Page 6 of Plot Twist

‘They were together, Becca.’ He spoke so quietly I had to strain to hear him. ‘They had been for ages. They moved in together in Edinburgh. She was going to tell you, the day she was coming home. The day that. . . well, you know. She was so worried about it, but I told her that you’d be fine. I mean, you and Drew were up and down, weren’t you? Plus, it was ages ago now. I mean, years have passed, haven’t they, and—’

I staggered slightly in my black heels.

‘Rae and Drew?’

He must have been mixed up. Rae and I literally told each other everything. Every little detail of life. We were in contact every single day. It wasn’t possible. This wasn’t possible.

‘I don’t think so,’ I stammered, my voice barely recognisable as it adopted some sort of high-pitched squeak. ‘She would have told me.’

‘She was going to tell you. She needed to be sure it was right.’ His eyes narrowed, as though he was trying to play some sort of mind game with me, convincing me that this was all normal.

I was silent for a moment as my brain struggled to process the new information.

‘So, if she was going to tell me that day–’ I frowned– ‘that meant it was. It was right?’

‘Yeah,’ he said, relieved that I finally understood. ‘He wanted to propose to her, but she told him to hold off.’

I briefly wondered if my heart had actually stopped beating.

‘Hold off, why? Until she told me?’ I managed to whisper, like I was passing on the secret.

‘Yeah,’ he replied. ‘She wanted you to be a bridesmaid, like you always planned.’

‘A bridesmaid. For Rae and Drew,’ I repeated.

We had it all planned. I’d be her bridesmaid when she married, she’d be mine. I planned a big wedding in the Bahamas, while she wanted to stick to the church, to make Linda happy. The grooms hadn’t been worked out yet, or so I thought.

My face started doing that weird wobbly thing that happens when you yawn and try to hide it.

‘And you knew about it?’ I almost laughed, my voice rising. ‘She didn’t even like you, Adam. Like, no offence. She would send me pictures of her lunch. I knew when she had her period, yet she couldn’t tell me that she was planning tomarrymy ex?’

Adam looked weirded out by the whole period mention, as though it had only just occurred to him that Rae would have had one.

‘Look, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, Becca. But you and Rae had a whole lifetime of friendship. Don’t let this overshadow it.’

‘Thanks for the advice, Dr Phil, but I really have to get going. There’s a bottle of gin at home with my name on it.’

He sighed, as though this was all rather inconvenient to him. Although I knew he was only trying to help. I wished I could stop being so mean to him. He’d lost his sister, after all. His only sister.

His only sister who was screwing my ex-boyfriend.

I frowned.

God, Drew’s smug smile was burning in the back of my brain. Telling me not to cause a scene. Who the fuck did he think he was, anyway?

I swallowed the salty taste in my mouth as my eyes began swimming with tears.

‘Becca.’ Adam pulled me towards him. ‘Don’t get upset. We can talk about it.’

His brown eyes shone earnestly. Of course, he was hurting, too. He’d just lost his sister.

‘God, Becca, everything is falling apart,’ he sighed. ‘Mum and Dad are devastated. And Drew– I mean, I know you don’t want to hear this, but Drew is just crushed.’

I snorted.

‘It’s not that I don’t want to hear about him. It’s just that I don’t believe it. The Drew that I knew. . . Well, let’s just say he can put on a good act. And I wouldn’t say too much has changed in that department.’

He frowned, deep in thought.