Chapter 59
Fifty-Nine
Quinn
All she can think about is her darling Harry and that she’ll never see her boy again.
Pain sears through her side as she gasps for breath.
Diggerty licks her. Now he’s decided that he’s her dog.
She falls to the ground. There is so much commotion going on around her she can’t make out what’s being said.
Things sound strange, like she’s bobbing under the surface of a lake.
Zoe yelps, and the light from Gemma’s phone is pointing everywhere but on what’s happening in front of them.
Diggerty stops licking her then he barks frantically.
She sees the back end of Morgan as she runs towards the exit of the den.
Gemma stares at Quinn, her mouth agape. Just like back then with Jasmine, she wonders if Gemma will do nothing and run off, leaving her bleeding to death in the den.
Silence falls upon all of them. Quinn doesn’t blame Gemma because she ran too.
They were scared kids back then, but they’re not scared kids now.
Ouch, her side hurts more than anything and she’s lightheaded.
The quietness is deafening now. Gemma has upped and left the building. What a surprise.
Quinn flinches. There’s shouting and arguing but she can’t make out a single word.
She spends her last few moments reflecting on how much of it was her fault.
She wrote letters to herself, really mean letters that mentioned her son.
She wanted them to look real. She lied to Gemma so that Gemma wouldn’t suspect her.
They knew each other. Quinn would have been on the top of her list. Instead of helping Gemma at the beginning, she’d covered her own ass because she knew that the neighbours were an unforgiving type.
She’s spent her life trying to fit in, never quite being good enough.
Her mother had spoken to her like she was trash and, despite all her amazing achievements, no one truly respected her.
Pain sears through her again. Quinn does not respect herself anymore.
She sank low when she stole from Dorette and then blackmailed her.
It has all come out now and it doesn’t even matter because she isn’t going to see tomorrow – hell – she isn’t going to see midnight at this rate.
It’s cold, so shivery cold. This is what dying must feel like.
The shouting stops again. She feels nauseous. Gemma must have been stabbed too, and Morgan. Maybe there is no one left apart from Zoe.
She can’t hear them or Diggerty. Her vision prickles and the cold is almost burning her fingers.
She can’t move them. Only now she wishes she revealed what Dorette told her on the night she fell from the balcony.
Quinn knows she will die, taking the whole truth with her.
Love is a powerful thing and Quinn can’t say that she hasn’t truly loved.
Her love for Harry is as pure as the snow on the ground.
She was working her way up to telling Gemma everything, that’s why she’d drank so much, but Gemma had been upset with her, then she’d come charging in with Ethan accusing Quinn of sleeping with him.
She should have made the time to tell her everything.
Now, she’d take her secrets to the grave.
Her eyes get heavier so she closes them. Dangerous because she might never wake up again. ‘Tell Harry I love him,’ is all she can murmur, but there is no one there.