Page 111 of The Bridesmaid

Petra hesitates. She looks as if she’s considering the next angle to snap from.

In one quick movement, Adrianna dives toward Leopold, and pulls a gun from his waistband.

‘No!’ Leopold acts on instinct, snatching for it. He’s too late. Adrianna points the gun toward Petra.

Petra actually laughs. ‘What are you going to do, Adrianna?’she says. ‘Shoot me? You always were a coward.’ The gun wavers in Adrianna’s hand. Her jaw tightens and untightens.

Ophelia steps smoothly forward. She wraps her hand around the gun, enfolding Adrianna’s grip. She turns her face up, and their eyes meet.

‘Don’t let her win,’ says Ophelia, holding her gaze. Something childlike and tragic flares in Adrianna’s cobalt eyes.

‘You think you’re her savior?’ demands Petra, outraged. Her angular face twists in hurt.

‘Iwas your protector,’ says Petra. ‘Iprotected all of you. What I did was foryour own good—’

It all happens in seconds. The gun fires as Leopold steps in front of Petra. He jerks back like he’s been hit. But it’s Petra who the bullet catches, square in the chest.

There’s a look of disbelief on her face, followed by shock. She brings a hand to the flowering patch of blood on her silk-clad chest, then collapses to the ground.

‘Petra!’ Leopold’s face is stricken as he kneels by her side.

‘That was for Silky,’ says Adrianna quietly. ‘And all of us girls who survived. I should have done it a long time ago.’

Mark takes a step back, eyes wide. ‘Dri …’ he whispers. ‘What did youdo?’

‘Fuck,’ Adrianna ignores him, ripping off her veil and throwing it to the ground. She addresses her father: ‘How are we going to fix this fucking mess?’

Leopold stands, his face unreadable, and takes the gun from Adrianna’s unresisting hand.

He takes a long steadying breath, then turns it on me.

‘It’s OK,’ he says. ‘We have a forensic expert. Holly and I are going to have a meeting. Work out how she can fix this for us.She’ll make it look exactly how we want, when the police arrive.’

Leopold grabs my arm. His eyes land on Fitzwilliam.

‘No one try to follow us,’ he adds, pulling me away from the wedding party at gun-point. ‘Or Holly dies.’

Chapter ninety-one

HOLLY

Leopold walks me at gunpoint, back toward Fortune House. I look back onto the flower-strewn beach, where Adrianna is leaning against Ophelia, tears rolling down her face. Georgia is gesticulating, pointing at Petra’s unmoving body. Mark stands alone, straight-backed with shock, staring at the three women. Fitzwilliam is looking desperately in my direction, clearly waiting for a chance to follow.

I see Georgia press a radio to her ear. She’s calling security, I think numbly, all hope of Fitzwilliam rescuing me fading away.

‘There’s no way you can pull this off,’ I tell Leopold. ‘You can’t cover up what Adrianna just did. Even if I helped you, and I won’t.’

Leopold wipes sweat from his brow, and looks dolefully up at the afternoon sun. He’s deathly pale, I notice, and the walk seems to be an effort.

As we reach the stone steps, he stops to lean a hand on the balustrade, breathing heavily, the other keeping the gun pointed at me.

‘I’m sorry, Holly,’ he says, a wheeze to his voice. ‘I’m building a legacy here. Something to keep my family safe. My wife and daughters didn’t grow up where I grew up.’

‘ButIdid, Mr Kensington. And a whole lot of those people would choose to stay poor, rather than make the choices you made.’

‘More fool them. I see what happens to poor people in New York. A good father doesn’t put his kids out with the trash. In America you need to take what you can with both hands.’

‘You murdered an innocent girl,’ I tell him.