blue eyes flickered with an unbearable sadness. She felt that same sadness well up inside her. That fateful night had changed the course of both their lives. Charity hadn’t just lost a sister and Niall a friend. They’d lost each other too. Seeing him again made her realise just how utterly sad that part of the whole tragedy was. And how painful it was to dredge it all back up again. It also made her realise how much she still cared for him.
‘Take care, Niall,’ she said softly.
His eyes seemed to grow glassy. Then he blinked, forcing a smile on to his face. ‘You too, Charity. I hope you get a job soon, yeah? Don’t let Thatcher the Milk Snatcher beat you down.’
She smiled. He seemed to understand. ‘I won’t.’ She turned to Lana. ‘You take care, too, Lana.’
Lana shot Charity a flimsy smile then turned away.
When Charity got outside, instead of walking to her little car, she headed to the edge of the cliff. It was dark now, the moon above bright enough to light up the grass in front of her and the sea below. To the right, the cliff stretched out for miles, the odd light or two beaming in the distance. To the left, lights flickered from Busby-on-Sea, one road that stretched away from it in darkness: the road Faith died on.
Charity looked out over the sea as it splashed against the cliffs below. How Faith would have loved to dive that submerged forest.
She peered behind her at the huge white mansion. Over the years, she’d been unable to stop herself imagining how things would have been if that fateful night hadn’t happened. Would she and Niall have stayed together? How would their relationship have evolved over the years? Maybe they’d be here together, a loving couple? Maybe they’d be at Hope’s…or Faith’s.
She imagined them sitting around a large dining-room table made out of driftwood – Faith had always loved driftwood – bookshelves lined with oceanography books, beautiful underwater photos of submerged forests on the wall. She saw them laughing, drinking, Faith’s long hair a sheen of blonde down her back. Or maybe she’d have it cut, more practical for diving for samples. She’d still look stunning. She saw Niall relaxed, smiling; Hope happy with some man or another, the book of poetry she’d just got published lying on the side. Yes, that would be what the dinner was for, a celebration of Hope finally being published. Maybe having Faith around would have pushed her to do more with her poetry, Faith had always been so inspiring, making her two sisters want to do something special with their lives. With her gone, any real hope and ambition left them.
The scene disappeared. The truth was, she was on this cliff top alone, Faith gone, Hope a closed book. She collapsed to her knees and let out a sob.
‘Charity?’
She looked up to see Niall peering down at her in the darkness, face filled with concern. He put his hand on her shoulder. She quickly stood up, brushing grass and mud off her trousers and wiping her tears away. ‘I’m fine,’ she said.
‘I had no idea you’d been invited.’
‘I know, don’t apologise.’
‘I shouldn’t have mentioned the submerged forest.’
She got her car keys from her bag, unable to look at him. She went to walk past him but he softly grasped her arm.
‘I feel like I have so much to say to you,’ he said, eyes pained. ‘I didn’t reply to all your letters because I wanted you to just get on with your life.’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘On Tuesday, when I saw you on the road…’
‘Niall, I said I don’t want to talk about it. Please just leave me alone.’
She shrugged his hand off and strode away. He stayed where he was, watching her with hooded eyes. More tears started rolling down her cheeks. She angrily wiped them away and then jumped into her car. She felt bad for walking away from him like this but she couldn’t let the past infringe on her future, she just couldn’t.
As she drove away, she saw Niall standing at the edge of the cliff, looking out towards the unlit road where Faith had lost her life.
Charity quietly let herself in when she arrived home ten minutes later. She was hoping she could sneak upstairs without her sister noticing.
But before she had the chance to even step foot on the first stair, Hope appeared at the door to the living room. ‘You’re back early.’
‘I had a funny tummy,’ she lied. The thought of telling her sister she had been sitting at the same table as Niall Lane was just too daunting.
‘That’s a shame.’ Hope lifted her pen to her mouth and nibbled on it. ‘So what are they like, the glamorous couple?’
‘A bit strange. I think Lana gets very bored in that huge house.’
‘I’m not surprised. And Dan North, is he still as charming and handsome as he was the other day?’
Charity shrugged. ‘I suppose, if you like that sort of thing.’
Hope narrowed her eyes. ‘No, I suppose your sort is tall, dark and murderous.’
‘Jesus, Hope!’
‘I can see it in you. It’s happening all over again.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Niall. He was there, wasn’t he?’
Charity clutched the banister. ‘I didn’t know how to tell you.’
‘I knew it!’ Hope said, sighing as she looked up at the ceiling. ‘You’re sullying Faith’s memory by seeing him.’
‘That’s not fair,’ Charity said in a raised voice. ‘I had no idea he’d be there.’
Her sister didn’t look convinced. ‘And now what?’ Hope asked.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Will you see him again?’
‘Of course not!’
Hope shook her head. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she said before slamming the door of the living room behind her.
Charity
Busby-on-Sea, UK
March 1987
Charity looked down at herself as the boat she was on powered out to sea. She’d somehow managed to squeeze her curves into the old wetsuit she used to wear when diving as a teenager. Behind her lay Busby-on-Sea’s small coastline, ahead the disused lighthouse, foaming waves crashing up against the craggy rocks it stood on.
If there was a submerged forest out there, and Dan’s photos suggested there really was, she was determined to find it for Faith.
She’d woken that morning after a restless night, images of Faith winding her graceful body through a forest of underwater trees infiltrating her dreams. What better way to honour Faith’s memory – not sully it, as Hope accused her of – than to discover the forest for her? So she’d called a local boat company as soon as she woke and arranged to go out to the area where the co-ordinates on the photo suggested the forest was. The next morning, she’d woken even earlier than Hope – a relief because she didn’t want to argue again. And now here she was, an impulsive decision, one she was starting to regret. It had been years since she’d dived. In fact, the last time had been a week before Faith died. Charity and Hope had finally convinced her to come out diving with them and Niall. Faith had refused at first, said she was too busy studying. But then Charity had told her how much they missed her. ‘Just one hour,’ she remembered pleading with Faith. She’d smiled a smile that had seemed