I repeat the exact same process as before, speaking again when I reach an answerphone. She appears satisfied.
‘Ralf was worried that you seeing him would rake up more of your lost memories and you’d return to who you used to be. That’s why he threatened you. So, once and for all, you’d believe he was guilty and leave us alone. Only it didn’t work, did it? ’Cos here we are.’
Without warning, she raps her knuckles on the driver’s partition, and it opens. The cigarette smoke that surrounds us finds a new area in which to drift.
‘He’s getting out,’ she informs the driver, and the car comes to halt. I have no idea where I am. ‘Don’t ever let me see your face again unless it’s staring at me from the front page of a newspaper after you’ve been sentenced,’ she says, and returns to stare out of the passenger window.
I’m left by the side of a dual carriageway as the car pulls away.
Chapter 90
Melissa
‘You can’t be here,’ a panicked Melissa tells Damon when she opens her front door to find him there. She steps outside and closes it quietly behind her, hoping Adrienne hasn’t heard the bell chime.
‘You weren’t answering my calls or texts,’ he says. ‘I was worried about you.’
Each time his name has appeared, she’s automatically diverted it to voicemail. She has also deleted his voice notes and WhatsApp messages without listening to or reading them. Melissa hates having cut off all contact, but the choice was made starkly clear to her: life with Adrienne, or death with Damon.
Melissa grabs his arm and pulls him further away from the door, careful not to trip over the tools her dad’s left here as he holidays before finishing their block paving driveway.
‘Did you not think there might be a reason I haven’t replied?’ she asks in a half-whisper.
‘I honestly didn’t know what to think,’ he says, ‘but I assumed we were okay.’
‘Well, I’m sorry, but we’re not.’
Only now does she register his appearance. There are scabs on the knuckles of his right hand. His left shoulder is hunched more markedly and each move is accompanied by a small, sharp wince. He’s so clearly damaged, in so many ways. She fights her instinct to ask him what happened or to invite him inside for treatment. But there’s something else. Something different about him. Some slight shift in character that she can’t put her finger on. But it’s undeniable.
‘I’ve got so much I need to tell you,’ Damon persists. ‘I went to my dad’s funeral yesterday. Just to pay my—’
‘No.’ Melissa shakes her head. ‘Please, stop. Don’t tell me anything else. I can’t do this anymore.’
It breaks her heart, but she takes a step back, readying herself to slip back into the house and close the door on him.
‘I know who I am now,’ Damon implores her. ‘I know everything, and there’s no one else I can talk to about it but you.’
‘Damon, what we did, it was wrong. I should have been strong enough for the both of us to stop it from happening. I wasn’t then, but I am now.’
‘But—’
Melissa holds her hands up in front of her chest. ‘But nothing. Please, if you care about me at all, you’ll leave.’
A flicker of something passes through him – his expression momentarily hardens, his body tightens – but it’s too fleeting for her to get hold of.
He continues: ‘I need you to—’
To both their surprise, the door is suddenly flung open. Melissa spins to find Adrienne behind her. She’s scowling, her jaw is tight. Melissa has never seen her so angry, even during their own confrontation about Damon.
‘You need her to dowhat?’ Adrienne directs at Damon. ‘Kill you again?’
His gaze flits back and forth between Adrienne and Melissa as though measuring them.
‘I found the video you recorded,’ she continues. ‘I know you’ve been manipulating Mel into helping you to die, and that she’s been stupid enough to play along with it. But it’s over, do you understand?’
Melissa wills Damon to say ‘okay’ and walk away. But she knows he won’t give up that easily.
‘Ade,’ he says, ‘please let me come in and talk to you both.’
