“Don’t,” she says, under her breath.
He shrugs her free and rushes to follow Will outside.
“Ali?” Will calls out into the darkness.
“Paige!” shouts Jack, his voice so taut with tension that Will turns to look at him, puzzled.
“Are they together?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” says Jack, rubbing the back of his neck.
Rachel shivers as the waves crash against the bottom of the wooden terrace they’re standing on. There’s no way either of them would have gone down onto the beach, as the tide has come in so far that it no longer exists.
She looks up to where a wide ledge nestles under an overhang of the cliff, and can just make out two figures standing on the craggy outcrop. In this light, it’s impossible to know if they’re moving toward her or away, or even if it’s Ali and Paige at all, but who else is it likely to be?
She nudges Jack and nods in their direction, careful to keep the rising panic that he must surely feel too under wraps. If Will catches on that the pair of them are at loggerheads, he’s going to want to know why, and despite everything, Rachel desperately wants to spare him that heartache—at least for today.
“Paige!” Jack calls out, displaying no such conscience, as he trips over himself to get to them.
“Is that Ali with her?” asks Will, his high-pitched voice showing the first sign of concern and confusion.
The silhouettes seem to move closer toward one another, as the gap of muted light between them is snuffed out. Rachel shudders as she imagines Paige’s barely contained fury at being dragged into this sorry state of affairs. She was used to clearing up other people’s messes, not being embroiled in her own. But as much as Rachel would like to pretend that this is all about Paige taking Ali to task over her behavior and the wicked lie she’d spouted, she’s not naive enough to believe that Ali won’t retaliate with the ace that is up her sleeve. Perhaps that’s why she didn’t tell Paige on the beach earlier today—because she knew she’d need to save it for this precise moment.
A scream echoes across the cliffs and Rachel holds her breath, picturing Paige, so incandescent with rage that she can’t stop herself from lashing out. She imagines Ali falling and turning through the air. Over and over she goes before disappearing into the icy sea below.
Rachel covers her ears, knowing that if anything happens to Ali, it’s going to be all her fault.
“Paige!” shouts Jack, sounding as if he’s being strangled.
As he rushes toward them, his legs look like they’re wading through syrup while the upper half of his body falls over them in its effort to get there. Just as he’s about to reach the shadows standing on the cliff edge, he seems to run out of steam, as if he’s suddenly aware of what it might look like if somebody were to put two and two together. For starters, they might question why he’s left his wife’s side to run to another woman’s aid. But the debate that’s raging in Rachel’s own head is, which one of them is he trying to rescue?
She watches as the three of them stand there and wonders if this is the moment that her life implodes. She imagines Jack and Paige looking at each other, openmouthed in shock, as Ali reveals what she saw and heard last night. Her heart beats double time, waiting for Jack to howl into the darkness like an animal who’s just had its newborn snatched by a predator. Even if Josh is his, she’ll never be able to make this right. She’s suddenly aware that despite everything that Ali has done, nothing compares to the consequences of what one night, twenty years ago, could bring to bear.
Her brain wants to run to them, but her body won’t let her; too scared of what she will be met with when she gets there. She looks at the fifty or so meters between them and wonders how so little distance can stand between her and her future. Would it make a difference if she were to offer her heartfelt apologies? Would it save her marriage? Her friendship with Paige if she were able to defend her actions? If she explained why she honestly thought that burying the remote possibility was the best thing to do—for all of them.
A hand slides into hers and she turns to see Noah standing beside her, his vexed expression matching her own.
Despite knowing she should pull her hand away, she leaves it there for a moment, because she needs to. It reminds her that there is one person who might still be standing beside her when this is all over. She can’t help but wonder if he might ultimately be the most important.
Suddenly, Paige emerges from the darkness, her face like thunder, as she strides toward them purposefully, with Jack trailing behind her. Rachel drops Noah’s hand as if she’s been given an electric shock and goes toward her.