It’s him.

The man who nearly broke me.

I’m frozen to my seat, neck rigid, willing my eyes to take a second look.

I catch him again as his car turns into the traffic. I’m not as certain as I was a few seconds ago that it is him. The jawline is wrong. A horn blasts behind me and in my rush to move forward I stall my car. I’m trembling as I twist the key to fire the engine to life once more.

It can’t have been him.

It’s impossible.

As I pull forward, I imagine him in his cell. The thick iron bars that contain him.

It’s the anniversary that’s made me so skittish, I know. Twenty years. It’s been almost twenty years.

I’m in a state by the time I pull up outside Marie’s flat. Noticing Carly’s car is already there doesn’t calm me.

Soon we’ll all be in one room.

Three sisters.

Nothing good happens when we’re all together.

I can just say no.

Above me the grey clouds break apart and rain lashes against my windscreen.

It feels like an omen. A sense of impending doom.

Chapter Three

Carly

Then

It felt like fate that something terrible would happen because she’d behaved like such a bitch. Acid coated the back of Carly’s throat. She swallowed her sickness back down. She had to be strong for the sake of the twins. They would be terrified.

She was terrified.

It had all happened so quickly. She could still feel the arm around her throat, another around her waist as she was manhandled into the van, struggling to get free. The catch on the door scratching against her cheek, tearing her skin. The scream that ripped from her throat as she saw the second man following, dragging the girls.

‘Run!’ Carly had shouted as she kicked out again, but she knew that even if one of the twins could wriggle free, they wouldn’t leave the other.

The arms restraining Carly hefted her from her feet, shoving her roughly into the back of the van.

‘Help!’ Carly’s voice growing hoarse.

That was when she saw a glint of silver. A sharp point pressed against her neck. Instantly the bottom fell out of her world, her body slackened. She had to stay alive for her sisters. Carly forced herself to be passive as her hands were wrenched behind her back. She was shaking so violently that the rope being twisted around her wrists chafed against her skin. Tape was smoothed over the lips she had thought an hour ago Dean Malden would be kissing. She was placid as her ankles were bound. A blindfold snatched away her last glimpse of the sun. She was astonished that something like this could happen in broad daylight. She felt a jarring against her arm. Heard the thud of the twins being shoved next to her and listened helplessly to Leah crying and Marie pleading,

‘This is a game, isn’t it? Please. This isn’t real.’ Marie’s small voice a squeak.