Chapters (81)
- Cover
- About the Author
- Dedication
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Forty-three
- Forty-four
- Forty-five
- Forty-six
- Forty-seven
- Forty-eight
- Forty-nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-one
- Fifty-two
- Fifty-three
- Fifty-four
- Fifty-five
- Fifty-six
- Fifty-seven
- Fifty-eight
- Fifty-nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-one
- Sixty-two
- Sixty-three
- Sixty-four
- Sixty-five
- Sixty-six
- Sixty-seven
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Read More
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Follow Merilyn online
- Dedication
‘She wants to hurt us, Gerry.’
He slams the wine bottle to the floor sending shards of red-stained glass across the tiles.
‘There is no “us”,’ he shouts, his face puce. ‘Aoife died thirty-five years ago and I helped carry her body off that beach. There is only one person, Mary, and that’s you.’ He moves towards me and I withdraw.
‘Mary, I love you, I’ll do anything for you. But I won’t do this. Joanne does not deserve to die.’
There is silence, and then Aoife tuts.
‘We should never have trusted him.’
I nod my agreement.
‘And now,’ Aoife says with a sigh, ‘we’re going to have to kill him too.’
Sixty-one
Now – Mary
After the rolling pin hits Gerry over the head, I hear the crunch of bone on ceramic as he hits the floor, arms splayed as if hugging the tiles. I stare at him: face down on the floor, rolling pin rocking silently by his side.
‘Come on,’ Aoife is saying, ‘we need to hurry now.’
I can’t stop staring at the pool of blood gathering beside Gerry’s head. It creeps from him, as if testing how far it can get without being caught.
‘Mary.’ Aoife’s voice is harsh and it jolts me away from Gerry’s blood. ‘Focus,’ she says. ‘Don’t let me down now. We need to finish digging that grave.’
I still hesitate and when she next speaks, her tone is conciliatory.
‘Mary, have I not been with you all these years? When you weren’t sure if you could go to medical school, wasn’t it me who convinced you that you could? When you wanted to give up because it was so hard, didn’t I talk you through it? And what about when you lost a baby like I lost mine? Didn’t I whisper to you while you lay in bed, tears so bad you could barely breathe? I lost Joanne thirty-five years ago, but because of you she’s still here. I want my baby back, Mary. I want to rest with her in my arms like it always should have been.’
‘But then you’ll leave me.’
‘I said I would never leave you and I won’t. But you owe me this. You helped kill me, Mary, and then you took my baby.’
I bite my lip.
‘So don’t mess up again now, OK?’
I nod and stand, stepping over Gerry to get to the back door. ‘OK, I’ll do it.’
The bottom of the garden is dark and it’s hard for me to hold the spade when my hand is still shaking from her words. My mind is a whir of questions, but I ask the one that matters most. ‘Did you come back for me or Joanne?’
‘What?’
‘Did you come back to get Joanne or to be with me?’
‘I came back long before Joanne arrived.’