“Do you want to listen to some music?” she asks. I nod. She puts on Billie Eilish’s latest release. I downloaded this recently, too. It cheers me that we have continued to listen to the same music, even when our lives were spiraling in different directions. It means something about us, our friendship. “How’ve you been?” she asks eventually.
I shrug. Where to start? Rich? Euphoric? Lonely? Terrified?
I go with, “Pregnant.”
“For real?” Her eyes are saucers. I almost want to giggle. It’s always felt pretty fun shocking Megan because, out of the two of us, she’s probably the most daring.
It’s no fun, though, when I have to add, “I was. I lost it, during the abduction.” She nods and looks out the window.
“Are you sad?” she asks.
“What would I have done with a baby?”
She shrugs. “I dunno, cuddle it?” It’s so true. That’s what I could have done. I flop back on the bed and let the hot silent tears fall onto her duvet. She gets up from the dressing table stool and comes to lie next to me.
“Does Ridley know?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He didn’t want it. I guess he’s happy now. I think he’s with Evie Clarke.”
“That won’t last,” she says loyally.
“I don’t care.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“Yeah, I do.”
She holds my hand and says nothing more. We stay like that for ages. The light in her room starts to change, it becomes orange, then pink. The sun is setting. I feel peaceful. Placed.
“I’m sorry about that thing we did to you. In the loos, you know.” Megan is mumbling. Embarrassed. She hates apologizing.
“It’s okay.” It seems a long time ago. So much more and so much worse has happened since. “Why were you so angry, though? You know I would have shared everything with you.”
“My mum said it was unfair.” Megan shrugged.
“Your mum and my dad are taking ages with the shopping,” I point out.
“Most likely gone to the pub. I guess they have a lot to talk about. Or maybe my mum has had a call from the police station.” Megan keeps her eyes on the ceiling. I slide my glance toward her. I’m so happy in this moment, bathed in friendship and an orange sunset, I don’t want to spoil things, but since she’s brought it up...
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
“What was me?”
“You were the person who gave me water and chocolate.” The words stutter out of my mouth, like a faulty firework that you can’t trust because you don’t know when it will explode. “I think you tipped off my dad. Am I imagining this, Megan, or am I right?”
Megan doesn’t answer straight away. She takes a deep breath. “It was really fucking scary. Seeing you bleed like that. I thought you were going to die. I had to do something.”
“So, you were there with your dad?”
I turn to Megan and she’s crying hard now. So many tears. “No, Emily. I was there with my mum. And your dad.”
CHAPTER 52
Lexi
I can’t believe what I’m looking at and yet I can. Confirmation of my worst fears. No, more than that, confirmation of a betrayal I couldn’t ever have imagined. An email confirming two flights to Acapulco International Airport, Mexico. One way. Leaving tonight. Leaving in two hours.
I call Detective Inspector Owens and tell him what I’ve found. “You are quite sure?”
“I’ll forward the email to you.” I sound calm, dispassionate; the DI probably thinks I’m heartless. I am. My heart has been ripped out. It’s as though Jake has plunged his fist through my chest and grabbed my heart, gouged it out bloody and beating, stomped on it. Just as easily as someone might break a window. I am shattered.
The DI says he’ll alert the airport, get people there immediately. “They are probably at the gate. We can get the flight stopped.”
The doorbell rings. I have no idea who to expect. Not Jake. I hope it is Emily. I’ve texted her already, and she confirmed she is at Megan’s. Even though the app on my phone told me this, I needed to have her confirm it. I don’t want her alarmed, but I have to keep her safe. I’ve told her to come straight home in an Uber, but I guess, even if she follows my instructions to the letter, she’ll be another half an hour.
It’s Jennifer.
I almost pity her. We were once so close. Ostensibly we were three legs of a stool, equally involved and committed to one another, but we both secretly knew Carla was the most glamorous, the most sexy. The most spoiled. We did occasionally allow ourselves a moment when we shared a look of envy as we noticed Carla’s long, smooth, tanned legs or her new designer dress, new diamonds dropping discreetly from her earlobes. That’s why discovering Jake’s affair with Jennifer had been such a shock to me. I’d have had my money on Carla being the one he fancied. I guess because I was right in the end, I backed the right horse, and I’m holding the winning ticket. It doesn’t feel like it. I feel like a loser.
“Where’s Jake?” Jennifer demands, crossing the threshold of my door, coming in uninvited.
“Not here,” I say simply and honestly.
She throws me a look of pity. I absorb it and wait for the moment I can spit it back at her. “Lexi, I’m sorry, but it’s time you accepted the
