EPILOGUE
Summer
I take a deep breath and lean back in the deck chair. The sand is warm beneath my feet, and I fix my gaze on the waves lapping a few hundred yards ahead.
It’s a quiet beach.
Very quiet. Only a few people are about at this time in the morning.
But I like coming here. It helps me think. Helps me process and understand.
It’s strange, producing a project, knowing it’s the last thing that you—as that person—is going to do. Even though ‘Summer Taylor-Braddon’ will no longer exist tomorrow, I still want people to think well of her. It’s important to me, more important than I can truly say.
She’s me. My past.
And no one will know me, going forward.
I’ll finally be anonymous.
Yet, I don’t want her—my ghost—to be thought of badly. That wouldn’t be right. I don’t want to be constantly worrying. So, Summer Taylor-Braddon was a good person.
She was.
Even if my sister wasn’t.
A seagull swoops down onto the sand a little way away from me. Its beady eyes watch me.
I don’t know why Matilda killed Mia.
Or where my sister even is right now. I told everyone she was getting a new identity—and maybe she is. Maybe she already has a new identity, living out there, as someone else.
There’s only one thing I know right now: The whole Taylor family will no longer exist.
With a sigh, I stand. The seagull flies away.
I think that’s for the best.