We sit around the table, Dad, Sean, and me. I’ve spent all day at the police station, answering questions, telling them again everything about Greg, Max, Bella, and Lena. I told them everything Max told me, all the strange happenings that I put down to paranoia that I now think were down to Lena. Sean, after he’d been treated for cuts and bruises, sat in a room down the hall, answering the same questions. Jack’s gone home to his wife and son. Whether they’ll let him back, I don’t know.

I didn’t tell them about Bella coming back.

And I didn’t mention what Dad said at the hospital—it makes no sense. His words went over and over in my head all night in the hospital, but I don’t remember saying anything to him after Bella died.

I’m numb now. I have no more words. We sit in silence at the table, staring into mugs of cold tea. I think I’m going to sleep tonight and I hope there’ll be no more bad dreams. I guess at some point soon, Sean is going to go home, but he hasn’t mentioned it and Dad hasn’t asked him to go. I don’t know how long we’ve been sitting there before I notice Bella is sitting in the fourth chair.

My eyes fill with tears and I blink them away. I think she’s here to say goodbye. I think when I sleep she’ll disappear for good. I found out the truth like she wanted. I found out the truth and now we can both sleep. She leans forward and looks at me, tears in her own eyes.

Remember, Tess.

I shake my head. I still don’t remember that night. But I found out what happened, I don’t need to remember it—Max confessed.

Remember.

I scrape my chair back. “I’m going to bed.”

Dad glances up, eyes blinking back into focus. “Sleep well, Tess.”

Sean follows me out of the room. “I’m sorry for what my dad did to you,” he says in a low voice.

I clench my hands into fists. “Sean—stop.”

The look on his face is tortured. “I suspected, didn’t I? All that time, I wondered and so did Jack. Could we have saved those girls if we’d said something? Could we have saved you?” He pauses. “We might even have been able to save him. That’s what’s eating Jack up—if we’d gone to the police, Dad might have ended up in prison but he’d be alive.”

“Stop,” I say again.

Sean looks at me, his eyes gleaming with unshed tears.

“He didn’t…he didn’t do anything to me. I don’t know if he killed those other girls, but he didn’t do anything to me.”

“But…”