‘It’s already over,’ Jasmine whispered. ‘I can’t bury this. She’s my best friend! How do you think I could ever forgive you for any of this?’

‘After this I’ll stop. I promise I will never hurt anyone again,’ he said, his mouth saying one thing, but his eyes saying something different.

She desperately wanted to believe him. ‘I don’t think you’re even capable of telling the truth.’

Frank moved towards the cliff’s edge as quickly as he could, clearly in pain now as he carried Felicity, desperate to put her down, his stagger uneven and laborious, the physical exertion taking its toll. He wasn’t supposed to be moving around this way, the doctors had told him to take it easy. Jasmine rushed forwards as she realised what he was about to do. But she was too late.

She watched in horror as Frank tossed Felicity over the side, as though she were nothing. Jasmine reached the edge just in time to see Felicity’s body tumble into the sea.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Now

The lights inside the house are off but when I press down on the handle of the back door, it creaks open. The house smells musty; the kitchen is half missing, doors gone from cupboards, blown floorboards and smears of dirt on the walls. The years have not been kind to this house; decay and abandonment seep from every crack in the walls. I feel responsible for this, too. If I had stayed then maybe it would have been different. I know I would have been different.

Coming inside has released me from the choke-hold of the past. Was this all I needed to do? Did I just need to be here? To face it head on? A circle has been completed by me returning to this place, the ghosts of my past all in one place ready to be dispatched. I hear a noise, the sound of a chair scraping against floorboards.

‘Who’s there?’ a voice comes from upstairs.

I brace myself. They can’t hurt me anymore.

‘Jasmine? Is that you?’ The voice calls out my name. My secret is out. I am discovered.

‘Yes,’ I say reluctantly. ‘I’m home.’

Chapter Forty-Nine

Then

Before she had time to think or even feel anything, her father’s hands were on her shoulders.

‘Please, Jasmine. You need to forget this ever happened. Otherwise people will find out; your mother will find out, and then I can’t be held responsible for what I’ll have to do to keep my family together.’