Anna almost laughed. ‘What? The family that you’ve been doing your level best to push me out of for the last year? That family? Do you think I’m so stupid that I can’t tell you don’t like me, Gayle? That I don’t know you can’t stand having me around?’ Anna really did laugh then. It was a horrible, tight little noise that got stuck in her throat. ‘What I don’t understand is, if you’d rather I disappeared from your life, why the hell do you care what I do, or who I do it with?’

Gayle’s eyes had started to blaze while Anna had been talking, and now, like a dragon exhaling flames, she scorched Anna with her fury.

‘Because it should have been you!’ she screamed at the top of her lungs, so loud that the sound bounced off the walls and ceiling of the narrow corridor and echoed back to Anna. ‘It should have been you that went out that night to go to the corner shop! And because of you, because of your laziness, my son is dead!’

Chapter Thirty-Six

ANNA SAT IN bed, her back against the padded headboard, her knees pulled up towards her chest, the duvet tucked under her arms. She’d turned the lights off but had left the shutters open, and the bedroom was illuminated by the glow of the streetlamp across the road.

Thank goodness that girl with the silver dress had emerged from the Ladies toilets immediately after Gayle had dropped her bombshell. Gayle had frozen the moment the words had come out of her mouth, and she’d looked horrified, as had the girl in the silver dress, who’d obviously overheard the entire exchange. Anna had just turned and walked away. She’d gone to find Jeremy, and they’d said a hasty goodbye to Teresa and Scott before leaving.

Anna hugged her knees. She needed to talk. To Brody.

She’d been silent the whole journey home in Jeremy’s car, so much so that he’d got worried and had pulled over and had begged her to talk to him. She’d just shaken her head. Her lips had seemed glued shut.

It wouldn’t have been a good idea, anyway. She’d been afraid that once the floodgates were open, she’d lose control completely. She didn’t want to do that in front of him.

But Brody… Brody had already experienced all of that from her. And more. He could take it. And she had no doubt that there wasn’t anything she could say or do that would mess things up between them.

She’d ended up leaning over and kissing Jeremy on the cheek, whispering a soft ‘sorry’ before she’d climbed from the car, and now she was sitting in bed, her thumb hovering over her phone screen.

Just as she was about to dial Brody’s number, her mobile rang, startling her so much she dropped it onto the duvet and had to scrabble around to pick it up again before her voicemail kicked in. This mind-reading was happening more and more when she and Brody spoke; either she’d just be about to call him and her phone would ring, or she’d dial his number and he’d say he’d been about to do the same.