Last night was the first New Year’s Eve in almost twenty years that she hadn’t had a drink to toast in the new year. Even when she’d been pregnant she’d always still had at least a sip of bubbles. But of course, last night no one celebrated. Maybe if they’d all made it out alive, they’d have been in the mood for celebrating. They’d have celebrated life. Strength. Survival. And of course, if Tony hadn’t turned out to be a monster.

But instead, on Monday they’d be burying him.

Pete knew the truth now. Not that she’d intentionally abandoned his brother in the car, that was a secret only she and Callie shared. No, he knew the truth about what Tony had done.

At first, Pete tried to argue that it wasn’t possible, there must have been some kind of mistake. There was no way his own brother could have done something so horrific. But Mimi had shut him down swiftly.

‘There’s no doubt,’ she’d told him. ‘And as hard as it is, you’re going to have accept it. Because Callie needs us and there’s no way we’re going to give her anything but our full support. And that includes our irrevocable belief and trust in her.’

Of course, she’d also shown him the email from Edie. Jill had forwarded it on to her as promised.

Jill,

I tried to tell you this once before. But I felt uncomfortable about coming right out and saying it, so I attempted to be subtle. That was a mistake. I could tell then that you didn’t believe me and I knew that you weren’t going to follow up on it. Since I saw you last, I married and had two children. As my eldest daughter grew, I found myself looking at her and realising how horrendous it would be if she ever came into contact with someone like your son. I saw that I would never be able to forgive myself if I didn’t stand up for what was right.

The reason I broke up with Tony is because I caught him looking at child pornography on his computer. To this day, I still regret not reporting him to the police. But you might recall that I was younger than him, only twenty at the time. Tony could be very manipulative when he wanted to be. I was stupid enough to buy into his lies that it was his first and only time. He claimed that he came across the site by accident and it wasn’t his fault. Deep down I knew it was rubbish. But I was a coward and instead of doing something about it I just got myself away from him.