Return to Mariposa

Chapter 21

She didn’t come to my room, and I didn’t leave it. They all had luncheon on the terrace by the pool, but I remained in my room, eating there, waiting for her, waiting for Ian, waiting for something as I paced the floor. I couldn’t imagine what Bella thought she’d gain by showing up here, but since she didn’t appear to be in a confiding mood, I was left to guess, and none of it was good.

When I finally couldn’t stand my self-imposed exile any longer, I went downstairs, only to find that Marcus and Bella had gone out, while Mary Alice was crushing Valerie in some card game so arcane I suspected Mary Alice had made up the rules simply to trounce her younger sister. Valerie went along meekly enough, sparing a smile for me when I reclaimed the disputed lounge, while Mary Alice shot daggers at me.

“I never would have thought Marcus would see anything in Podge,” she said casually. “Aren’t you two engaged? If I were you, I wouldn’t like anyone stealing my thunder, particularly Podge.”

That was one thing unlikely to happen, I thought. “Marcus and I weren’t truly engaged—we agreed to it for Granda’s sake. He wanted to see his dynasty continue.” I sat down in one of the overstuffed chairs, tucking my legs underneath me. I would have preferred a fast exit, but I couldn’t think of an excuse.

“How did he think that would happen when he left all his money to Podge? Trust Marcus to know which side the bread is buttered on. I suppose Granda’s so-called dynasty could continue just as well with him and Podge. Though I can’t really see the two of them together—he’s always been drawn to style and flash. Podge grew up just I expected her to—fat and plain and boring.”

I considered throwing something at her but there was nothing close at hand, so I reached for one of the glossy fashion magazines that littered the tile-topped coffee table. I was mortally tired of anorexic child-women posing in impractical clothes, but for the time being, I was still Bella, and I would play the part till the end.

An endless hour passed, followed by a second one, and I was ready to climb the walls when Maldonado made his appearance with the tea tray, thankfully supplied with coffee. “Mister Marcus has called, and regrets that he and Miss Whitehead will be eating dinner out.”

“Did Ian call?” I asked a little too eagerly, then could have bitten my tongue. The last thing I wanted to be was obvious. Where the hell had he gone, and did the real Bella’s sudden appearance have anything to do with it? Most likely, but I just wished I knew what was going on.

“No, Miss Bella.”

“That’s fine,” Mary Alice said in her best grande dame manner. “We’ll have dinner early, then, Maldonado. With the funeral and reception, we’ll have a long day tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” I echoed with horror. “Why so soon?”

“Ian arranged it. I don’t know why he’s acting like he’s in charge—he’s out on his ass like the rest of us.”

“I still don’t see why we don’t have the reception here,” Valerie was bold enough to volunteer in her soft voice.

“We do what Ian says was,” her sister said, disgruntled. “Apparently, he doesn’t want hundreds of strangers crawling all over the place and disrupting his precious farm. Not his for much longer unless Podge does something about it.”

“We can’t have it tomorrow—it’s too soon,” I said. “I’m not ready.” Not ready to say goodbye to the difficult old man I’d loved with all my heart.

“Well, get ready,” Malice snapped. “If you didn’t spend all your time primping in your room, you’d be more on top of things. I certainly hope you have something black to wear.”

“I’m afraid the closest I can come is dark blue,” I admitted.

Mary Alice sniffed. “It will have to do. I want the family to present a united front, dignified in our grief. And we must make certain no one has any idea of the contents of the will until it is settled.”

“No one would be rude enough to ask, Mary Alice,” Valerie said softly.

“I would,” her sister said.

Yes, you would, I thought unkindly. “And what has Kitty said about the will?” I asked instead. “She’s going to break it, isn’t she?”

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence. “Of course she will,” Mary Alice said finally. “She’s already alluded to it.”

Alluded to it? I knew Bella better than anyone else, better now than ever. Why wouldn’t she come right out and say she was giving up the money that wasn’t even hers in the first place? It was the only way she was going to end up with anything from Granda, and she should have been the first to contest it.

Unless she had some other plan. Paranoia swept over me and I shook off the sudden flash of fear. Bella had some plan, all right, but I couldn’t believe it would involve hurting anyone. I had that much faith in her. She could always expose me as an imposter, but there was no reason that would invalidate the will, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going on with her.

Would Marcus recognize her beneath her disguise? I doubted it—he hadn’t been able to tell the difference between me and the woman he’d spent his life devoted to. I’d never been fool enough to think Marcus was a man of great depth, and he must simply rely on appearances. Though something must have drawn him to Bella beneath her frumpy disguise.

I needed Bella back here, to talk to me, to tell me what was going on in her Byzantine mind. I needed Ian back, to take me in his arms, to tell me everything was going to be all right. Instead, I was stuck with the cousins and their interminable card game and no hint of what was going on.

“You’re awfully quiet today.” Mary Alice fixed her cold blue gaze on me over her prescribed early dinner. “Is something wrong?”

I met her eyes. “I just lost my grandfather,” I said quietly.

“Oh, spare me!” Mary Alice said dramatically. “If you’d cared about him at all, you would have spent more time here. I know as well as anyone that you haven’t been home to Mariposa in five years, and if a fortune wasn’t on the line, then you probably wouldn’t have come now.”

“Well, I’m shit out of luck with the fortune, aren’t I?” I snapped, finally having had enough of Malice.

“Don’t be vulgar. We’ll overturn Granda’s absurd will and we’ll get what’s fair. Even if we can’t, Podge has always been the best of us—she wouldn’t let such an injustice pass.”

No, I wouldn’t. I wasn’t so sure about Bella, however. How long did she mean to continue this crazy masquerade? Was it up to me to put it to rest?

“I wonder where Ian is.” Valerie spoke up suddenly, a rare case of her initiating a conversation. “He took off just after Kitty arrived and we haven’t seen him since.”

“It must have something to do with the will,” Mary Alice said reprovingly. “But if he thinks I’m going to sit around waiting for him to fix this, he’ll be greatly surprised.”

“Nothing you do can surprise me, Mary Alice.” Ian’s smooth voice came from behind me, and I felt my stomach drop.

I turned to look at him, but his eyes were focused on Mary Alice, and I felt the first inkling of anxiety. He hadn’t promised anything, said anything last night. He looked tired, a stubble of beard on his thin face, work clothes on his long, lean body. He didn’t even glance in my direction.

“Don’t be unpleasant, Ian,” Mary Alice said. “Did you discover anything useful today? I presume you went to see Mr. Fergell?”

“I did.” He took a casual step toward her, his back toward me.

“Well?”

“We’ve got the funeral tomorrow, Mary Alice. Can’t you wait till that’s taken care of?” he drawled.

“No, I can’t. This entire thing is absurd, Bella and I were just discussing it, and I think it needs to be set straight immediately. Now that Podge is here, it should be easily settled.”

“Where is she?” He still didn’t look at me.

“She’s gone off someplace with Marcus, and we haven’t the faintest idea when they’re getting back. Do they even know we’re having such a rushed funeral service?”

“They know. For the time being, there’s nothing we can do. We’ll wait till after the funeral to fight over his remains.”

“You always had an unpleasant tongue on you,” Mary Alice said with a shudder. “You could at least tell us whether you’ve found out any good news.”

“I could. Good news for one person can be bad news for another.” For the briefest of moments, his eyes glanced at me, then shifted away, and I wanted to shiver from the coldness in his gaze. It was as if last night had never happened.

And then he dismissed me. “I’m going back to my rooms. I have work to do, and I need some time alone.”

He was gone before I could say anything. Not that there was much I could say. He’d made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with me, and I wondered what the lawyer had come up with to turn him off so completely. Was I going to jail for what I’d done?

“Are you two fighting?” Valerie spoke up.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Valerie, they’re always fighting,” Mary Alice said. “They hate each other—you can see it in their eyes.”

Not in my eyes. He needed time alone, did he? I was tempted to storm across the courtyard, up the stairs to his apartment and...and...

And leave him alone. He hadn’t made any promises last night—his body had spoken, telling me what I wanted to hear. Maybe there was nothing between us but insane sexual chemistry, and he was already regretting giving in to it.

“We’re not fighting,” I said wearily. “And we don’t hate each other. We simply don’t have anything in common.”

“Apart from Granda, and Mariposa, and your childhood,” Mary Alice pointed out.

I pushed back from the table, my food barely touched. “I’m going to bed,” I announced.

“You’re running after Ian,” Mary Alice said. “Any fool can see that. Make up your mind which one you want—you can’t have both, even if you’re used to getting everything you want.”

“I don’t want either of them. I want my bed,” I said coldly.

Some futile part of me had hoped he’d be waiting for me when I left the dining room. I even went down to the kitchen where Maldonado was sitting with a cup of coffee. “Have you seen Ian?” I asked, trying to sound casual.

“He’s gone to his apartment,” Maldonado said repressively. “He said to make sure no one bothered him tonight.”

That was the second warning, and I wasn’t about to ignore it. He’d effectively rejected me after the best night of my life. So be it. I could pull up my big-girl panties and get on with it. One thing was certain—I was not going to cry. Not over him, not over any damned man.

Oddly enough, I slept heavily that long night. Well, maybe not so odd considering how little sleep I’d had the night before. I only woke up once, when Marcus and Bella returned, laughing, tipsy, and I wondered if Marcus had subconsciously recognized his real love. I pulled my pillow over my head and went back to sleep.

***I’ve always hated funerals. The ritual, the formality of them, the oh-so-polite mourners in their dark clothes and crumpled tissues. Death wasn’t polite, it wasn’t formal, it was a screaming pain that ripped into you, and the last thing I wanted to do was stand around and chat with Granda’s old friends, particularly in my Bella disguise.

But I wasn’t going to cry over Granda either. That would come later, when I was back home, wherever that was. I would grieve him then, as I grieved Ian, and I would have no witnesses.

I rode with Valerie and Mary Alice down the hill in one of the big black town cars, and I assumed Bella went with the brothers. I breathed a sigh of relief. The last person I wanted to be closeted with was Ian. This was going to be hard enough—my best chance of making it through the day in one piece was to shut him completely out of my mind and heart.

I could still feel him, the imprint of his body on mine, the smell of his skin, the aching emptiness inside me. I longed for him, desperately. But he wouldn’t even meet my gaze.

And I didn’t want to be anywhere near Bella if I could help it. I had not the slightest idea what was going on in her brain, but I knew she wasn’t about to tell me until she was good and ready. At this point, I didn’t give a royal goddamn what she had planned, because I would be long gone.

I was past ready for this masquerade to end, no matter how explosive that ending might be. I was everything Ian had called me, a liar and a cheat, and I had no excuses. That I was turning over the estate and all the money to the others was the only mitigating factor. Maybe he wouldn’t still hate me.

The procession down to the small country church was endless, with the farm workers in their Sunday best following the family to the parking lot that was studded with Bentleys and Rolls and the occasional Ferrari. All of Granda’s friends had made the trek to the village church, and it was going to be jammed. Maybe jammed enough that I could slip out when no one was looking, without ever having to see Ian again. I hadn’t bothered to pack, and I’d left most of the money that Bella had given me, taking only enough to see me safely back in New Hampshire. I would figure things out from there.

I looked up toward the front of the church, the candles glowing in the warm morning light, the casket in a place of honor, and I wanted to run. I’d already said goodbye to Granda—I didn’t need this artificial fuss to make my peace with his death.

It was past time to make my goodbyes to Ian, not that he’d ever realize it. I had absolutely no idea what he really felt about me, only that he wanted me in his bed. Or he had. Now, once again, I seemed to be persona non grata, and I couldn’t really blame him. The one thing I could do for him was leave, and this time, he wouldn’t try to stop me. It was my own fault that it hurt so damn much. I’d fallen in love with him, whether it made any sense or not. In fact, I think I’d been a little in love with him when I was young and he’d rescued me from that cave, but I’d been too dazzled by Marcus’s megawatt smile.

I couldn’t avoid our formal trip to the front row with the rest of the family, but I did manage to get put at the very end of the row. Ian and Marcus were at the other end, Mary Alice and Valerie in the middle, and right next to me was Bella, in her Podge persona, her muddy hazel eyes blinking behind the heavy glasses.

I’d like to think I managed quite well, even when Ian looked down the row of family with a stony expression that was close to hatred before staring straight ahead and pretending once more that I didn’t exist. It went on forever—by the time we got to the final hymn, I was past ready to bolt. I started to move, and Bella’s hand clamped down over my wrist painfully.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she whispered harshly.

“I need some fresh air,” I said as everyone sang around us.

“Suck it up,” she hissed.

I had had enough. Of her, of Ian, of everything. I twisted my wrist painfully, breaking her hold, and slid out of the pew, moving swiftly down the aisle to the back of the crowded church. The only shoes that matched the somber navy blue dress were high heels, not made for moving quickly, and underneath the voices I heard the sharp tap tap of my heels on the old stone floors.

The sun was shining brightly overhead when I finally stumbled out of the darkened interior of the old Protestant church, and I held up my hand to shade my eyes, looking for one of the town cars. I was getting out of here, not wandering around making polite conversation while I was playing a role. The funeral and reception could continue without me. I was going home.

No, not to Mariposa, though it felt like home to me and always had. I was going to have the town car take me to the airport and I was getting the hell out of Dodge. If Ian had anything to say to me, then he would have to find me. Otherwise, I’d simply sign the papers and have done with it, with Mariposa, with all of them. With Ian.

The driver was leaning on the town car, smoking a cigarette which he quickly extinguished as I approached him. “I need you to take me to the airport,” I said in Spanish. “Now.”

For a moment, he looked confused. “I was hired to take the family from the villa to the church and back again.”

People were just beginning to exit the church and I needed to escape before I was drawn into any polite conversations. “I need to go to the airport, not the villa. Will you take me?”

“Sen?orita, I’m not supposed to...”

“Pay no attention to her.” Bella came up beside me, grabbing my arm once more. She must have been close on my heels. “She’ll go back to the house with me.”

I tried to yank free. “I don’t want to go back...” I began, but she twisted my arm painfully.

“Don’t be a baby,” she shot back. “We’ll return to Mariposa and get your things and then I will drive you to the airport in my car.”

“And how are you going to explain your ability to drive the Alfa?” I demanded.

She shrugged in the ill-fitting black polyester dress. “I’ll tell them the truth. It’s about time, don’t you think?”

Past time. I should offer to stay, to face the music along with her, but I kept remembering the cold, distant expression on Ian’s face as he glanced down the row at me, and my courage failed me. The truth wasn’t going to come as any surprise to him—Bella didn’t need my moral support to face his contempt.

“All right,” I said. “If you promise to take me. I want to be gone before the family comes back.”

“Absolutely.” Bella’s grip loosened, and she flashed me her sunny smile. “Don’t make such a fuss about it, Podge. I’ll clear everything up, and you don’t even have to be there to see how much they all despise you.”

She gave me a little push, and I climbed into the back of the car, moving over as she followed me in. The driver no longer seemed to have any compunctions, and he put the car in gear, sailing slowly out of the crowded parking lot as the mourners poured out into the sunshine. At the last minute, I looked back at the crowd, only to see Salvador at one of the entrances, trying frantically to signal me. I turned my face away from him.

We drove in complete silence, back up the long, twisting road to Mariposa, and I fought back the guilt, the second thoughts. I was running away, like a coward, rather than facing Ian. The look on his face as he stared at me during the funeral had chilled me to the bone, and I couldn’t bring myself to fight for what I wanted anymore. I would take the escape that was offered.

Mariposa was deserted, as I’d known it would be, when the town car pulled into the courtyard and Bella hustled me out of it. I stood, watching, as he drove back down the road to the church, and in the distance I could hear the bells. The funeral was over and everyone would be adjourning to the hotel for the elegant reception Maldonado had overseen. No one would return to the house for hours. Ian wouldn’t return for hours, and I’d be gone like the coward that I was.

“Get in the car, Podge,” Bella said agreeably enough, as I stared down into the distant village.

“I need to get my suitcase,” I murmured, my thoughts on Ian. I felt betrayed by his distance, his coldness. But was I betraying him in return, without giving him a chance to explain?

“You won’t need it. They’re hardly your type of clothes. Be a good girl and get in the car,” she said in that charming wheedle that she’d used so well over the long years.

I turned to glance at her. “Maybe I should wait for Ian,” I began to say, and then my voice froze. “What are you doing?”

It was a large gun in her small hand, but it was absolutely steady as it was aimed at my head.

Again, that lovely smile. “I’m afraid I need you to do what I tell you, and so far, you’ve been annoyingly reluctant to follow my lead. I’ve given you everything—the best clothes, a last chance to see the grandfather who never cared for you, to top it all off with a fortune which you foolishly think you’ll give away. Not as long as I’m around. And, miraculously enough, I was already you when I inherited Granda’s estate. I’m Podge, and no one’s going to ask any unfortunate questions.”

I was staring at her in shock. “Why do you have a gun?” It was a simple question, but I dreaded her answer.

Bella’s smile was so warm and charming in the bright sunlight that I felt like I was losing my mind. “To make certain you do what I want.”

“You wouldn’t shoot me,” I scoffed in disbelief.

“Of course I would. I’m not sentimental when it comes to getting what I want. My former boyfriend has been trying to find me and kill me for the last three months. When they find your body, they’ll assume Sierra did it. Everything will be nicely tied up.”

I didn’t move, frozen to the spot. My high heels were treacherous on the cobblestones, and I would have no chance if I tried to run for it. “You had me pretend to be you, knowing someone was trying to kill you?”

“Don’t be obtuse, Podge. Of course, I did. You know I’m always practical. I assumed Sierra would get rid of you and I’d be free to live out my life as you. Granda’s fortune was just an added benefit. Clearly, fate is on my side.”

“It isn’t supposed to be my money,” I snapped. “He had some reason...”

“If you’d had the sense to read his letter you’d have known. You were hardly the great success you hoped to be—Granda recognized you. He left the letter for the person he knew was Podge.”

“Kitty,” I corrected stupidly. I couldn’t stand to hear that hateful nickname from her smiling lips. “What did it say?”

“Oh, some garbage about dividing it equally after giving Ian half to keep up the farm. It doesn’t matter—the place will be sold, farm and all.”

“And what’s going to happen to me?” I demanded, wondering if I could slip out of the heels and make a run for it.

“I’m afraid, dear Kitty, that you’ll be dead. I didn’t want to have to do it—I’m very fond of you, after all. But I really have no other choice—Sierra will keep coming after me until I’m dead, and once more, you’re just going to have to take my place.” She took a step closer, signaling with the gun, and her calm smile dropped. “Now get in the fucking car.”

“Someone’s coming,” I said, hearing the distant noise of a fast car on the road up to Mariposa. “You can’t very well kill me with witnesses.”

“There will be no witnesses. Don’t you think I’ve got this all carefully planned? I don’t make mistakes.” She tossed her head back, that patented Bella move that I’d copied so successfully, and I wanted to throw up.

“Why did you leave your gangster boyfriend in the first place if he was so dangerous?” I said, anything to keep her talking until the car crested the hill and she no longer dared hold a gun on me.

”I grew tired of him. I grow tired of everyone eventually, everyone but Marcus. He’s not too bright, but he adores me, and he’d do anything for me. Wouldn’t you, darling?”

To my absolute horror, Marcus stepped out of the house, still in his somber clothes, an unhappy expression on his face. When I’d last seen him, he’d been sitting beside Ian in the church—he must have come up the back way from the village. “Bella,” he said in a pleading voice. “I don’t think we should do this.”

She didn’t even look at him, her gun and her attention fully on me. “Don’t be ridiculous. You sabotaged the brakes on the Alfa for me—you were ready enough back then.”

“And I nearly killed Ian!” he protested. “Why do we need to hurt Podge?”

“You were in on this?” I demanded in shock, ignoring the woman with the gun.

“Of course he was,” Bella said irritably. “He was supposed to take care of you with the car crash before anyone guessed you weren’t me. He fucked that up, of course, and apparently, you weren’t quite good enough—Granda recognized you anyway.”

“So did Ian,” I said desperately. “He’ll know that some random gangster didn’t shoot me!” The car was getting closer, and I knew, I just knew it was Ian coming after me, coming to save me.

“I’m not going to shoot you unless I have to. You’re going to take a tumble down the cliffs on the west side of the land. It will be over fast and less painful than being shot.”

“Kind of you,” I said bitterly. “And you’re going to let her do this?” I turned to Marcus, who was looking helpless.

“Bella, please stop,” he said, stirred to action. “It’s gone too far...” They could hear the car now, racing up the road, and Marcus swore. He grabbed Bella by the arm, jerking the direction of the gun away from me. “Come on!” he said urgently.

I ran. Or I tried to run, but the thin heels of the shoes caught in the cobblestones, sending me sprawling just as a gun fired, the bullet smashing into the stone beside me. I tried to scramble to my feet, kicking off the treacherous shoes, when I saw Marcus wrestling with Bella. She was fighting him like a wild woman, clawing at his imprisoning arms, but he was massive against her small frame, and she was helpless as he grabbed the gun and threw it across the cobblestones.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” Marcus shouted, and there was no missing the desperation in his voice as he half-dragged Bella to the Alfa, shoving her into the passenger side before leaping into the driver’s seat. She fought him, desperate to get back to me, to kill me, and I watched in horror, frozen to the spot where I stood. The engine roared to life, and then they were spinning on the cobblestones before they headed down the hill, almost clipping Ian’s car as they drove by.

He came to a screeching halt too near me, and Ian leapt out. “Are you all right?” he demanded. “What the hell did you think you were doing, going out alone with Bella? Don’t you have any sense at all?”

I found I was shaking. “I couldn’t believe she wanted to hurt me,” I said faintly.

“Believe it. She’d stab her own mother in the back if she had one. Where did she go?”

“She and Marcus took off.”

“Marcus?” Shock brought him up short. “Marcus knew?”

I couldn’t tell him the awful truth, that Marcus had almost killed both of us. “He took the gun away from her,” I said instead. “He didn’t want her to hurt me.”

“Jesus Christ!” Ian said. “I don’t believe it.”

“I’m not lying,” I said.

“I know you’re not. I just can’t believe that Marcus...”

“Mr. Ian!” Ian hadn’t come back to Mariposa alone—Salvador had accompanied him. “You need to stop your brother.”

“Let him go,” Ian said bitterly, staring after the speeding Alfa as it raced down the twisting road..

“No, you do not understand. I saw someone near the car, someone I did not know. I’m afraid it might have been tampered with. I was going to tell you, but there was no time.”

I had never seen someone’s face whiten the way Ian’s did. Without a word, he turned back to the car he’d driven up in, and I was a few paces behind him, jumping into the passenger seat as he was already starting the engine.

“Get out!” he snapped.

“No. I’m going with you!”

He swore beneath his breath. “I don’t have time for this shit.” He shoved at me, but I held on, and I barely had time to close the door before the car leapt forward.

He roared down the twisting roads, driving like a maniac as he chased after the bright red Alfa. He was muttering under his breath, half prayer, half cursing, and I held on for dear life. In truth, we were in greater danger than the car up ahead as we drifted around a corner, then sped up again, and I wanted to tug at his arm, beg him to slow down, when the explosion rocked the sky.

I couldn’t see the Alfa, I could only see the ball of fire that shot up, straight into the sky, the pieces of metal raining down on the conflagration. Ian slammed the car into park and jumped out—we were on the narrow edge of the road, overlooking the explosion, and I scrambled after him. The force of the blast had picked up the car and tossed it in the air, coming down on its side, and all I could see was the steel framework being engulfed in flames. Marcus and Bella were gone without a trace, lost in the powerful inferno, and I sank to my knees beside the road, staring at the conflagration in wordless horror.

I was barely aware that Ian had climbed back in the car and continued his breakneck journey down the twisty roads. I simply stayed where I was, shock and grief threatening to overwhelm me. I could feel the waves of heat from the burning wreckage, and I watched, numbly, as I saw Ian’s car reach the wreck. I backed away from the cliff, unable to watch as he searched for his brother. I knew there would be nothing left.

Salvador reached me first in one of the old farm trucks. Taking one look at my face, he bundled me inside, fastened the seat belt around me, and started back up the hill, passing several emergency vehicles as we went. I was barely aware of them. Marcus and Bella were dead, and I’d come far too close to meeting the same fate. I was too numb to feel relief—my insides were a great, yawning hole of grief and anger. This didn’t need to happen. Bella’s desperate need for money and control had set this in motion, and now she and Marcus lay dead, presumably at the hands of her gangster boyfriend. I felt a strange pull of grief in my heart. For better or worse, they had been my family, and now they were gone in the conflagration.

But the one who would be hurting the most was Ian, who’d lost his brother. I couldn’t see how he could be other than broken.

The house was empty when Salvador dropped me off—Mary Alice and Valerie must have been manning the reception as his grandchildren died in flames. There would be questions, there would be police, there would be the ungodly mess of identifying which granddaughter had actually died in the flames, and it was too much for me to even consider. I wanted to run away, to never think about this appalling tragedy that I had been instrumental in bringing about.

Ian would never forgive me, which was all right since I would never forgive myself. If only I hadn’t listened to Bella’s blandishments. If only I’d seen through her surface charm to the real danger beneath it. If only...