‘She’s acting like she’s forgiven me. But I don’t know what she’ll do to you.’
Isla hovered in the hall, listening. Her eyes were wide. It was her husband’s voice, but those weren’t his words. Oscar would never betray her like this. Would he?
She had kept secrets from him, but hadn’t imagined he was capable of keeping them from her. He never showed any indication that he was thinking something he wasn’t saying. It didn’t seem possible that Oscar had been living a double life—especially not now, after that moment in the shower when she’d finally told him about the video, and they’d made love for the first time in months.
But her husband had slipped out of bed and got dressed as though preparing to leave her here. Now it sounded like he’d just confessed to an affair with Felicity. What was going on?
Lightning flashed. Seconds later, thunder rumbled. The rain grew to a roar. It felt like the whole house might wash away, breaking apart as it tumbled down the mountain.
‘Stop touching me!’ Felicity was shouting.
Ever so slowly, Isla eased around the corner so she could peer into the kitchen. There was Oscar, talking to Felicity, head bowed. He reached for her arm, like he was trying to take her somewhere, but she shook him off. Isla couldn’t see his face, but she could see Felicity’s, twisted by cold fury.
Oscar stiffened, as though he could sense Isla watching. He started to turn around, but Felicity grabbed him by the front of his shirt.
‘You ruined everything,’ she snarled. With her other hand, she grabbed a knife from the block—
And slashed it across Oscar’s neck.
Isla wanted to scream, but it felt like her own throat had been cut. The world went monochrome. Her ears rang. She watched the blood splash the kitchen cupboards as her husband, the father of her child, dissolved into a puddle on the floor. Felicity raised the knife above her head with both hands like a high priestess, ready to make a sacrifice.
Isla couldn’t move. Her brain had jettisoned her body. A million years of evolution held her still so the predator wouldn’t notice her.
It didn’t work. Felicity, who had been about to stab Oscar, looked up. Her eyes lasered in on Isla, petrified in the entrance to the hall.
‘Wait,’ Felicity said.
The word was like a defibrillator. Energy surged through Isla’s body and she turned to run, her feet squeaking on the tiles, her heart slamming her ribs, her nerves singing. She opened her mouth to scream for Cole and Clementine—
She heard a faint whistle behind her, something hurtling through the dark, and then felt a horrible tearing as a shaft of red steel erupted from her chest. Isla looked down at it in horror. She tried to grip the knife, but her arms wouldn’t obey. The floor swung upwards to meet her, and she barely felt the impact. Thunder boomed again, and still she couldn’t scream.
Footsteps padded across the tiles towards her. ‘I told you,’ Felicity said, sounding annoyed, ‘to wait.’