The Shape of Lies by Rachel Abbott

Author:Rachel Abbott [Abbott, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Dot Publishing Ltd
Published: 2019-02-11T16:00:00+00:00

36

I flee from the car park into the lift, whimpering with relief when the doors close, then rush into the apartment, slamming the door, leaning hard against it. My legs are shaking so much that I need to sit down. The anger I felt as I stood looking at Jagger’s weasel-like features has gone, the adrenaline fading with it. I dart into the bathroom, knowing I need to shower the cold sweat from my body.

I didn’t need this tonight. Isn’t it bad enough that Scott is promising to destroy the safe, stable parts of my life? Just as I am three people, I have three lives: home, school – both of which have felt calm, steady and secure – and my secret life; precarious, thrilling but until tonight carefully under my control.

I still don’t know what Scott intends to do, how he plans to make me suffer. I pause as I remember Jagger’s conviction that Scott is dead. Until recently I believed that too, and I still have no idea how he survived what I did to him, or why he would fake his own death and allow his family to mourn him. But I saw him with my own eyes, fleeing from the hospice. And who else would leave his photograph in our shed? Who else knew about the scams, the fraud and Nebraska?

Of course it’s Scott. Jagger is wrong.

Jagger. I don’t want to think about what happened in the car park, but however brave I felt then, the danger hasn’t gone away. I know what Cameron will do if I don’t get him his money. He’ll start with the photos – the ones he took of me all those years ago – then he’ll get Jagger to pay Mum a visit. I can’t let that happen. If I don’t fix this, we’ll lose our house, Mum’s too, and my family will fall apart. I have to get him the cash, and I have to do it tonight.

I dry myself and hurry to the mirror to start the remodelling of Anna Franklyn into the other me. My hands are shaking as I put on make-up and clothes, then deftly arrange a blonde wig and apply an extra layer of dark red lipstick.

Saskia Peterson is ready.

I stare at the face in the mirror and stop shaking. Saskia is scared of no one. She knows no guilt. She is true to herself and she’s good at what she does. More than good. Saskia moves confidently – her stride long, her hips swaying as if there is a beat in her head that no one else can hear.

If I manage to pay Cameron the money he is demanding, maybe it will be enough and Saskia can fade into obscurity. I have always thought that would be a good day, but she is part of me now, a part I don’t think I can let go. Because while Anna has kept her feet firmly on the ground, Saskia has learned to fly.

I pull

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