Page 84 of Endgame

‘Me too. I would have chosen to live in a world without you if I had got on that plane, and I would never have forgiven myself.’

‘What did Dominic say?’

‘Nothing. I’m sure some part of him is relieved that he didn’t have to aid and abet a fugitive tonight.’

‘When all this is over, we should do something nice for him to say thank you.’

Caleb grunts.

I leave it because I’m just happy that he’s back home with me. That night, I hold him close, because there is no way I’m going to let him go.

News travelled fast that Caleb was being questioned and, when clients started to distance themselves from Ivory Bow, Bree, along with Park and Jin, the new sales guys, kicked into gear, covering Caleb’s clients.

As a company, the official line was that he hadn’t been charged with anything and was merely helping with the investigation. He was pulled from representing Ivory Bow and attending public events and encouraged to work from home until it blew over.

I expected it to have a devastating effect on him, but Caleb simply adjusted by supporting the team from home. He helped with their diaries, client information and targets. He upped his training with Honey to twice a day, and started working on a plan for the gyms with Jasper.

When my request to work from home twice a week was declined by Samir, Lara offered to spend the day at mine on Tuesdays and Thursdays to help break up his week as she waited for the paperwork for her DMVI job to come through.

Caleb was in and out of the police station a lot for those three weeks, but we made up for his stressful days with quiet evenings, early nights, weekend road trips exploring the country and lazy Sundays in whatever hotel we had managed to end up in the night before.

Then, six weeks to the day Melissa was declared missing, an email appears in my inbox. I open it and click on the white play icon.

It is a video of Melissa in a soft, oversized bathrobe, cocktail in hand, looking as fresh as a daisy. I pause immediately and let the relief that this exonerates Caleb wash over me. It’s quickly followed by a wave of nausea.

‘Lydia!’ I whisper urgently and she whips round and, when she sees my screen, her eyes bulge.

‘I’m pinging Bryce now,’ she says.

Bryce is with us in a flash, so I grab my ear buds, share one with Lydia and give the other to Bryce.

‘Closed captions,’ Bryce suggests.

‘Wait,’ Lydia says. ‘Screen record just in case we only get one view. Bryce, record it with your phone too just in case the screen capture is disabled.’

Her fingers fly across my keyboard and then, when we have taken every preservation precaution, I hit play.

‘Hey, everyone! I’m still on my honeymoon and it’s been an absolute blast so far. Gustaf has been looking after me and let’s just say I’m having the time of my life.’ She smiles coyly at someone off camera in a way that makes me think Gustaf might be having the time of his life too. ‘Now that I’m a little more relaxed, I’ve decided to do a three-part storytime. There’ll be business, pleasure and jail time. It starts tomorrow, link below. Put them all in your diaries.’

Melissa takes a sip of her cocktail and then speaks off camera.

‘Oh, before I forget, obviously I’m not dead.’ She holds up a copy of the UK’sFinancial Timeswith today’s date.

‘Okay, that was exhausting. I haven’t lifted anything in weeks!’ She laughs at the camera. ‘See you tomorrow. Expect arrests.’

The video cuts off. Caleb is calling me.

‘Mason, Melissa just sent me a video.’

‘I got it too. I just watched it with Bryce and Lydia.’

‘I haven’t dared to open it.’

‘The general message was that she’s alive and will be spilling secrets for the next three days.’

‘What secrets?’

‘We’re going to have to wait to find out. Are you okay?’

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