One of the Girls(88)

Ed drew back his arm.

Eleanor’s hands lifted to protect her face.

Lexi went to say something – Stop! Don’t! Please! – but already his arm was crashing forward.

It was too late.





83

Fen

By the time Fen returned to the bay, it was deserted. The fading embers of their beach fire glowed weakly, a thin drift of smoke hanging in the still air. A low beat from the speaker strummed eerily into the empty night.

She planted her hands on her hips, catching her breath as she turned on the spot. The rowing boat had been abandoned on the shoreline, oars jutting like elbows from its sides. They made it back, she thought, relieved.

After Bella’s terrible fall into the sea, Fen had sprinted along the clifftop, breath ragged, adrenaline spiking in her veins. She’d scrambled down the steep path to reach the hidden cove where she and Robyn had once swum. At the water’s edge she’d yanked off her clothes, wading into the inky black water, calling Bella’s name.

As she swam out, sticking close to the cliff line, she’d spotted the shadow of a rowing boat. Through the darkness, she was able to make out Eleanor’s frame as she reached down, hauling Bella from the water. Flooded with relief, Fen had called to them – but was too far away to be heard.

Where is everyone? Fen thought now. She lifted her gaze towards the villa, which stood castle-like on the cliff edge. In the high moonlight, she searched for Bella among the moving silhouettes. As she watched, two people stepped close to the terrace edge.

Too close.

She narrowed her eyes, trying to discern who they were.

She knew that terrace; knew the danger of the sheer drop onto a fatal bed of rock, the low structure of the wall. ‘Careful …’ she whispered.

There was a sudden movement, an arm raised with force. Hairs rose on the back of her neck.

In a beat, the arm had shot forward, launching something from the terrace.

She watched as an object twisted through the night.

What the …?

There was the crash of something heavy landing against rock.

Fen started to run.





84

Eleanor

The launched sculpture missed Eleanor’s head by inches. She turned, watching it twist magnificently, moonlight hitting the curve of bronze.

She thought of the hours and hours she’d dedicated to creating the sculpture, trailing the shape of Lexi’s figure, wanting it to be perfect.

It landed with a distant clunk, like the dense thud of bone against rock.

‘I can’t believe you did that!’ Robyn said, voice high with outrage.

Eleanor could.

She knew how Ed, enraged, was dangerous. She had the scars to prove it: butterfly stitches beneath her chin when he pushed her into a wall after she beat him in a running race; a scar below her knee when she was knocked from their treehouse; another scar on her shoulder after he’d tipped over her kitchen stool and she’d landed on a broken plate.

What saddened her was that she’d allowed herself to hope that meeting Lexi had changed Ed. Yet now she realised he’d been putting his best foot forward because he saw Lexi as his equal; her beauty and success matched his. He’d hidden the darker shades of himself with such conviction that he’d fooled them all.

Slowly, Eleanor lowered her hands, which had been guarding her face. She became aware of the others drawing closer to her shoulder. She knew Ana’s pain as she’d described what Ed had done behind a locked door. She shared Bella’s disgust that Ed had blindfolded Sam, and Robyn’s disbelief that he had destroyed the sculpture. She understood Lexi’s shock at seeing the real Ed.

The women were standing near, almost a circle. She drew strength from their closeness, pulling back her shoulders and raising her chin. Despite the roar of blood in her ears, she would not be afraid anymore. ‘That sculpture wasn’t yours to destroy.’

Ed was glaring at her, eyes bright with rage. ‘Lexi hardly wanted it! It’s odd, Eleanor. A sculpture of her! These aren’t your friends. You’ve never had any friends. You’re a joke!’

The words shouldn’t have stung – after all, she’d heard so many variations of them over the years – yet there was still a part of her that flinched. That couldn’t help thinking: Maybe he is right.

The women drew tighter. A pack.

But maybe he isn’t, she thought.

‘You and Sam suited one another,’ Ed went on. He had always hated it when he failed to get a rise. Had to push further. An older brother knowing the exact tender place to pinch. ‘You suited one another because he was laughable, too!’

Sam. My Sam. The most glorious person she’d ever known. The man who she’d loved with her whole being. Who was kind and easy and never judged others. Who Ed had blindfolded and steered to the top of a flight of concrete steps.

‘What a pathetic pair you made!’

Ana stepped forward, a fierce vision, her red dress swishing once, then settling around her knees. ‘Watch your fucking mouth!’

It happened so quickly that Eleanor didn’t even have time to warn her. Ed lifted his left hand – his dominant hand – and swung the palm of it, swiftly, violently, across Ana’s cheek.

Her head snapped back.

Lexi’s mouth opened in a perfect O of shock.