I lie awake for more than an hour thinking about this when floorboards creak overhead. Liv doesn’t come down to use the loo as I expect and I can still hear her moving around quietly so I decide to go up and see her, give her a hug, apologise for not being here when she arrived. I could do with a hug.
I pad up the stairs. A sliver of light surrounds her now-closed door.
As I open it, there’s a streak of movement I can’t work out, and Liv sits on the bed looking shifty. I should have knocked.
‘Sorry…’ I begin.
Then I notice a piece of paper on the bed, and beside it, a pile of envelopes. A box props open the hatch-like door to the eaves. A box with ‘personal’ scrawled on the side in my handwriting.
A box I never open.
I rush to the bed and gather up the letters. ‘What are you doing? These are private!’ My voice is high-pitched.
‘I’m sorry, I––’
‘No, no, you can’t look at these!’ I can’t stand the sight of them, but I can’t have them out in the open like this.
She’s been here all night, alone. How much has she read?
‘How dare you read my private letters!’
She looks defiant. ‘I didn’t mean to. I was looking for something else and I saw them. I wondered what they were.’
‘I thought you came here because you wanted to talk to me. To spend time with me. For the first time in months!’
She drops her eyes and picks at her nails.
‘You only came here to snoop around.’
‘I didn’t plan it. I didn’t know you wouldn’t be here,’ she mutters.
‘You knew, even if I was here, you could wait until I was asleep.’
She doesn’t deny it and it makes me want to scream.
‘They’re from Will Bailey, aren’t they?’ she asks.
‘That’s none of your business!’
‘Itismy business.’ Her voice sounds odd, strangled. ‘It’s my business because he’s my father, isn’t he?’
Chapter 27
December 1995
When Will woke on Boxing Day morning, he found himself on the floor next to the Christmas tree, with Reu fast asleep on the sofa beside him. Getting to his feet was painful, his body stiff and his left eye was swollen and half-closed. He groaned at the memory of slamming into the kitchen counter after Aidan punched him. On the way to the bathroom, Will saw Aidan and Emily’s room was empty, and when he checked out of the window, Aidan’s car was missing.
He was gone.
And so was Emily.
No trains were running, so Will’s dad was tasked with driving Izzy home. His mum, mortified by the scandal, banished him along with Izzy, and Reu didn’t want to stay without Will. Aidan was supposed to give them all a lift home, but with him gone, they all had to pile into one car. The drive back was silent except for two occasions when Izzy asked his dad to pull over so she could throw up.
When they arrived at her flat, Will got out to fetch her bag from the boot. ‘Look, I really am sorry,’ he said.
‘So you keep saying.’ She snatched the bag and marched up the front steps to her flat.
‘That was awkward,’ said his dad when he got back in the car. ‘Shame, I liked that one.’