CHAPTER 44
FAYE
My stomach churns when I gaze at this man with dark eyes. He sat at my dining table and made me believe he loved my daughter. He seduced her, lied to her and even proposed to her. And all this time, Tim, the man I thought would soon become my son-in-law, is the stepson of my twin sister.
There’s something disgustingly Freudian and Machiavellian about all of this. But the one thing I can’t figure out is why?
“You can call me Magnus,” he says. “Auntie Faye.”
His smile is so sickly sweet that I want to punch out his teeth and watch them fall down his throat. But he’s holding onto both my wrists now with an iron grip. Every fibre of my being wants to try and throw him off, to struggle and thrash, but I realise the best thing I can do is calm down and try to conserve my energy.
“Why?” I stare up at him, trying to figure him out.
His placid face looks down at me. He doesn’t seem to be in any kind of emotional distress. Holding me hostage like this isn’t a problem for his conscience at all. He’s dangerous. Violence is not alien to him.
“You hurt Claire, didn’t you?” I say. “You’ve done something to her.”
There are still some pieces of the puzzle missing but I’m almost certain that the reason Claire disappeared is because of this man who is restraining me. What I don’t know, is whether he killed her.
“Claire and I had some issues to resolve, it’s true,” he says, the smarmy smile stretching further. “I mean, the stepmother stereotype exists for a reason. She’s a bitch who deserves everything she gets.”
This man is vile. He is a snake who has slithered his way into the heart of my home, the heart of my daughter. What did he have to gain from seducing Penny? The thought makes heat rise to my cheeks. “What does any of this have to do with me and my family? Penny is innocent in all of this.”
The smile on his face drops and blackness descends. He shoves me. Hard. I land on the expensive floor, hitting the side of my head against the flagstones. I’m scrambling to my feet when he wraps his arms around me.
“You need to stop asking so many questions,” he hisses into my ear. “After all, you don’t know where your darling daughter is right now, do you?”
The words make the world tilt on an axis. “What have you done to Penny?”
He laughs. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
And then I feel a sharp pinprick in my right arm. I suck in a quick breath. He’s injected me with something. It could be a sedative, or it could be something that will kill me.
“Now, if you just co-operate, then perhaps you’ll see lovely Penny again. If you don’t, then I’m afraid there will be some consequences. Is that understood?”
He pushes me back down on the kitchen floor where I lie awkwardly, my hips and knees sore. I place a hand on my chest.
“All right,” I say. “I’ll behave.”
“Good. What I’d like you to do now, is go to sleep.” He glances at his watch. “It should only take a minute or two.”
“What are you going to do with me? Where is Penny?”
He wags a finger. “What did I tell you about questions?”
I’m silent, staring in horror at this man and the power he has over me.
“Much better, Faye.”
I’m trying to decide if I can make a run for it when a warm sense of calm rises in my chest, oozing upwards, a hot lavender bath easing my aching bones. The kitchen swirls around me and my eyelids feel heavy. All I can think about is Penny. My daughter, laughing in my arms as a child. Crying after falling out of a tree. Performing in the nativity play, a bright angel, singing under the spotlight.
“It’s okay, Penny,” I mumble. “Everything will be okay, I promise.”
Then the flagstone floor swallows me up, eating me whole.
CHAPTER 45
FAYE
