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36 KATE

NOW

She stands by the remains of the fire walk, a strip of coals glowing gently underneath the worn top layer. Two resort staff members place a sign at the top warning against the danger of injury while they head off to source buckets of water and rakes with which to sweep up the embers.

Kate takes a breath before stepping onto the coals. The heat is much less than she expected, but she keeps moving, glad of the chance to turn her mind away from the memories that have risen, viscous, swamp-like.

It strikes her that she forgot to mention to Adrian that she had tried calling him to find out if he could investigate the sender of the roses. She could have mentioned it during the call, but she was too distracted…. The email from Jacob sticks in her mind, the words a software issue . Perhaps Adrian has used Jacob’s technology to find Rob. Perhaps she should call Jacob to get clarification.

For now, she needs to think carefully about everything she has learned. And what to do about it.

She jumps onto the sand, then turns to see Camilla tiptoeing across the coals, holding the hem of her dress up. Darcy is behind her, the two of them aglow in the red light of the small fires that shoot up between the coals in their wake.

Camilla lets out a scream that’s somewhere between fear and joy, maybe both. A bacchanalian scene, two Furies dancing on the souls of sinners.

The three women head away from the fire walk and the pier, far away from the people who sit near the bar, enjoying the voluptuous warmth of the night.

Kate checks her phone, noticing a new message from Jade:

I need a favor x

The sympathy she felt for Jade before is a little darkened by what Adrian has shared, and she tries to make space for it—Jade may not know about Rob’s past, after all. She is young. She was barely a year old when the massacre happened.

Even so, she has a lot to process now. They all do.

She listens as Camilla talks on, repeating the details that Adrian shared, as though both she and Darcy weren’t there. She’s aware that Camilla needs to speak in order to grasp what she has learned, telling it to herself, whereas she and Darcy are introspective creatures, needing silence to plunge deep into their thoughts.

The anniversary is the turning point of Kate’s year, has been since that terrible night, and as of an hour ago she has pitched into a new cycle.

Stunned, still, to have survived.