Annabelle looked at Matt. He was nodding, but she didn’t think this would work. She didn’t think that whoever was doing this was foolish enough to make it that easy, but she didn’t want to say that. She didn’t want to break Matt’s heart.

Plus, it was something to think about.

‘Good idea,’ she said. ‘Let’s do it.’

They settled on the head of a hammer sewn into the cuff of her coat. It was a large puffer coat, so the hammer-head didn’t stick out. It did make it hang a bit strangely, but if she put her hand in her jeans pocket it was reasonably well disguised.

‘You use that,’ Brenda said. ‘The first chance you get, and as hard as you can.’

‘I don’t know if I can,’ Annabelle said.

‘You can,’ Brenda replied. ‘There’s no doubt. Just remember what they’ve put you through. Someone has chosen to do this to you, and they deserve to be hit with that hammer as hard as you can swing it. Harder.’

‘I will,’ Annabelle said.

‘There’s something odd about this,’ Brenda said. ‘Something personal. But whoever is doing this is deluded. Deranged, almost.’

Annabelle stared at her. Deluded. Deranged. A memory came to her of the last time she’d heard those words together. It was a long time ago, but the memory was as clear as if it had been the day before.

‘Matt,’ she said. ‘Do you remember before we got married there were those messages?’

He nodded slowly.

‘Do you think – do you think they have anything to do with this?’

‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But how would that help? We never found out who that was.’

‘I know. But it’s something.’

‘What happened?’ Tessa said.

‘I haven’t thought of it since,’ Annabelle replied. ‘But it was pretty weird.’

Summer 2012

1

The message came from an anonymous account. It was a Hotmail account; the name was just a string of letters and numbers.

You don’t have to do this.

That was all it said. Annabelle would never have opened the message – she would have assumed it was spam – were it not for the subject.

Your Wedding

Since she was getting married in three weeks, that had caught her eye and she had opened it.

And there it was.

You don’t have to do this.

It was unsigned. She read it again. Someone had sent it, someone who knew she and Matt were getting married. That was quite a lot of people.