Chapter 53
FIFTY-THREE
Victoria
‘You should have told me,’ I say. There is so much more I want to say. I want to call her manipulative and cruel but I can’t make myself say those words. I was cruel as well. I enjoyed it because I disliked Camilla more and more as time went on.
I cannot believe this of Reese. Perhaps she felt she didn’t have a choice? But why drag everyone else into your issue, why make us all get involved, why make us dance like puppets to your tune? How is this the same Reese I know?
‘I know, and now Lawrence is dead, and so is Camilla, and it’s all my fault.’
I sigh. ‘It’s not your fault, Reese. And it’s over now. What’s done is done.’ I need to keep her on my side. I need to have this situation go the way I want it to. Reese and I need to stick to our story and if I attack her now, she may not do that. She’s capable of anything – obviously.
Lawrence and Camilla are gone and we are here and we will need to support each other when we speak to the police again, when we explain things to our husbands, when we live through the weeks or months until this is over.
She nods her head but I know she isn’t finished blaming herself and, quite frankly, she should be blaming herself.
She played a childish game to get Lawrence out of her life and I was such a good friend that I ruined two lives to punish the people who I thought hurt her.
And all along, it was exactly what she wanted.
The good kind Reese who needs to be protected is not who I thought she was.
‘We need to get through this together,’ I tell her. ‘When it’s all over, maybe we can talk about it again, but right now, we need to be a team with the same story.’
‘Agreed,’ she says, nodding.
I start the car again and pull into the street and we drive in silence until we are outside her house.
‘I’ll call you later. We can talk about what to say when we see the police again,’ she says as she opens the car door to get out.
‘Yes,’ I agree.
She swings her legs out, and then she turns back to look at me. ‘Lawrence sent me a picture of you and Nick hugging outside the sandwich shop he likes to go to. He told me you were having an affair.’
I shake my head and close my eyes. I’m too exhausted to keep talking. But she wants an answer so I open my eyes and look at her.
‘Why would I do that, Reese?’ I ask.
She shrugs. ‘I know. I knew it was rubbish.’
I nod and she gets out of the car, slamming the door behind her.
I don’t watch her walk into her house, just pull off and make my way home.
As I tell myself one truth and one lie.
I have never had sex with Nick. Not once.
I have had sex with Nick. More than once.
I know which is which.