Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
“Yes.” Bobby hadn’t stood a chance of escaping the rising hot air in the enclosed roof cavity.
“My mum, I tried to get her out, but Shumi…” Her voice caught. “Mum told me to run.” A whisper. “I’d forgotten that. But at the end, I think she knew I hadn’t hurt Ani, she understood that I hadn’t meant to hurt Dad. She told me to run, ‘Diya, beta, run!’ ” A scream as she repeated her mother’s words. “But Shumi suddenly stopped fighting with me and left, so I didn’t listen. I tried to get my mother out.”
“She was setting the fire.”
“Yes. I started to smell smoke and smell petrol. I looked over and saw that the cans of fuel Bobby had brought for the boat were missing…and that was when I realized my mother had stopped breathing, her heart quiet. I almost lay down next to her, I was so weak from all the times Shumi had stabbed me as we fought, but all I could think of was you calling me your light.”
So she’d staggered out, somehow managing to escape the house Shumi had turned into a death trap.
“Do you think she’ll tell on me?” Diya said. “About my father?” Sobs shook her shoulders. “I didn’t mean to hurt him. I was just so mad, and always before, he’d just hug me tight when I tried to push him away. He was so strong; he never even staggered before.”
“Shumi has no credibility at this point—it doesn’t matter what she says.” Whatever she said would be considered a transparent attempt to pass off her crimes as those of someone else.
But I didn’t think she’d talk; her entire existence was tied to what she saw as her duty to protect Diya.
“I’m so angry still, Tavi.” A whisper. “Mum and Dad destroyed me. I was just a depressed kid who’d witnessed the murder of her baby cousin, and they filled me with so many drugs that I learned to shove all my problems inside, never show them anything but a happy face. I knew if I didn’t, they’d dope me up again.”
“Did you stop taking the meds?” I’d never questioned that she was medicated—I’d seen the bottles, after all.
“Yes. A few months before we met.” She pressed her lips together. “Am I crazy? Do I need to be on those meds?”
“We’ll find a doctor you can trust to do an evaluation—and only if you want to,” I said. “But what happened in that house? That’s not your cross to bear.” I wasn’t about to let the woman I loved bury herself in guilt for another lifetime.
She’d borne that burden long enough already. “You didn’t mean to hurt anyone, just struck out in self-defense like a cornered animal.”
“Aren’t you horrified?” she whispered. “Scared of me?”
“No. You’ll never again be in that position, pushed and blamed for something you never did.” I pressed a kiss to her hair. “I know you didn’t hurt Ani. Now it’s your turn to let it go, baby.”
She went silent, both of us watching the waves roll in one after another. “Did she kill Rhiannon, too, do you think?” she asked a long time later.
“You were close friends with her, weren’t you? I saw the letters you wrote her.”
“I thought she was the most amazing person I’d ever met.” She dashed away a tear. “Shumi never really had other friends, just me and Bobby. I didn’t see how angry she was about Rhiannon—but I do remember how weird she was about Kalindra. Always wanting to be part of our group, to join us on every outing.
“I just thought she was lonely, so I went along with it a lot of the time even though it annoyed Kali. One time Kali found her tire slashed just before we were going to go on a road trip, but she figured that was her ex-boyfriend. I guess we won’t know unless Shumi tells us.”
Diya exhaled, the breath jagged. “I always felt guilty whenever I went out even after we’d all left uni—like to the movies or to dinner with Carolyn and the others you met at the party. So I nudged the plans to dates and times where I knew she was doing something with Bobby already.
“I felt so bad about it, but she was smothering me—it was so hard to make deep friendships because as soon as I did, she managed to be a part of them somehow. And then she’d subtly push at me to turn down invitations, and she’d start to tell my parents how this friend or that one wasn’t good for me. I always thought there was something wrong with me, that I was being selfish in wanting friends who weren’t enmeshed with Shumi or my parents.”
“You did nothing wrong.” I ran my hand over her curls. “I know she tries to call you when she gets phone privileges, but, baby, we have to let her go. She’s toxic.”