“Did you split?”
“No. Not yet, anyway. He proposed and I rejected him. It came as a shock to both of us.”
Cassie takes that in. “Do you think it was to do with everything that’s happened? Losing your whole family at the age of ten . . . that’s a mindfuck if ever there was one.”
Luna gives a small laugh. “Don’t I know it.”
“Do you think Ethan knows that’s why you rejected him?”
“I’m not honestly sure. He took it quite badly . . .”
Cassie gives a small smile and tilts her jaw. “Wounded pride, perhaps?”
“A lot of that. And I suppose he has his own issues.”
“Don’t we all?”
Luna bites her lip. “I think he’s worried that it’s him I was rejecting. Not marriage.”
Cassie leans forward. “But . . . have you told him you weren’t rejecting him?”
“Not in so many words.” Luna rubs her stomach and lays her head back on the sofa. “Maybe I should.” She smiles at Cassie. “Thanks.”
Cassie shrugs. “Every relationship comes with baggage. I fucked up my last relationship so badly that it’s made me an expert on communication.” She smiles. “Lucia and I see a counselor every year. We don’t have any serious problems, but I’m a prevention-instead-of-cure sort of person now.”
“What about your dad?” Luna asks. “Is he still on Lòn Haven?”
Cassie takes a swig from her bottle and wipes her lips on the back of her arm. “Fuck no. He moved us both to New Zealand not long after you left. When Rowan accused him of taking Saffy, I think it broke something in him. I don’t think he could ever face coming back.”
Luna tries to remember this. It’s a small detail buried inside other memories. “Rowan . . . she was Isla’s daughter. Wasn’t she?”
Cassie nods. “And the daughter of the chief inspector. Dodgy.” A muscle ripples in her jaw. “The accusation was false, of course. And there was only a slap on the wrist for little Rowan for slipping Polaroids of Saffy into my dad’s car.”
“Polaroids?”
“Nudes that Saffy had of herself. You never heard about this?”
“No. Who took the nudes?”
“Saffy did.”
Luna stares, processing this.
“Dad never said anything more about that time,” Cassie says. “God knows I tried to get him to open up but I think it was too painful for him. Some of his closest friends stopped speaking to him after it. Mud sticks, doesn’t it?”
“It does.” The mention of Isla’s name has flipped Luna’s stomach. She doesn’t want to ask, but she has to know. “What about Isla?” she asks. “And Rowan. Are they still on the island?”
Cassie shakes her head. “Rowan’s in Bali, apparently. Lives on some weird commune. I think it’s a cult, actually, by the sound of it. Isla’s in prison. She got handed twenty years a couple of years ago.”
Luna’s eyes widen. “She’s in prison?”
Cassie nods and grins, relishing the opportunity to share this with Luna. “It was a huge scandal, as you can imagine. Bram—you remember him? Had a heart attack on the job. They brought in a new chief inspector, young guy, not so tolerant of bullshit folklore and what have you. About a month later, someone writes anonymously to the police that Isla killed a child in the forest. They dug up human remains and Isla confessed to the whole thing.”
Luna shivers. She presses the bottle to her cheeks, her mood spiraling. She barely knows what to do with this information. Did Isla murder Saffy? Her mind races.