Was he genuinely expecting her to agree to this? What would he do if she said no? Would he push her? The certainty with which she had defended him to Tim was gone now, and that Jasmine was gone now, too. Whatever happened, there was no going back to the life she’d had before. She just had to decide how many lies she could live with.

‘OK,’ she said, her voice breaking. ‘You win. Let’s go home.’

Her father pulled her into an embrace, squashing her arms by her sides like he used to do when she was little. He kissed her on her wet cheek.

‘I love you,’ he said, looking into her eyes. Where Jasmine had once seen love, now she could see nothing but relief and maybe even a little excitement. He had lived to kill another day. She hugged him back, the comforting embrace of her father, a million memories coming flooding back of hugs like this between them, as far back as she could recall. He was always her comfort, strong and dependable, logical but funny too. She realised now, in these last few moments, that the man she remembered was never real; he was the mask her father had used to cover the monster.

She squeezeed him tightly one final time before twisting and pushing him as hard as she could. Her father stumbled backwards, unable to control his footing, clutching at his side and looking at her with a mixture of fear and surprise. She closed her eyes when he ran out of ground and went over the edge, the sound of his cry getting further away as he got closer to the sea, until it stopped and there was silence.

Jasmine was alone.

She looked back at the car pulled over on the verge. She had to go home. How could she face her mother after everything that had happened tonight? How could she tell her what she had done; what Frank had done? Jasmine took a couple of steps before the weight of the last hour hit her and she fell to the ground, all energy and adrenaline gone. She just wanted to lie here for ever. Sobbing, she finally clambered to her feet and made it to the car, the cliff’s edge firmly in her rear-view mirror as she drove away.

Chapter Fifty

Now

The house that I have feared for so long is whispering to me. This is the first time I have been inside it since that night.