The text message wakes Beth up, but Vic sleeps through it. It nags three times to be read, so Beth does, if only to shut it up. She knows that it will be Laura – nobody else messages her, not these days – and she almost dismisses it without looking at it. But she doesn’t, and then she sits on the edge of the bed and reads it again, and again. And she goes to the living room and reads it again, aloud, as if that might, somehow, make it feel more real.
THE BOY WHO DIED. WE BOTH KNOW WHO DID IT.
Beth’s reading it again when another text comes through.
SO HOW CAN YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF?
Beth sits on the sofa and puts the television on. They have to leave the island now, she knows. There isn’t much time left.