Page 2

As if. Mr Templemann had been like a grandfather to me, but there was no way I could trust him now. Not until I could figure out how to prove my innocence. Business was business, and the fifty-year reputation of his firm came before any personal feelings he held towards me.

My next stop was to buy a new phone. It used a significant chunk of my already meagre cash supply, but I needed a numberthat Will didn’t know. I took screenshots of some of our text conversations and transferred them over, just in case. Then I took my old phone apart and ditched the pieces into different rubbish bins along my way. The bridge to the past was gone.

My first call on my new phone was to Tamsin but I withheld my new number from her. She had enough problems without having to deal with mine. I gulped down a lump of tears. When her answering machine kicked in, I almost breathed a sigh of relief because the last thing I wanted to do was face her knowing that I wouldn’t be able to see her for a while. I took a deep breath and gathered all my nonchalance.

‘Tams, I didn’t do it! But no one will believe me so I’m going away for a bit. I’ll call you when I can.’ Realising it sounded a bit too dramatic, I fake chuckled. ‘It’s too late to talk me out of it, you have no idea where I am.’ Which was true.Ididn’t even know where I was going. And before I burst into tears, I swallowed and cried, ‘Love you!’

The dread of what lay ahead, total uncertainty, nearly choked me.

How had I let this happen? How had I let Will squash my dreams and very willpower like this, turning me someone so fearful? So easy to get rid of? My father would be heartbroken if he’d seen what I’d become. He’d be absolutely outraged. And he’d be right.

An uncertain life full of questions and doubts stretched out before me. Just where did I think I was going? How was I going to survive on a limited wad of cash? And without a job? In any case, I had to get away from Will’s sphere of influence. He’d already convinced everyone I had stolen those documents. If Mr Templemann believed him, I had to take my hat off to Will’s superb powers of persuasion.

So now things were going to change. I had suddenly changed.Sophie Graham’s strong perfume must be going to my head, Icackled to myself, just to give myself a boost of courage. I was fully aware that there was absolutely nothing to laugh about.

I had to find a way to get my sanity back. In a safe place, where I could start a new life. Reboot, and all that, with decent people around.

When I hit the M25 and was practically ensconced in the facelessness of humanity, I began to panic again. Now what? Where could I go? It wasn’t like I’d been planning The Great Escape and had figured everything out. Any direction was just as good as the other.

Think, think fast!Or maybe it was best not to think and just follow my instincts.

I took the first exit and found myself crying with relief as I hit the M4 leaving London. If I could escape Will, I still had a shot at a semblance of a life. Secretive, fugitive, but at least not behind bars. It was the price I’d have to pay.

Without even thinking twice about it, I punched in my destination. I now knew exactly where I was going. Or returning to. Cornwall. More specifically, the place of my childhood holidays which Will had never even bothered to ask about. The barely known seaside hamlet of Starry Cove.

3

‘I’m sorry there’s not much furniture left in the cottage, Miss, er, pardon me, I’ve forgotten your name…?’

I looked at the elderly woman in her gingham dress and then around at the four damp-stained walls, the stiff-with-dirt curtains and the sagging, green settee. A perhaps once-loved but now forgotten, chipped, gate-leg table crouched against the far end of the wall where a dusty hearth dominated the room that hadn’t been cleaned, much less used, for what seemed to be a lifetime.

It was the best place I could find. At such short notice, I was lucky to find anything at all. With nary a flower in sight, Tulip Cottage was far from any image its name may have conjured. It was abandoned and derelict, very much like myself, but I almost cried out for joy. I had made it to Starry Cove. I was safe.

Despite its condition, the cottage was perfect because it backed onto the woods, an essential escape route should Will, or the police, ever find me.

‘My name is Sophie,’ I replied, realising she was waiting for an answer. ‘Sophie Graham.’ It still sounded so alien, and yet, for a while, it would have to do. If I could take her stuff, I could take her name too.

‘Sophie Graham,’ she said, as if trying the name out for herself to see if it convinced her. If it did, I was home free. Because my future now depended on her gullibility. I hated lying, but trying to gather the courage to leave it all behind me, I’d finally run out of options.

‘I’m so sorry to interfere or be nosey, but are you okay, dear?’ she whispered, nodding to the scratches on my face left by the magnolia tree. ‘Do you need… help?’

I opened my mouth to speak, to make up yet another excuse, but I’d used them all up. I shrugged, almost apologetically, but then straightened. ‘I fell into some bushes,’ I offered. It wasn’t far from the truth.

The woman studied me at length, shrewdly, until the silence became almost unbearable. I had eluded the police and was terrified it wouldn’t last long.No. Chin up. I’d got this far, hadn’t I? Now was the beginning of something good. It had to be, because, from where I was standing, the only way left was up. I couldn’t envisage sinking any lower than this. I couldn’t imagine a better time to do what I’d just done.

‘I understand, love. My, that’s a beautiful ring on your finger.’

My thumb automatically went to the back of Will’s promise ring. A ring I’d have to get rid of ASAP. ‘Thank you.’

‘Will your husband be joining you here in Starry Cove, then?’

A shiver shot up my aching spine. ‘No, no husband. It’s just me.’ All I needed was to be leftalone.

‘I didn’t think that anyone would answer my advertisement,’ she said apologetically as she looked around the room. ‘My grandson wants me to sell up but I can’t bring myself to do it. I thought that maybe if I had a tenant who could fix up Tulip Cottage, become a kind of caretaker, he would change his mind.’

I wondered what made her grandson feel so entitled to making decisions like that for her. It seemed that wherever I went, there was no running away from men making decisions for women.

‘Tell you what,’ she finally said. ‘If you don’t mind waiting a couple weeks, I can get the basics straightened out. New carpeting, a lick of paint—’