Behind Every Lie(78)

“How did you find me?”

“The good old BBC. ‘British Citizen Wins Prestigious Medal of Courage in Seattle.’ The news report said you were a teacher here. All I had to do was look through the staff pages of local schools.”

The same way Rose had found me. I knew Eva and I should have left then, but I had been so certain I could keep us safe. And I had. Until now.

Seb moved closer to me. I flinched, but all he did was hand me the mug he was holding. He smelled of fried food, grease, and the oily scent of someone who hadn’t washed in a long time.

“Here, I made you some tea. Sit down.”

It was so normal, so domestic, it felt utterly surreal. I took the mug and sat in my armchair, tea sloshing onto my trousers.

“Drink up, Katherine. You look a little pale.”

Wordlessly, I sipped the tea. Rain clattered like shards of glass against the windows and thunder boomed. The storm edged closer, the air heavy and dense.

I wiped a bead of sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. “Are you going to kill me?” I asked quietly.

He raised an eyebrow. “Maybe. But I want something from you. And you’re going to give it to me.”

He was always a cocky bastard. I was too na?ve to see it as a flaw when I was young, and once I did we had a daughter and I couldn’t risk losing her. But I saw it now. His arrogance was something I could use. I just had to keep him talking.

“What could I possibly have that you’d want?”

“You know I want Rose. And the girl.”

“They’re dead.”

“We both know that’s a lie. I know you were on the run with a little girl, red hair, about three years old. You called her Eva.” He shook his head and laughed, but not like it was funny in any way. An angry laugh that bubbled, caustic, like acid reflux, in his throat. “I knew it was Laura. You planned it all with Rose, didn’t you! You ran away with her.”

I closed my eyes. The bloke who’d attacked me in Chicago. He’d gone back and told Seb about Eva. I knew I shouldn’t have let him live.

“How could you?” He reached across the space between us and slapped me, so fast I didn’t see it coming. I was out of practice. I used to see it coming.

I gasped, my hand flying to my cheek, stunned as he glared at me, breathing hard.

“How could you run away with our daughter’s murderer?”

“Rose didn’t murder Eva. It was ruled an accident, remember? The police released her.”

“She still opened that window! She may as well have pushed her! Maybe you don’t care about justice for our daughter, but I do.”

“But why now, Seb? It’s been so long!”

“Let’s just say I was a little … indisposed while I was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Otherwise I would’ve found you much sooner.”

“The fire. You were caught starting the fire at that restaurant. The Gardener.”

“Guilty. At least according to a jury.”

No wonder I hadn’t seen or heard from him all these years.

“So where is she?” he asked. “Where is Rose?”

“I told you, Rose is dead. She really did jump off that bridge.”

Seb leaned back against the couch and folded his arms over his chest. His expression grew calculating. “I saw you meet Eva at that restaurant. Did our daughter really mean so little to you that you thought you could slot another child in where she used to be? You disgust me.”

“She did nothing wrong, Seb. She’s never known about any of it.”

My neighbor’s floodlight went on again. Somebody was outside, so close. I could scream for help, if only I could catch my breath. My vision blurred, hazy yellow clouding everything. My heart felt like spark plugs were pulsing in my chest. My limbs were utterly, utterly useless.

“You have no idea what it feels like!” Sebastian’s voice shook. “I lost everything.”

“She was my daughter too! I’ve suffered every single day since she died!”

Pain, physical and emotional, draped itself over me. The guilt and blame I’d carried for so long was a sharp stone boring into my chest.

Seb sucked his upper lip between his teeth, his face twisted. “I dream about her. Dreams where I’m watching her fall, but our angel has no wings to hold her up. I dream that I’m under the window about to catch her, but somehow I miss. I dream I’m watching her in the window but my legs are made of cement and there’s nothing I can do. I couldn’t protect my own daughter.”

“Oh, Seb,” I murmured.

Guilt was eating him up, just as it had me. But he’d swallowed the sweet medicine of revenge to cure his guilt, only to become addicted to it. That addiction was driving him even now, festering and turning into a living, breathing thing.

“Rose opened that window and she has to pay, Katherine. It’s the only way to get justice.” He grasped my hand, his touch reptilian.

I shook my head.

Seb leaned forward, his nose only inches from mine. “You get her here, or I’ll kill your precious Eva. I know where she lives. Don’t think for a second I won’t do it.”

A cold wave of sickness rolled through me, coating my skin in a thick, pin-prickly feeling. The armchair cradled my back, the only thing keeping me upright.