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Her brush-off doesn’t fool me. I hold my hand out to Sienna and the creased A4 papers. “Let me see.”
“Sky, probably best you don’t.” Tina stares at Sienna as she says the words, and I swear she’s about to stand and throttle the poor girl.
I grab the letters from a paling Sienna’s hands. “I need to know about this kind of thing. Is somebody threatening me?”
The words blur as I scan them, not absorbing anything, not needing to read the signature at the end.
Lily.
“Tina! What the hell?” I say in a hoarse voice. “When? How many?”
Tina sighs in defeat as I leaf through them. “Have you seen Lily recently?”
“No way. I would’ve run in the opposite direction if I caught even the slightest glimpse of her.” I swallow down the rising panic. “I thought she’d backed off.”
“Neither of you have seen her?” continues Tina.
I jerk my head up from the letters. “What do you mean ‘neither’?”
“Sky, can we please go through this with Dylan here.”
“Why? Tina?” She refuses to answer, and I skim read them more closely. All the letters have the same theme: Lily writes as if I’ve spent time with her:
Sky, Thanks for the catch up last Tuesday. The cafe is one of my favourite! The muffins are to die for, though it was funny the way some people watched us. I’m glad we put everything behind us and are friends now. Are you still planning to catch up with Tara next week? I’d love to meet her. I haven’t had the chance since we visited her in hospital.
My cheeks heat as I flick through. Ten letters sent over the last four months, and not once has anybody mentioned this to me.
“Does Dylan know?” I ask through gritted teeth. “Has he seen them?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Which means yes!” I snap. I catch sight of the date. The first letter arrived shortly after we discovered the pregnancy.
“Has she written to him too?”
“No.”
My palms sweat as I grip the handwritten paper. “What are you doing about this?”
Fury grows. How dare Dylan hide something like this from me? He’s broken one of our most important promises. No more hiding anything.
“We’re biding our time.”
“What?” I hiss. “Biding your time? Write to Lily! Bloody send somebody to threaten her again!”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Sky.”
Her calming tone has the opposite effect, and I shake the letters at Tina, voice rising. “You’ve read them, I presume? Lily’s delusional. She’s been following me again. How often? This reads like I’m meeting her for lunch catch-ups and we’re best friends. What if she comes to the house next?”
In the moment, the decision is made to return to Berkshire, as my overactive imagination plays frightening scenarios over in my mind.
“Somebody is watching Lily, and if she slips up, we’ll be down on her straightaway.”
I snort. “Watching her? So you’re watching her watching me. How insane is this?”
I stand and stumble as the blood struggles to my head with the sudden movement. “I need to talk to Dylan. Now.”
Sienna hovers in the door. “I’m sorry,” she says in a meek voice. “I didn’t realise.”
