Darren takes a firm hold of her chin and tilts her face up to his. Stares at her until she succumbs and finally returns his gaze. In his eyes she sees confusion, anger and… yes… fear. She doesn’t want to tell him the truth. Doesn’t want to destroy his life. Why can’t he just go along with her? It would be so much better for all of them if he could just accept what she’s telling him. Can’t he understand that she’s only lying to protect them both?

‘Where. Is. Grace?’

Catriona angrily jerks her face out of his grasp and tenses her shoulders, ready to trot out her prepared responses with exasperation. But she suddenly finds that she can’t keep it up. Her shoulders sag, and slowly she crumples to the ground, covering her head with her arms and letting out a moan that wells up from her core. A guttural inhuman sound that she’s never made before. Not even when she was giving birth. This pain is far, far worse.

‘Caty, you’re scaring me! Caty!’ Darren sinks down on the ground and tries to peel her arms away from her head.

‘No, no. Don’t ask me. Don’t talk about it. Please. Please.’ She knows that once she says the words out loud, then that will make it real. The lie will disappear and all that will be left is horror and emptiness and the end of everything good. ‘Darren, I’m telling you, that little girl in there… it’s Grace. It’s our daughter. Please believe me.’

‘I know something’s happened, but I need you to tell me what it is. And I need you to tell me now.’

‘I can’t.’ Salty tears run into her mouth. ‘Don’t make me.’

‘You have to tell me where our daughter is! Tell me!’

‘No, no, no.’ Her body is so heavy. She sinks lower, wishing she could disappear into the foundations of the building and never surface again.

‘Caty!’

A sharp sting on her cheek jolts Catriona from her despair for a blissful shocking instant.

Darren’s warm palm returns to caress the skin he slapped only a second ago. ‘I’m sorry I had to do that, Caty, but you need to pull yourself together and start talking.’ He pauses. ‘Or I’m going to have to call the police to report her missing.’

At his mention of the police, Catriona sits a little more upright. Once the authorities become involved, then there will be no hope at all. Perhaps, if she can explain it well enough to Darren now, then he will go along with it. Once she gives him her reasoning. If she can make him see. ‘Darren,’ she murmurs with a gulp, ‘something terrible has happened.’

‘Where’s Grace?’

‘Gracie… she… she had an accident.’