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‘Are you OK?’ she whispered, glancing behind her.

She wasn’t sure why she didn’t want the others to hear; she just knew she wanted this to stay between them.

She wanted Scott to know she understood who he was; that she wasn’t suspicious of him.

And that if he’d been hiding food for himself – or if whatever he had to say sorry for was something worse than that, even – well, none of that meant he deserved to dehydrate or stumble to his death alone in the wilderness.

‘I don’t know. Not really,’ he croaked. ‘Are you?’

Scott nodded, looked at the ground. ‘I’m sorry for running off like that,’ he said. ‘It’s not what you think – with the food, I mean.’

She saw Scott glance behind her. Hearing an intake of breath at her shoulder, she looked back at the other three standing there.

She turned back to Scott before she could register their expressions too deeply; she didn’t want to know if they were angry with him, or suspicious.

She couldn’t pinpoint why exactly, but she just knew she couldn’t bear it.

Scott looked at the four of them, his eyes landing, and fixing eventually, on Naya’s.

‘I just didn’t know how to tell you,’ he said. ‘With everything that’s happened... everything we’ve been through. I was only trying to help – I just... I panicked.’

‘We’re all shocked, we’re all not thinking straight – I can understand you panicking,’ said Mira, from behind Naya, her voice soft.

‘But why did you say sorry, then?’ asked Ben. ‘What do you have to be sorry for?’

Scott stared at the ground, scuffed at the root of a tree with his shoe. ‘I did something... something stupid, I guess. I thought it was the right thing to do, but...’

Naya felt a dull lurch in her guts. Whatever Scott had done, she wasn’t sure he should be telling them – she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

What if she’d misjudged him? What if he was capable of doing something terrible – something she’d never imagined he could do?

She tried to communicate that as she stared at him, willing him not to say anything.

It didn’t work.

‘I don’t know what I was thinking,’ he said. ‘But I, I...’ He paused for a moment, reached an arm towards a vine to steady himself; looked as though he was steeling himself for something. ‘You’re right, I was keeping some extra food aside.’

He was... but why? Naya tried to understand what she was hearing – and why it had led to him fleeing on his own into the wilderness. Keeping food to himself was a selfish thing to do, and running away was potentially dangerous to himself – but it was hardly murder.

‘Yesterday, I pretended I didn’t have any food left, but I did, because I was scared we’d be stuck out here today too, and I didn’t think I could trust you all to ration it out properly.’ His words erupted in a furious rush; Naya had to take a moment to translate and process what he’d said.

He took a deep breath, then carried on: ‘So I thought it’d be a good idea if I could keep some aside – conserve it, before we ran out of everything – that’s what you’re supposed to do, you know, if you’re trapped somewhere away from food and water, spread it out rather than eat and drink it all in one go.

’ He paused for breath again. ‘But I was never planning to keep it all to myself, I swear. I was trying to ration it for all of us – especially for those of us who might need it the most.’

Of course. Naya’s relief washed over her like a warm bath. She could believe that of him, far more than she could believe he had anything sinister to hide.

Ben exhaled angrily behind her. ‘Can we see it, then – the food you’ve been rationing for us?’ His tone was pure cynicism. Naya glared at him.

‘Yeah,’ said Scott. ‘Here – take a look.’ He opened his rucksack, pulled out a handful of snacks, a half-full water bottle, offered them towards the group. ‘See?’

There was a moment’s silence, then: ‘Fine,’ Ben huffed.

‘So why didn’t you just tell us that, instead of disappearing on your own?

’ His eyes were still narrowed, one finger jabbed out in Scott’s direction.

How dare he? When his own behaviour – keeping that photo secret from them all, for hours – was hardly beyond suspicion?

She felt an immediate rush of sympathy for Scott; a protectiveness.

She didn’t want him to have to explain himself.

‘I don’t know – I don’t know how to describe it.

I just... panicked,’ Scott said. ‘I get like that sometimes... like I can’t find the right words – my brain kind of shuts down.

And then my legs just started kind of moving by themselves, and then it was too late and I’d gone.

’ His hands moved to his face, rubbed his eyes with long fingers. ‘I know it must sound stupid.’

Naya shifted on the spot, uncomfortable. He’d said enough now, surely. This pressure on him was too much – she didn’t want him to crumble.

‘It doesn’t sound stupid at all – I understand.

We all do,’ she said firmly, eyes fixed on Scott.

‘And it was really thoughtful of you to be keeping food to one side like that. Now listen, everyone, I think we need to focus on what’s most urgent at the moment.

’ She glanced around the group. ‘Right now, there’s only one thing we all need to be thinking about, together.

And that’s getting out of the rainforest and back to safety. ’

Scott caught Naya’s eyes; he smiled at her gratefully.

‘Fine,’ said Ben. ‘I’ll go ahead and lead the way.’

Naya fell into line in front of Scott as they made their way back to the clearing where they’d set up camp last night.

Ben, leading the group, with Carly and Mira close behind, was following the same track he’d pushed through a few minutes earlier.

It didn’t take them long to make their way back to the clearing; after that, Scott instructed Ben to keep walking in the direction they’d decided on that morning – before he’d done his disappearing act.

Ben was content to stay in the lead, wielding the knife in front of him.

Naya let her pace slow a little, so that she and Scott were a few metres back from the others.

She wanted to be near him; she wanted to talk to him, and only him, at least for a few moments, out of the others’ earshot.

The pure physical bulk of him, combined with his gentle, slightly awkward way of communicating, worked together somehow to make her feel safe with him.

She trusted him, certainly more than Ben, but perhaps more than Carly too – even Mira.

She still wasn’t entirely sure whether this draw to him was friendship or something more – or whether there’d be any hope of the something more anyway, knowing now that she was pregnant again.

But it was warm and peaceful, being around him – not the fireworks she had with Mathieu, the chaos of never knowing if or when or how he’d show up for her.

This was different; quieter. And she liked it.

‘Hey, Scott.’ She slowed her pace, glanced back at him. ‘Can we chat?’

He smiled in a way that lit up his whole face. ‘I’d like that,’ he said, moving into step with her. Then more quietly, he added: ‘How are you doing?’

Naya grimaced; shook her head. ‘I don’t know.

Shocked and scared and tired. I can’t stop thinking about Hannah.

I’m worried about Mira and how she’s going to make it back.

I totally panicked when you ran off like that – I’m so glad we found you.

’ She paused; she wanted to fill Scott in on what Ben had shown them and the nagging feeling of mistrust that his secrecy had left her with.

‘And there’s something else...’ Scott raised his eyebrows.

Naya lowered her voice to a whisper: ‘Just after you’d run off earlier, Ben showed us a photo. ’

Scott frowned. ‘What do you mean – what photo?’

Naya sighed. ‘He said he found it on Hannah’s body, and he didn’t know who the picture was of.’ She described the woman in the photo with as much detail as she could remember, watched as Scott’s eyes widened.

‘Does she sound familiar to you at all?’

Scott looked thoughtful. ‘No, I don’t think so. But I don’t get it – why didn’t he tell us about the photo straight away? Why wait until this morning?’

‘Exactly. I can’t understand why he hid it from us. Unless—’ She faltered for a second.

‘Unless there are other things he’s not telling us,’ Scott finished.

As he said it, a bird of prey shrieked wildly overhead and Naya startled, nearly stumbled over.

He took hold of her arm to steady her. ‘I’m OK – thanks,’ she said.

‘Yeah, exactly. But I can’t imagine Ben lying to us about something bigger, like.

..’ She swallowed. ‘Like what happened to Hannah – can you?’

Scott’s eyes widened; he shook his head.

‘No, of course not. But then, I can’t imagine anyone doing that.

I mean, what kind of person would hurt someone like Hannah?

Or pretend to be her in those messages – send those photos of her, know what she’d say, sound exactly like her, to throw us all off track? ’

Naya let his words settle. Something in them had jarred, nudged something in her brain.

Sound exactly like Hannah.

Naya hadn’t thought of it like that before.

But it was true. If someone else sent those messages, they’d have to know her pretty well, wouldn’t they?

The kinds of things she’d say, how she’d have planned the retreat, the lay of the land here, where to find the maps and the satellite phone.

.. Yes, you could get a good sense of Hannah’s personality from her hundreds of TikTok videos and Instagram reels – but what if it was more than that?

What if – and at the thought, Naya’s stomach dropped – what if one of the people here knew much more about Hannah and this retreat than they’d been letting on ?

And what if that same person had come here with a specific plan in mind – a plan to kill Hannah?