Page 15 of I Would Die for You

“Well, I’m on the scales, taking money, trying to stop everyone who walks past from thinking they can pocket a sweet without me noticing.”

“What,stealingit?” asks John, with an expression of disbelief.

Cassie nods. “The pick ’n’ mix is notorious for it. People seem to think it’s one for the bag, two for the mouth.”

John shakes his head. “And that’s down to you, is it? To try and stop it from happening?”

“Yeah,” she says. “It’s a lot of responsibility, but I think I held my own.”

He nods, as if he’s almost proud of her. “So, they’re beginning to trust you? That’s good. It’s important that you can be trusted—it goes a long way.”

“Yeah,” says Cassie absently.

“And finally,” says the newsreader, cutting through the forced atmosphere, “Britain’s boy-band sensation, Secret Oktober, were given a hysterical send-off at Heathrow Airport earlier today, when over one hundred screaming girls turned up to wave them on their way.”

Cassie’s face freezes and she jumps up like a cat on a hot tin roof from the table. “Let’s get the washing-up done so we don’t have to do it later,” she says, taking her plate through to the kitchen bin and noisily scraping it clean.

Nicole struggles to swallow the lumpy mashed potato in her mouth as she dares to contemplate what might be about to ensue. She throws Cassie a questioning look through the hatch, hoping her fears are unfounded.

“Look at this,” says John, derisorily. “All these girls making a fool of themselves over some fly-by-nights who they’ll be embarrassed by this time next year.” He tuts. “God, what must their parents think?”

Cassie clangs the cutlery even more loudly. “Come on,” she calls out. “Come and help me.”

Channeling Cassie’s rising panic as if it were her own, Nicole races to turn the TV off, but it’s too late.

“What the…?” starts John, squinting at the TV.

Nicole closes her eyes and holds her breath.

“Please tell me I haven’t just seen what I think I’ve seen,” John bellows. “That that wasn’t you throwing yourself all over those boys.”

“What?” says Cassie, looking at him incredulously, as if the mere suggestion is so far-fetched that evenshecan’t believe it.

“I saw you! You were hanging off some chump who looked even more embarrassed than I feel.”

“I-I…” starts Cassie, desperately looking to Nicole for help, now that their mother can no longer stand up for her.

“So not only have you made a complete and utter fool of yourself, heaping humiliation on me and your mother, but you’ve also spent the last fifteen minutes telling me barefaced lies.”

Cassie’s nostrils flare. “If you’re embarrassed to be my father, then that’s your problem, but don’t you ever suggest that Mum would be anything other than proud of me!” she cries, before storming out of the room.

“Come back here right now, young lady—”

“Don’t!” Nicole warns her father as she holds him back from following Cassie. “I’ll go.”

“Well, you’d better talk some sense into her,” he barks. “Because I will not have her behave the way she’s behaving.”

As Nicole climbs the stairs, her limbs weary with worry and fear, she wishes more than ever that she could slip in beside her mother like she used to. It takes her until she gets to the top that she realizes she still can.

8

CALIFORNIA, 2011

“Hannah!” I call out, my throat hoarse. “Hannah!”

“We’ve checked the boathouse and the yacht club,” says Joe, the current owner of Danny’s, the bar where I used to work. “There’s nothing.”

Every time someone tells me they haven’t found her, another little piece of my heart breaks. It’s been almost two hours and night has transcended day, the reflection of the moon in the water of Glorietta Bay a sickening reminder. As small a town as Coronado is, what chance have we got of finding her if she’s wandered off by herself, let alone if she’s been led away by someone else? Someone I can’t help but fear has a sinister motive.

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