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“Why did you think you had to wait for her?”

“I’m not sure really. I mean, it wasn’t only that—I didn’t want to come back because it would mean either having to go to school or carry on riding round on buses all day….The police asked me yesterday if I got a bus to Rhossili on Friday, but I didn’t.”

“It wasn’t you? I had a feeling it wasn’t.”

“But you went to look for me anyway?”

“Of course, I had to. My instincts might have been wrong. They were right yesterday, though. I’m so pleased we took Waffle. He made very short work of it all.”

Smiling as she ruffled his fur, Paige said, “When he came in it made me think of that part in
The Lovely Bones
where the girl realizes her dog can see her, so she knows he’s dead. It was so weird. Then you were there and you could see me too and I got all confused….I didn’t want to come back, but I did.”

Jenna took her hand. “Are you glad to be back now?”

Paige nodded but didn’t look up.

Entwining their fingers, Jenna said, “I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner what you were going through. I can see now that you tried to tell me, but I was so wrapped up in what was happening with Dad….”

Paige’s head came up. “Has he gone back to Martha yet?”

“No. He’s very worried about you, and I’m sure he won’t be going anywhere until you’ve agreed to see him.”

Heat rose in Paige’s cheeks. “I don’t want to,” she said.

“I know, but I think you should. All those dreadful things Kelly Durham and her friends wrote…”

“None of it’s true.”

“No one believes it was.” She didn’t have to tell Paige about the police enquiries; they’d had a job to do, and it was over now, with no harm done—apart from to Jack, possibly, but he’d have to take care of himself. “And he really didn’t leave because of you,” Jenna added forcefully.

“He left because he found someone who matters more than us,” Paige cried angrily.

“More than
me,
” Jenna corrected, “not you or the others.”

“See, that’s what I can’t stand,” Paige seethed, her fist hitting the bed, “that he could let someone matter more than you.”

Jenna smiled sadly. “I know it’s hard for you, and I won’t lie, it is for me too, but we can get through it. Almost losing you has taught me a lot of things, and the first is that nothing and no one matters more than you, Josh, and the twins.”

Paige drew back.
“Them!”
she scoffed. “I thought I was number one.”

Jenna laughed. “You are in that you’re my firstborn, and I think it’s been more difficult for you than I’d realized, having to share me and Dad since Josh came along. You’d got used to having us all to yourself until then.”

“But I wanted brothers and sisters.”

“I know, just a bit sooner than it happened. It might not have been as much of a shock if there hadn’t been such an age gap, but we don’t always get to choose these things.” She looked down as Paige’s phone bleeped with a text.

Just heard KD being expelled. Yay! Cx

“She’s not even at school yet,” Paige said, showing her mother the message, “so I expect it’s still a rumor.”

“I think there’ll be quite a thorough investigation before any decisions like that are made, but there has to be some kind of punishment for the way she’s behaved. And frankly, I don’t want you in the same school as someone who’d treat anyone the way she treated you,” Jenna told her.

“So I could leave?”

“Do you want to?”

Paige shrugged. “I’m scared she’ll come after me if it all goes wrong for her,” she admitted.

“If she does, at the very first sign of it you know what you have to do.”

Paige swallowed.

“You have to come to me,” Jenna insisted. “You can’t allow yourself to go through it again. You’re not a victim, Paige. That’s not who you are, so you mustn’t let her turn you into one.”

“I don’t want to, but she has all these friends, and her family’s, like…really tough.”

Judging it wiser not to mention anything about Wendy Durham’s visit, Jenna said, “I’ve heard about them, but we have the school on our side, and the police, and I think you’ll find when you go back that you have a lot more friends than you realize.”

Paige didn’t look convinced. “They’ll call me saddo and loser for trying to kill myself.”

“No they won’t, because it’s not what you did. You thought about it, and when the time came you had the courage to pull back and see things through.”

After a while Paige gave a weak sort of smile. “You always find a way to turn me into the heroine of the piece,” she stated.

Jenna’s eyebrows rose. “Because that’s who you are.”

“Like yeah.”

“Like yeah, and if I know you, which I do, in time you’ll find a way to turn this into a positive experience.”

“How the heck am I going to do that?”

“Like I said, you’ll find a way, but right now I can see that’s hard to believe.”

Paige’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You’re brainwashing me,” she accused. “You’re using the power of suggestion to get me to do what you want.”

Jenna laughed. “If only I had such a gift.”

After sitting quietly for a few minutes, Paige said, “Did anyone find out who Julie Morris really is?”

Sighing, Jenna said, “Yes, they did, but we don’t have to talk about it now.”

“I want to. Who is she?”

As Paige’s eyes came to hers, Jenna decided there was no point in holding back. It would have to be dealt with sooner or later, and if she didn’t tell her, chances were Charlotte would find out and deliver the news herself. “OK,” she said, “she’s Olivia Masters, Owen’s sister.”

Paige blinked in amazement. Confusion, anger, and disbelief chased across her face. The quiet, almost ethereal beauty who wafted around the school like a ghost, saying very little, playing her violin like an angel, hating her for posting lies about Owen…it just wasn’t adding up. “I don’t get it,” she told Jenna. “She said she was bullied too. She understood what I was going through. She told me she’d been Kelly Durham’s victim.”

“Maybe it’s true.”

“But Charlotte would have known.”

“Then I’m afraid I can’t explain what was going through her mind. But I do have some more news about her…”

Paige’s expression turned wary.

“She tried to take her own life on Saturday night,” Jenna said softly.

Paige froze in shock. So she really had meant it. She’d actually wanted to die. It was why she’d had to wait for the girl who called herself Julie, she realized—to try to stop her. At least that was how it was feeling to her now. “She didn’t succeed,” she said, making it more of a statement than a question.

Jenna shook her head.

“So how did she…I mean, what did she…?”

“She took an overdose.”

“How do you know about it?”

“The police told me. As far as I’m aware, she’s still in the hospital.”

“The same one I was in?”

Jenna nodded.

Paige thought about it. “Is she going to be all right?” Did she care? She wasn’t sure, but supposed she did.

“I’m not sure, but I expect we can find out.”

Paige was still trying to get her head round it. Olivia Masters, Owen’s sister. She remembered the time she’d gone up to her in school and asked her to tell Owen that she wasn’t responsible for the post saying he was gay. Olivia had looked at her as though she despised her, and yet at the same time she was using an alter ego to befriend her. “She told me her mother was dead,” she mumbled, “but it’s not true. Owen’s mother is alive.”

Unable to explain that, Jenna said, “I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of it sooner or later. Meantime, do you feel like getting up?”

Paige wasn’t sure. “What are we doing today?” she asked. “I don’t want to go back to school.”

“You don’t have to, but Mr. Charles is asking if he can come here with Miss Willis from the pastoral team to have a chat with you.”

Paige drew back. That was way too much. “Do I have to see them?” she protested.

“Not right away, but they’ll need to hear your side of what’s happened at some point, and so will the police.”

Though she understood that, Paige still just wanted it all to go away so she could forget any of it had ever happened. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t think about anything else, especially Olivia now, and Oliver looking for her…She could hardly get her head round either of those things, although Mr. Charles and Miss Willis wouldn’t be coming here to talk about them. They’d want to focus on the bullying and what had driven her to the suicide sites, and the last thing she needed was to play a part in whatever action they decided to take about Kelly Durham. “Can I just stay in bed today?” she asked miserably.

“Of course,” her mother responded. “I’ll call the school and tell them they’ll have to wait.”

—

Though Jenna was putting on a good front for Paige, inside she was burning with rage over the Durham child’s appalling cruelty. She’d seen enough of the social network postings now, the doctored photographs, the name-calling, and the horrendous accusations concerning Jack to make her determined that not a single one of that despicable gang should be allowed to get away with what they’d done. Which was why she’d left a message for DS Mariner to call back as soon as possible so they could discuss bringing charges.

“I’m not sure we’re going to get very far,” Hanna remarked, looking up from her laptop. “I’ve just been researching it, and I can’t find much in the way of consequences for bullies.”

“There has to be some kind of punishment,” Jenna insisted. “No one, not even a child, should be allowed to get away with the kind of things that were done to Paige.”

“If you read some of this, you’ll see it can be a whole lot worse, but so far I haven’t managed to turn up a single case of a bully being prosecuted.”

“We can’t let that stop us. I don’t care what kind of family the girl comes from—she needs to know there is a price to pay for her actions.”

“Richard’s our man,” Hanna decided. “He’ll know how to go about things.”

“Of course,” Jenna agreed. “He’s in court today, but I’ll speak to him later. At the very least we should be able to get an antisocial-behavior order against her.”

Hanna wrinkled her nose. “An ASBO? I’m not sure they hand them out for bullying, or if they even still exist. Weren’t the Tories going to do away with them when they took office?”

“As it’s not the kind of circle we normally move in, I can’t answer that, but knowing what we do about the Durhams, they’d probably consider an ASBO a badge of honor. So it has to be criminal proceedings, something that’ll go on the girl’s record for as long as the effects of her actions stay with her victims.”

“Which would be an unquantifiable amount of time. However, in principle I like the idea.”

Jenna was scrolling through all the texts she’d received over the weekend, wanting to make sure she hadn’t missed anything vital. Finding a message from her agent that had arrived on Saturday, she reluctantly opened it. The idea of having to empty her bank account and start asking Jack for money was something she really didn’t want to start dealing with now.

Jenna, have seen the news. Really sorry to hear what’s happening. I’m sure you’ll find her soon. My thoughts are with you. Let me know if there’s anything I can do. Call when you can.

Profoundly relieved that he wasn’t intending to embroil her in any difficulties in the immediate future, she continued the search, erasing, saving, and forwarding where necessary, until she came to the most recent message from Jack.

How is she this morning? Can I come over?

Showing it to Hanna, she said, “She doesn’t want to see him.”

“Frankly, none of us do.”

Jenna’s eyebrows rose. “Not helpful. I can’t just exclude him from what’s happening. He cares very much, and I’d like his support for a prosecution.”

“Which you’re likely to get, but how much thought have you given to Paige and how she’s going to feel if it turns out you
can
bring criminal charges?”

Jenna eyed her worriedly. “Probably not as much as I ought to have,” she conceded. “I guess I should discuss it with her first.”

“I think so, and knowing my niece, I expect she’ll have her own views on what should happen to bullies.”

Jenna nodded slowly as she reached to answer her buzzing phone. “Hello, Jenna Moore speaking.”

“Mrs. Moore, it’s Mr. Charles at The Landings. I’ve just been told that Paige isn’t up to seeing us today.”

“She still needs to rest.”

“I understand, of course. She’s been through quite an ordeal, and once again I’m very sorry that this was allowed to go as far as it did—in fact, that it was allowed to happen at all. We have a strict anti-bullying policy in place that follows the government guidelines, but it’s obviously failed us badly in this instance, and of course we’ll be looking into it.”

“That’s good to hear,” she said coolly. As far as she was concerned, the school was as culpable as she was for not having stopped this right at the start, and she would be making that very point just as soon as the time was right.

“I’m sure you understand,” he continued, “that it’s not possible for us to monitor what goes on outside of school hours, but I’m aware that much of the intimidation happened while Paige was here, so please be assured that appropriate action will be taken. We will be deciding on what that should be once we’ve heard all sides of the story.”

Wincing at his use of the word
story
, as if this were some little anecdote that could be passed around until a better one came along, Jenna said, “Do you have any news about Olivia Masters?”

“Apparently she’s still in the hospital, but I’m told by the doctor that she’s awake and sitting up. I’ve tried calling her parents, but they haven’t got back to me. I’m not sure at this point if the police have been more successful.”

“Is Owen at school today?”

“No, he isn’t.”

Unsurprised, she said, “OK, I’ll let you know when Paige is ready to see you.” Ringing off, she switched to another incoming call.

“Lesley Mariner here. I got your message.”

“Ah yes, thanks for ringing me back.” Jenna turned to Hanna, mouthing who it was. “I’ve been giving this some thought, and I’d like to know if it’s possible to bring charges against Kelly Durham and her parents.”