Chapters (68)
- Cover
- Dedication
- NOW
- One
- BEFORE
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- NOW
- Twenty-One
- BEFORE
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- NOW
- Thirty-Nine
- BEFORE
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- NOW
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- AFTER
- Fifty-Six
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
‘All of it,’ Stephanie replied, and now all tears had disappeared. ‘She was stupid. A stupid little girl. I told her… I told her not to mess with things she didn’t understand, but did she listen? Of course not.’
‘What are you saying?’ Mark said, feeling more confused than ever. ‘I’m not following you.’
‘ “I didn’t care?” How dare she say that? She knew I did. I spent years trying to help her, but she never listened. Never. She’d just sit there, nodding her head like an idiot and not taking anything in, apparently. And now, she blames me? How could she?’
‘Stephanie, you need to calm down—’
‘Calm down?’ Stephanie shouted, her voice echoing around the room. Mark glanced towards the door, wondering if DS Cavanagh was out there, listening, or if he’d really gone home as he’d said.
‘How can I be calm?’ Stephanie continued. ‘That little bitch could have been like me any time she wanted, but she wasn’t willing to be. She could have been friends with my friends. She could have been my friend, but she was never willing to do anything about it. She was too lazy. And now… and now she leaves this behind, just to try and twist the knife a little bit more. I should have known.’
Mark sat open-mouthed, trying to work out what she’d told him. The reaction wasn’t at all what he’d expected. He breathed in deeply, let his mind clear. ‘She was obviously angry when she wrote this. Why would she be like that towards you? I know you said things hadn’t been great between you two, but I didn’t get the sense that it was this bad.’
‘Neither did I. Guess I got that wrong, just like everything else about us. I spent so long trying to get her to fit in, but she would never listen to me. It was like she was punishing herself, for no damn reason. I had my own shit to deal with as well, so I had to give up eventually. No one was all that nasty to her, they just didn’t bother. It didn’t mean they didn’t care though. They just gave up trying as well.’
‘What she says in the note, about doing something to you, what was that about?’
Stephanie sighed, the bag in her hand almost crumpled in her grip. Mark reached across and took it from her before she destroyed it entirely.
‘It was nothing. I’d forgotten about it. She obviously thought it affected me more than it actually did. I didn’t care.’
‘What did she do?’