks.’

He’d fallen asleep. And when he woke, groggy, he’d found himself bound and gagged.

He began to cry again. ‘I thought no one would come. I thought I’d die here.’

‘You’re all right. You’re safe,’ Mark said, but his heart was pounding.

‘How could she do this to me?’ he asked, and Mark shook his head.

‘I don’t know, Callum. I really don’t. I thought you and Eva were friends. I’m shocked that she would do—’

‘It wasn’t Eva.’

‘It wasn’t?’

‘No. It was Beth.’

Mark stared. He could hear Ursula coming back up the stairs, and he ran his hand over his face, recalibrating his thoughts, trying to understand. At that moment, Callum got up from the bed, moving quickly across the room. His rucksack was on the floor, and he began rummaging through it, his search becoming frantic.

‘Oh no, oh no,’ he said, his voice rising on a jagged ridge of panic. He spilled the contents on to the floor, sifted through it.

‘What is it? What are you looking for?’ Mark asked.

Callum looked up at him, his eyes round with fear. ‘Oh shit,’ he said.

It was love. Standing up there, saying those words, steadying herself for what was to come: it was all done for love. Make it big, Corinne had said, and Beth would do just that.

All those faces staring up at her, watching while she professed her regret, while she invoked sorrow at what Sasha had suffered as a result of her actions. They were just words, after all, they meant nothing compared to the desperate love that moved inside her. She scoured the crowd as she spoke, knowing that Corinne was there, waiting, watching.

The curtain moved once more, but it wasn’t the breeze. A figure entering through the open door, head bowed, making herself small as she moved swiftly around the back of the hall.

‘And I … I want to say …’ Beth went on, stumbling now, her eyes narrowing as they followed Eva through the room.

‘Carry on,’ Bracken said sharply behind her.

‘I … I …’

Eva stopped, crouched low, and then Corinne was on her feet, the two of them shuffling through the hall.

Wait, Beth thought. Wait! Look at me!

And then she was actually saying the words out loud, into the microphone.

‘No! Stop! Don’t go!’

But they had already gone through the doors.