God, no, Dad. No, no, no, no. Someone had to be responsible. It was Heath and he had to admit it. Liar, liar, liar. This was the solution. It had to be, because if it wasn’t, then it was nothing; it was a completely senseless death orchestrated by nothing at all, that happened for no reason at all, just dumb fucking luck and fate and wrong-place-wrong-time, and I wouldn’t believe it, I couldn’t, because he wasn’t like the people on the ToD. He was Dad and he was too good for that. He was too fucking good to die in a heap of metal for no reason at all. I choked on the knot in my throat, pushed it down, down, down. ‘What does that even mean?’ I asked. ‘What did he do to you?’

‘Firstly, what did he do to June,’ Heath said. ‘He put fucking ludicrous ideas in her head. And it worked! Obviously it worked, and we’re all here now because you finished the job.’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ I said.

He looked at June in the rear-view mirror. ‘Sweetie, I genuinely don’t understand how you could have put up with someone so useless for so long. Christ, you didn’t just put up with her, you think she’s attractive.’

‘Stop it,’ she said.

‘Just admit it!’ He smacked the wheel with the palm of his hand. ‘Holy shit!’

‘I don’t!’ I didn’t move. My shoulders were fixed forward. I dug my nails into my thighs to keep my hands from trembling. June went on, ‘I don’t. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.’

I tried to look at her out of the corner of my eye.

‘I was wrong. OK? About all this. You’re right. You’ve done so much for me and I never appreciated it. I’m ungrateful. Didn’t realize how good I had it. And Sydney, she’s, she’s nothing. She’s nothing to me at all.’

I knew what she was doing, but fuck, I wished she’d stop.

‘Just stop. Drop Sydney off wherever. Throw her – throw her out, for all I care. Let’s go back to yours. I can spend the night, baby, we can do whatever you …’

Heath took his eyes off the road for a moment to look at June. ‘You’re a fucking horrible liar.’

June’s face warped. She knew she’d lost. ‘I’m not lying –’

Heath gripped the wheel, hard, and jerked, sending us careering to the right and then back again. My heart groaned as I dug my nails into the seat for some stability.

That was the first moment I realized somebody could actually die.