“Come on,” Max says, his voice gentle. “Come with me. Just tell us what happened with Greg and we can make it all better. Everyone’s worried about you. You need help. Some time somewhere safe, with doctors to sort out your…problems.”

“No, you don’t understand. I know what you did. You…”

He reaches over and strokes my hair. I close my eyes and sway.

“Come on,” he whispers, leading me to the sofa. “It’ll all be fine.”

I sit down and my eyes drift shut. This is better. He’s right. I’ll rest my eyes for a moment before Jack and Sean come in. Rest my eyes and clear my head of all this confusion. Then I’ll go home and tell Dad everything and we can go to the police together.

Bella is next to me, shouting wake up wake up wake up, but I can’t. I’m drifting back into sleep, the taste of rotten leaves in my mouth and Max’s hand is warm on my head as he strokes my hair. I don’t know why he brought me to the house, but he’s rescuing me, whether from Jack or myself I don’t know and I don’t know what he and Lena were talking about trying to say it was me who killed Greg but…

I try to open my eyes. This isn’t right and Bella is still shouting.

“What are you doing?” The words come out slurred.

His hand moves away from my hair as he stands up. “I’m sorry, Tess.”

Wake up, Bella screams, but I can’t…

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

“I’m sorry, Tess,” a voice whispers.

I open my eyes. I’m in bed—not my bed. The room is dark, smells musty and damp. It’s a smell both familiar and unfamiliar—dust and damp, old books, old wood. The smell of an old house. It doesn’t induce fear, it ignites a nostalgia deep in my gut. Max is sitting next to me, his head in his hands.

“I never wanted this,” he says. “It was all going to come out and Lena said…” He shakes his head. “She thinks this is one of our games, like when we’d manipulate our parents into undoing a punishment, or break up some couple so she could go out with the boy.”

My eyes adjust to the darkness and I see where they’ve put me—in one of the bedrooms at Dean House. My box of sleeping pills stands next to the bed, a glass of water beside it and there’s a bitter taste in my mouth. It’s just me and Max in the room. Where’s Lena? And Jack and Sean?

I blink, trying to think, trying to unscramble what’s going on. Why are we here? Why has Max brought me here?

“Dad,” I whisper. “What did you do to him? Where is he?”