“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“I’ve been watching them,” she said. “Watching them for years. My brothers and sister, my father and his dear wife. Sometimes I’d go every day, catching the train over there, following them to school or work.” She paused, raising her eyebrows at me. “They have a nice life, don’t they? A lovely, happy life. While I’ve been stuck here, in this shit hole with you.” I flinched, and she laughed. “How did my mother die, Beth? I heard you talk that day to Rose—I heard her say that she was with my mother when she died, about her body being found in the sea. Rose pushed her, didn’t she?”
My eyes widened in shock. “No! No, Hannah,” I cried. “Of course not! Your mother jumped—she committed suicide.”
“I don’t believe you. Rose killed her. Because my mother slept with her husband. Rose murdered her.”
I shook my head in shock and pity that she had convinced herself of such a dreadful thing. “Hannah, your mother was very unhappy,” I said firmly. “She was ill. She died by throwing herself into the sea.”
“No! She wouldn’t have left me. I was her baby. I was all she had. Rose murdered her. My mother would never have left me alone like that.”
“Hannah, that’s just not true,” I cried. “Your mother jumped—she took her own life. I’m sorry, but it’s true. It was suicide.”
A look of infinite hatred flashed in Hannah’s eyes. “Rose did it, and then she and my father gave me away like I was a fucking stray puppy.”
“Hannah—”
“You all lied to me. All of you. You are all responsible, and you’re not going to get away with it. None of you.”
I stood up. “Hannah, please, Doug and I, we love you so much. We’ve looked after you since you were a baby, and we have always thought of you as our daughter. I only ever wanted you to be happy!”
She reeled around then. “Happy? I have never been happy here. You never loved me, not like you love Toby. I felt it, always, and when I overheard you and Rose talking that day, I finally understood why—because I’m not really yours at all. You lied to me my whole life and I’ll make sure you get your fucking punishment too.” She turned to go. “But first it’s Oliver and Rose’s turn.”
“What are you going to do?” I cried.
She glanced back at me. “All these years I’ve been watching them, following them, seeing how they doted on those kids of theirs. Those three spoiled little pricks have had everything they ever wanted. So one by one, I’m going to show them what their father’s really like. Maybe then Oliver will wish he’d treated me a little bit better. Maybe he’ll regret how he threw me away.”
And then she walked slowly from the room, leaving me staring after her, reeling in shock.
I heard her go out an hour later. The first thing I did was to try to call Rose to warn her, but the phone rang and rang until finally I gave up. I paced the house, adrenaline and fear shooting through me while I went over and over what Hannah had said, driving myself mad trying to work out what her next move might be. What did she want with Emily? What was she planning to do? No matter how many times I tried Rose, there was no answer: nobody picked up; nobody, it seemed, was home.
When Doug got back later that evening, I pulled him into the kitchen and, shutting the door in case Toby should overhear us, told him what had happened. “I can’t get hold of Rose,” I said anxiously. “Maybe they’ve changed their number since the last time I saw her. It was nine years ago, after all.”
“Christ,” he said, looking at me in dismay. “And you have no idea where Hannah has gone?”
“No. She left, but she didn’t say where.”
At that moment, Toby came in. “What’s up?” he asked, stopping dead and looking from one to another of our faces.
“Nothing!” I said brightly. “Nothing at all. Go and wash your hands for tea, will you?”
We tried to eat a normal meal, but I couldn’t stop the panic pulsing through me. The look in Hannah’s eyes had been so triumphant, so spiteful. Maybe she’d been bluffing, I told myself—maybe I should just wait and see—but I couldn’t ignore the fear that was slipping and sliding in the pit of my stomach, and though I kept trying Rose, no one picked up. As the clock crept closer to ten o’clock, I made up my mind. “I’m going to drive over there, to Suffolk,” I told Doug.
He looked worried. “Maybe I should come with you.”
“No,” I said decisively. “Wait here with Toby in case Hannah comes back. She was probably just trying to scare us.”
It took me forty minutes to drive to the Willows, the clock on my dashboard telling me it was ten forty-five when I pulled up outside. I half expected the house to be in darkness, but in fact I could see a light burning brightly from the living room. They must have changed their phone number, I thought, and remembered how Rose had told me never to contact her again, the last time we’d met. When I knocked, the look on Rose’s face told me all I needed to know. She nodded silently at me to come in, and when I followed her into the kitchen, Oliver was there, white as a sheet. Fear trailed its fingers along my spine. “Do you know?” I blurted. “That Hannah has been meeting with Emily? I came here to warn you. I don’t know what she’s planning to do, but—”
“You’re too late, Beth,” Rose replied quietly. “Emily got a phone call and she went out, saying she was going to meet her friend Becky. When she came
