Chapters (67)
- Cover
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- PART TWO
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- PART THREE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- PART FOUR
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- EPILOGUE
- Mailing list
- A Letter from Kathryn
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Kathryn Croft
Holly is a vivacious woman; Sienna has no doubt that she would have had her pick of the students who frequented that bar.
‘He was a different person then,’ Holly says. ‘Not that confident. Some of the med students seemed arrogant, as if they were above students in any other fields, but he was different.’ She pauses. ‘Maybe arrogance is the wrong word, perhaps it was more about extreme confidence. Anyway, Greg was quite shy then, and I found it… charming?’ She takes a sip of coffee. ‘That’s how we got together. But people change, and I think I just outgrew him. I’m sorry, that sounds so awful, doesn’t it – as though I just discarded him.’
Sienna shakes her head. ‘No, it doesn’t. It sounds honest.’ She likes hearing about Greg. Holly is bringing him back to life for her, and she can picture the young man that he was. ‘I can see how he might have been shy,’ she says. ‘Even when I met him there was a quietness about him. I never guessed that’s what it was, but now I see that it makes sense. We might change as people, but whoever we used to be must still exist somewhere, mustn’t they?’
‘I’ve never thought about that, but maybe you’re right. I think his confidence grew as he progressed in his career. So how about the two of you? How did you get together?’
Sienna recounts the story: how she was resistant at first because she could tell how broken he was after Holly had left him, but that eventually she had fallen and there was no going back. Does she regret this now? Sometimes she hates Greg in the same minute that she feels a huge surge of love for him. Sometimes she can’t tell which emotion it is that she’s feeling. There’s a thin line.
They finish their coffee, and Holly says she should get Jackson home. ‘He’s hardly sleeping. I try to stay up with him, just so he doesn’t feel so alone, but I end up drifting off. I feel terrible.’
Sienna knows all about lack of sleep; her mind begins to race as soon as darkness falls, and she can’t shut out intrusive thoughts. Greg lying battered, blood leaking from his smashed head. Then his body being thrown in that canal.
‘Jackson, we need to get home now,’ Holly calls out. ‘Thanks for dinner, and for your company,’ she says to Sienna.
Jackson appears, his hands in his pockets, his cheeks swollen and red.