It had been a close call as to who would cross the finishing line first. Faith had hoped to resolve the matter before Derek had completely stripped his company’s assets, but she had to be careful. She had considered a confrontation and a scenario much like the one she had created with Nick. She had researched the most efficient wound to make with a knife, but had decided her best defence was to use a weapon that would leave no fingerprints. She had been at her creative best engineering an intermittent fault on the car that had been Derek’s pride and joy. To cover herself, she had booked a hotel break hundreds of miles away from the scene of the crime before tampering with the brakes one last time. Suing the dealership for negligence afterwards had been a stroke of genius, and donating Derek’s organs to save far more deserving lives had gone some way to assuage her conscience.

Faith had to give her father some credit for the efficient dispatch of an unwanted husband. He had taught her well during her unhappy childhood, although arguably the most important lesson had come from Faith’s first failure. After watching her mother throw away her best years to a man who refused to drink himself to death, fifteen-year-old Faith had decided to expedite matters. An opportunity arrived unexpectedly one day when she saw her father working beneath a car, probably too drunk to stand. Sadly, he survived the crush because the jack she had loosened hadn’t given way completely. The back injuries he sustained exacerbated his dependence on alcohol, and their lives had become more miserable as a result. Preparation was key; that was what Faith had learnt from her father, and it had almost been her undoing with Nick.

She accepted that she had acted impulsively that day, but it wasn’t as if she had been motivated by any monetary reward. She had thought she was doing it for the greater good. She had believed the gossip April passed on to be fact, and had reacted instinctively. Or had she overreacted? Had Nick been nothing more than a selfish chancer with a dubious understanding of love? As unthinkable as it was, had she made a mistake?

This conundrum gave Faith pause for thought as she mopped up the bright red jam with the last of her croissant. The pastry wasn’t as buttery as Tara’s, but Faith had no appetite for returning to Hale Village or seeing her so-called friends. Their loyalty had been tested and April and Tara were both found wanting.