Page 6

Someone’s home

I woke up snuggled under Ben’s duvet, the sun breaking through the curtains. Stretching gently, I opened my eyes, my toes meeting the cool air. I could hear raised voices from outside the window.

Ben wasn’t in the bed.

Within less than a second, my emotions raced from disappointment to relief to immediate frustration. I grunted, allowing myself another blissful moment in the indulgent comfort, chalking last night down to a wine-fuelled dream.

Once I was dressed, I wandered over to the adjacent cottage and found Lucy sitting in the kitchen with the patio doors open.

“Good morning,”

I greeted, smiling softly at her.

“Morning, Elle. Kettle’s just boiled.”

I went to grab a mug from the cupboard.

“Ben’s gone for a run,”

Lucy added. “You’ve wound him right up.” She seemed highly entertained.

“Wound him up?”

“Ben doesn’t usually play nicely with others. How he got himself engaged I’ll never know. He was furious this morning. Wouldn’t stop grumbling at me, in fact.”

She sipped her coffee nonchalantly. “He must like you.”

“I didn’t mean to upset him. I thought we’d cleared the air last night.”

“I think that’s the problem.”

She sighed. “You jumped in the river, didn’t you? You jumped straight in and it’s freaked him out. He finds things like that hard to understand.”

“Because of your dad?”

I poured myself a tea, going to pick up the bag with my fingers before remembering the specific item of floral crockery holding the designated teabag spoon. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to rest their teabags in a dish before putting them in the bin, but each to their own.

Lucy paused with her nose in her mug. “He told you about Dad?”

“Yeah, last night. He told me he died trying to save someone.”

Silence followed as Lucy continued to stare into her coffee.

“Now that doesn’t sound like Ben,”

she finally responded. “No wonder he went for a run.”

I walked towards her, resting my steaming mug on the breakfast bar. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. It must have been so hard for you both.”

Lucy nodded. “It still is. Dad was a very brave man. He cared for people, everyone he met. I was angry, like Ben, for a time. But now? Now I’m proud of him.”

As I was about to reply, Sophie burst into the room, excited as ever to see me, clutching a fluffy unicorn.

Lucy looked at her phone. “We’re in the news!”

“What do you mean?”

“Someone took a picture, we’re in the local news! It just came up.”

Lucy laughed. “Look, it’s you in the river.”

The blood drained from my face.

There was a photograph. Of me.

The ground melted under my feet as I stumbled back to lean against the wall.

“We need to go.”

Lucy looked confused.

“We need to go. Now. Please.”

The kids got dressed in a rush, though we had tried not to startle them. I’d convinced Lucy it was best for us all to leave in case someone knew where they were staying. We left Ben a note and drove straight for the station.

I let myself slide down in the car seat as my heart pounded. I knew I shouldn’t have stayed. I’d been so stupid. I’d put them all in danger. I’d seen the community burn houses down for less. Every time a car went past, I flinched.

When we finally pulled into the station, I reached immediately for my seatbelt before throwing my arms around Lucy.

“Thank you, you have no idea what you’ve done for me,”

I whispered in her ear, fighting tears.

She squeezed me back. “I’m not going to say goodbye, we’re friends now. Message me by the end of the day or I’ll send a search party.”

“I will,”

I agreed, choking on the words as her thick hair tickled my nose.

She pulled back to glare at me. “I mean it, I thought we’d have time this morning. This doesn’t feel right, Elle.”

“You’ve done more than you know. I promise. I just need to go now.”

I said as cheerful a goodbye as I could muster to the kids and climbed out of the car before I could change my mind. I headed straight for the ticket machine, the wind grazing my cheekbones. Lucy drove straight off like I’d insisted and I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. I was alone again, scared again, and yet to fully convince myself that any of this was a good idea.

On the train, every clunk of the tracks allowed me to breathe a little slower. At every flash of fields through the window, I felt a muscle relax into the patterned seat. The carriage was quiet, thankfully. The next stop, just half an hour away, was only five miles from Maeve’s home. I didn’t let my mind process this morning; I just forced it forwards instead. Summoning some more gumption. Praying for it.

It was six p.m. by the time I managed to convince my legs to take me to Maeve’s parents’ house.

I loitered down the road, counting the house numbers carefully. It was a quiet road. Streetlights highlighted normal cars, a dog barked in a window, and televisions flickered through curtains. My legs slowed as their house entered my view. It looked like it had been a bungalow at some point. There were windows with little triangular roofs, red bricks, and warm colours pouring from inside. The path through the front garden was straight, but not neat; hedges and a small iron gate separated it from the pavement. Most terrifying of all, the light downstairs was on, gleaming boldly through some net curtains.

Susan and Derek White were home.

I stood in the cover of the hedge, my body refusing to move. My hand balled into a fist. I knew that once I did this, I was committed, I couldn’t just pretend I was passing. I heard a noise behind me. This was it, I needed to make my move.

So I did.

I reached for the gate.