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
‘You have nothing to apologise for. Like I said, I wasn’t with Greg back then.’
‘Did he tell you about it?’
‘Yes,’ Abby says, even though it’s Sienna who Kerry is addressing.
‘Leela was his patient – that can’t be allowed, can it?’
‘It happens. Did you ask Leela about it?’
Kerry shakes her head. ‘I wanted her to bring it up. She was a very private person, though, not one of these girls who plasters everything they’re doing on social media. She never did that. We were close, though, so I thought that she would tell me in her own good time. Then she moved into her own flat and, well, it wasn’t long after that she…’
‘It’s okay, you don’t have to explain.’ Sienna turns to the photo again. ‘I know this is really difficult to talk about, but how exactly did she… die? It’s so cruel and senseless that someone could do that to another person.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The person who killed your beautiful daughter. I can’t—’
‘No, you’ve got it all wrong. Nobody did anything to Leela. She wasn’t murdered. She did it to herself. She took her own life.’
FORTY-SEVEN
Sienna
Again, they are silent in the cab back to Waterloo station, and as soon as they’re dropped off, Sienna grabs Abby’s arm, pulls her down so they’re both sitting on the steps leading up to the entrance. It’s beginning to drizzle, but she doesn’t care; she relishes the cool sensation of the droplets on her skin.
‘He didn’t do it, Abby. Greg didn’t kill her.’
Abby stares straight ahead. ‘I don’t understand. He told me, Sienna. He said he’d done it deliberately. Maybe it’s someone else? Maybe it wasn’t Leela he was seeing.’
‘It was her, Abby. Her mother saw her with him. That’s irrefutable.’ Sienna is calm and rational; she hasn’t felt like this for a long time now.
‘It just doesn’t make sense.’
‘Maybe it does,’ Sienna says. ‘What if Greg ended the relationship, and Leela was so distraught that she felt she didn’t want to live without him? She was so young – losing Greg must have felt like her whole world was coming to an end. Don’t you remember what that first love is like? It’s all-consuming, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, I get that. The same thing happened to me, but I would never have taken my life because of it. It’s so sad.’
‘This explains exactly why Greg would have felt responsible for her death. It’s the only explanation.’
‘I suppose so.’ Abby doesn’t sound convinced.
‘And it looks like Greg’s past has nothing to do with his death,’ Sienna continues.