61. Now

Neither of us speaks. I stand and try again with the coffee, spooning an extra scoop into the cafetière. I try hard not to think. But I can't help it.

I remember the twins' last birthday party. Everyone was outside, even though there was frost on the ground, to coo over the Range Rovers. Theo and I had gone back in to organise hot chocolate. Jenna must have thought she was alone, and as we came in I saw her picking up Ava's new necklace, holding it in the light.

I had been surprised she liked it. It was such a pretty necklace. All of Jenna's jewellery was cut from acrylic. She had one I particularly despised: a cat throwing up a rainbow.

‘It's lovely, isn't it?' I said, as behind me Theo started opening cupboards.

She nodded and put it quickly back in the box. ‘Not really me, though,' she said.

I smiled. ‘It could be you if you wanted though, couldn't it?'

She frowned and walked off as I tried to figure out what I'd done to offend her.

If the necklace isn't Ava's, then what?

It suddenly occurs to me that Mina might have been sent here by Tristan. Maybe he wants to see if I suspect him, to know where I've been.

‘I don't know, Mina. Without seeing it… And I'm no gemmologist.'

She pretends she has something in her eye. Why would it make her cry, for the necklace to be Jenna's?

No, let's not think about that. She's just feeling emotional. It's been a difficult day.

I lean forward onto the counter and the pain from my cuts swells again.

‘Tristan just admitted something to me,' she says, and I go still. ‘He said that afternoon…' She doesn't have to say which afternoon. ‘You can't tell him I told you this.'

I nod as I turn my back to her and press down on the cafetière plunger.

‘He said there was a tape, and you said you destroyed it back then, but now he thinks you didn't. He thinks you kept it all these years. He thinks Jenna ended up with it, and her friend Rose took it from her.'

I try not to move a single muscle in my face.

‘Is that right?' she says. ‘Did you keep the tape?'

I pour the coffee. If he's only just told her this, does it mean he only just found out, and so he can't have had anything to do with Jenna's disappearance? What would be the point of sending Mina to ask me this now? The only point would be to find out if the tape really does still exist, so he can't have known about it before tonight. And if I say it does exist, what then? He finds some way to put an end to the search for Jenna?

Or what if he told Mina but didn't send her here, and she's just trying to understand what's going on?

‘You don't trust me,' she says. ‘Why would you?' And then she starts crying for real.

She was never the most beautiful of us girls. Lydia was always the stunner, then probably Georgia, though she never had the confidence to realise it. But now, after a lifetime of being taken care of by professional dermatologists and the odd bit of eye-bag removal and wrinkle tightening, Mina certainly looks the youngest. It has all been done so tastefully, but still there's a slight artificiality to her, a touch of plastic, and I realise I wouldn't want to look like that. She takes perfect pictures, but up close, you can see the effort, the lies.

She shakes her head. ‘Why did you stop being my friend?'

My mouth opens, but I'm not sure what to say.

She looks at me, the hurt in her eyes clear as day. ‘I worshipped you.'

‘You worshipped Tristan.'

‘Both of you. I thought we'd be best friends.'

‘We were best friends.'

She shakes her head again. ‘No. After Georgia, no one was your best friend. I thought we were, but then I moved in here, and it was like I was invisible to you.'

‘You kicked me out of my home and took all of my money. You broke my husband's business.' I hate the sound of this out loud. It's so hard to admit how bad this has made me feel when none of it is really my money. Entitlement is such a twisty thing.

‘None of that was me.'

‘But you didn't object.'

‘Of course I objected. I told you.'

I remember her telling me she didn't think it was fair, but I'd thought she was just trying to keep me on side. ‘But you accepted it.'

‘What else could I have done?'

I stare at her.

‘This family, Frances… You could have warned me. We could have been here for each other.'

‘What do you mean?'

Does she mean that we don't talk much about things? Or does she see what my father does to my mother? Does she see his control over us? What could I have said to her? I hadn't even understood. Not till today. And what would a warning have done? Would she have left Tristan?

She runs a finger round the rim of her glass. ‘I know you don't trust me. But I can promise that nothing you say will get back to Tristan. I think we're done. I think we're finally over.'

‘What?' They're over?

‘Did Tristan rape Miss Smith? Did he try to kill her?'

I blink. My cuts ache.

She leans closer. ‘What was on the tape?'

‘There wasn't a tape.'

‘Tristan just told me. He says the twins said Jenna had something she could hold over him and that's the only thing it could possibly be. He's losing his mind. He and Theo are down there losing their minds together.'

‘I destroyed the tape.'

So, Theo knows my brother's darkest secret. Or some version of it. And the lies keep pouring out of my mouth. There was a tape. I didn't destroy it. But Mina's right. I don't trust her.

Mina brings her hand to her throat. ‘The thing is, I could believe that it could be any number of things, that there are a thousand different tapes showing Tristan doing any number of awful things, but this is the only thing Jenna could have laid her hands on, isn't it? Because whatever else he's hiding, it wouldn't be here, within our reach.'

Mina thinks Tristan is hiding other things. Lots of things. I can't think about that now.

Another lie comes to my lips. The only acceptable one. ‘I pulled out all the tape – the ribbon bit. I got rid of it. Decades ago.'

‘He told me because he wanted me to find out from you where you'd hidden it. He sent me on a little mission.' She smiles grimly. ‘He wants to be certain this is what it is – the thing Jenna had. He thinks you're lying. It doesn't really matter because he's doing everything he can to find Jenna and get to her before the police, but he wants to know for sure, as soon as he can, so he knows how to handle Jenna once he finds her.'