Bella is vivid in my mind when I stand up, in my face, her hair tangled, her eyes burning bright. Don’t, she says. Don’t get distracted. Remember, remember…

But I push past her, shoving at empty air as I leave this room full of death. I don’t need to remember. I know now. Julia has told me. However Bella died, accidentally or deliberately, Jack is the cause.

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

I leave Julia’s room and go directly across the landing to the room Sean and Jack are sharing, throwing the door open with a bang.

Sean sits up with a gasp, but Jack’s bed is empty.

“Where’s your brother? Where the fuck is he?” I shout, pulling the quilt off Jack’s bed like he might be hiding under there.

“I don’t know. What’s wrong?”

“He…” I pause, remembering Julia’s words. Were they in on it together? Some kind of twisted plan to fuck with their mother’s new stepdaughters? If I hadn’t kissed Sean first at the wedding, would he have come looking for me? And yes, I kissed him, but he did come looking for me, didn’t he? It wasn’t me who sought him out.

“I found out,” I say, sinking onto Jack’s bed. “I found out about him and Bella.”

Sean rubs a hand across his face. “But you already knew that, didn’t you? They were together on and off for ages before the wedding.”

I shake my head. “But the drinking…the drugs. She died and it was his fucking fault.”

“Tess…” His voice is gentle. “Listen, they might have been…experimenting. But if you’re trying to say Jack was in any way responsible—”

“I’m not saying he killed her. God, the whole world has drummed it into me that it was a bloody accident. But she changed. She stopped taking photographs, stopped working hard at school. You know your brother, you know how manipulative he can be. Whatever happened, it was his fault, I know it was.”

“But…” Sean gets up, comes to sit next to me. “Even if all this is true, it still doesn’t make him responsible for her death.”