I look at him, but he doesn’t return my gaze, just stares down at Dina’s crumpled form. ‘What have you done?’ I hurry to my sister’s side, crouch down and turn her face to mine. Her eyes are staring, unseeing. My whole body begins to shake uncontrollably. ‘Celia! Celia, I need you to help my sister. Can you save her?’ But even as I say the words, I know it’s useless. It’s too late. Dina is dead.
My mother-in-law comes over and crouches by my side, but she shakes her head.
‘Take her pulse!’ I demand. ‘Give her mouth to mouth! Do something!’
Celia takes Dina’s limp wrist and feels for the pulse she already knows will be absent. ‘I’m sorry, Zoe. She’s gone.’ She looks up at her son. ‘What happened? Who is this?’
‘They’ve been having an affair!’ I blurt out. ‘My sister and my fiancé. Your son! They’ve been seeing each other behind my back. And now he’s killed her! We need to call the police.’ I glance around and spy the hotel phone on the desk by the bay window. I walk towards it, scared about what will happen once I’ve made the call.
‘Zoe, wait.’ Celia comes after me.
‘For what?’ I snap. ‘My sister is dead, there’s nothing left to wait for. Toby is a murderer. An adulterous murderer. He needs to pay for what he’s done.’ I pick up the phone and dial 999. Celia tries to whip the phone out of my grasp, but I duck out of the way, moving further from the window.
‘Let’s just talk about this calmly.’ She advances on me again.
‘I know he’s your son, but you can’t protect him from this. That’s my sister!’
‘Just give me the phone, Zoe.’ Celia’s voice is steely, her eyes like two chips of flint. This is a side of her I’ve never seen before.
Nick is questioning Toby, who’s standing in the middle of the room, his head in his hands. I think he’s crying.
Before my call has a chance to connect, Celia snatches the phone from me and hangs up.
‘Give me that back!’ I try to pry her fingers off the phone, but she has too tight a hold. In a moment of desperation, I bite down on her bony knuckles.
‘Hey, stop it!’ Nick cries. But he doesn’t try to intervene, just takes a step uselessly towards us.
‘Zoe, what do you think you’re doing?’ Celia shoots me a venomous glare, wrenches her hands away from my mouth and gives me a vicious shove. My dress is so tight and my heels so high that I can’t keep my balance. I can feel myself toppling backwards. My hands flail out to the side to try to grab hold of anything to steady my fall. But they find nothing but air.
Thirty-Two
NOW
The absolute shock of remembering makes me briefly forget my current situation. I stare at Celia in horror. She pushed me! She knocked me out cold on my wedding day.
I feel sick to my stomach.
If all of that is true, then what happens now? I literally cannot move, and Celia and Malcolm keep darting glances over towards me. I think whatever it was that Celia injected me with is not a mild sedative. It’s something far worse. My insides turn to water as I realise that Celia is not in fact my friend. She’s not the wonderful mother-in-law I made her out to be. She’s not on my side at all and never has been. I think she’s been keeping me close all these years so she could keep an eye on me after what happened with Toby and Dina. I can’t stop thinking about the look she gave me when she tried to stop me calling the police all those years ago. When she shoved me backwards. It was vicious and triumphant.
Does Toby know his mother is here? Has he given her his blessing for whatever is going on right now? Oh, dear Lord, what if Celia plans to do away with me? What if I never see Alice and Jamie again and they’re left to be raised by their murdering father and psychopathic grandparents? I have to get out of this. I have to save my children.
A knock at the door brings me back to my present surroundings. Please let it be someone good. Someone I can trust to help me.
‘Zoe! You in there?’
Thank goodness! It’s my dad!He goes quiet for a moment, no doubt waiting for my reply. I pray for him not to leave, to somehow open the door and rescue me. If only I could call out to him. I’m sending messages from my brain to my vocal chords, but nothing’s happening. I can’t so much as force out a whisper.
Celia looks at Malcolm and puts a finger to her lips. He nods. Their actions confirm that I’m in terrible danger.
Dad calls out once more, and I cling on to the sound of his voice. ‘I tried to find the others but they’re not in their rooms. I’m worried about you, love. If you can hear me, open the door!’ He knocks harder this time and tries the handle. I hear it clicking up and down. But of course the door is locked. No one is going to be able to open it.
If only he’d come by earlier, before Celia had injected me with whatever it was.Please find a way to open the door. Kick it down. Yell! Call for help. Please.
‘Zoe?’ Silence. ‘Ah, all right. You sleep well. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
No, please, no. Come back!
Celia and Malcolm remain still and quiet until Dad’s footsteps have receded. They’re hunched together on the bed with Malcolm’s rucksack between them, like a couple of huge spiders crouched over their prey.