Two days had passed since Jake had been round and what he'd said had stuck to Skye's mind like a tattoo. Suddenly her written down list of names didn't sound so crazy. To have her pen in their car, the driver must have been somebody she knew, somebody who had been in her house. Not only that, but it confirmed that the dumped car really was the one that had hit Skye that night.
She'd checked her room, she'd checked her old room and she'd checked the rest of the house. The pen was gone. This was no duplicate, it was definitely the one the police had found in the stolen vehicle. Skye used that pen so often that if she hadn't been so focused on other things, she'd have noticed it was gone before now.
The swimmer wasn't the type of person who just threw her stuff around, she was neat and knew exactly where she put everything. It was very rare to see her belongings go missing.
As much trouble as she was, this ruled out Vanna Durant. Unless somebody had given the pen to her, as far as Skye could recall she'd never been in the Lovelace house. None of her cousins were friends with Vanna and if anything, they despised her even more than Skye did.
Ruling the most troublesome person in the village out was not something that Skye had expected to do so soon, but she felt a smile on her face as she crossed through her name. One down. It was a start, at least.
"Hey, blondie," a voice called.
"Are you talking to me? In a house full of blonde I can't be too sure." At least at the moment it was only Lalia and Sierra living there. When Marcia and their brother, Oscar were around too it was even more confusing.
Skye hadn't noticed the mysterious redhead glide down the stairs and into the living room, but Charlene always seemed to be like this. She was as light on her feet as a ballerina and her presence was rarely known until she revealed herself.
"Sure," she replied casually. Sometimes Charlene's demeanour seemed almost flirty, but Skye hoped that wasn't the case. She already had enough relationship dramas, if you could call them that. "What'cha doing?" Her eyes rolled down to look at Skye's list, which sat on the blonde's lap.
"Just trying to work out who ruined my life, as usual." Why did she always feel so silly when she admitted it out loud?
"Wouldn't you feel better if you just moved on?"
"No, of course not. I've got no where to move onto yet. I do have my first physio session this afternoon so that might give me more hope...or the very opposite." Charlene pushed her lips tightly together. It was clear she wanted to say something when her eyes lifted away from Skye's and stared awkwardly behind her. "What is it?"
"I am going to get so killed for this," the redhead grumbled. Her hair was tied back into a messy, low ponytail. For anybody else it wouldn't look great, but because her hair was so perfectly straight, it actually suited her. Charlene walked around the sofa and threw herself down next to Skye.
It had to be related to Lalia. They had nothing else in common. "What's my cousin done now?"
"Uh..." Charlene took a deep breath, pushing her teeth together, knowing she shouldn't be getting involved. Skye watched whilst the redhead's fingers played around with the buckle on her denim dungarees. "Lalia told me to come down here to keep you distracted whilst she's on Zoom to her parents to tell them that she was in the accident with you."
Skye shrieked, "What?!"
"I don't think it's a good idea either which is why I'm telling you, despite my likely murder." The last part was said in a humorous manner. If Skye had learned anything about the redhead it was that she never seemed very serious about anything. After a beat however, Skye could tell that this was worrying even Charlene.
"I told her not to! Why aren't you up there stopping her?"
"Yeah, I'm not going to argue with Lalia. I'll give you a boost up the stairs but that's all I can do."
Skye gawked at the redhead for a couple of seconds before sighing and climbing up from her seat. "I don't need a boost, I can manage."
"If you're going to be as slow as you were in the coffee shop, the call will be over and done with by the time you get up there."
Skye rolled her eyes and headed to Lalia's room as quickly as she could manage to.
Lalia was a good person, deep down. She had such a innocent, girly tone to her voice and yet the amount of times she'd got into trouble was unbelievable. Her celebrity status after winning a medal or two at the Olympics had calmed her down a little, but it looked like her hatred for fame had driven her back into her old ways.
As Skye and Charlene reached the top of the staircase, they could already hear Lalia in her room, talking into her expensive, rose-gold laptop. "I really don't want you to worry about this. My neck will heel eventually, I just won't be able to do any running for some time. Whiplash can be so hard on the body."
"Lalia Lovelace, we will not let anybody get away with doing this to you."
"Daddy-" Yes, she was twenty-nine and still called her father that.
"No Lalia, you are a multi-award winning athlete and Olympian. This will do your career great harm and you know what? You may not even have a career to go back to. You are almost thirty after all."
The man's voice made Skye quiver a little. She contemplated running in and telling the truth but she couldn't bear to be on the receiving end of Lalia's parent's anger. They were the kind of people who always got their way.
As Skye stood in the doorway of the room watching, she could see Lalia trying to flatten the smile that wanted to beam over her father's comment about not having a career to go back to. Her own heart fluttered with guilt. The pressure from Lalia's parents had become so difficult for her cousin that she was willing to lie to them.
"Your mother and I will hire a private investigator. We will get to the bottom of this, I promise. Whoever ran yourself and Skye off the road will be prosecuted and that is a promise."
Whilst Skye wanted to know who it was that had been driving the car, she was intelligent enough to know that lying wasn't the way and it was unlikely they would get much out of it. By now, Lalia had noticed her and Charlene hanging by her door and quickly wrapped up the call. To Skye, who had relatively normal parents, it was like watching two parents fussing over a toddler.
Sharp eyes rolled from Lalia and over to Charlene. "Did you tell her?!"
"No! No way. The call was loud, she could hear from downstairs. I tried to stop her coming up but you know what Skye's like."
"I am in the room," Skye breathed out, rolling her hands down her face. "You can't half talk some rubbish," she whispered in Charlene's ear before shooing her away so that she could have a private conversation with her cousin.
Skye slowly shut the door and hobbled over to Lalia's bed to sit down. "How could you do this to me?"
"This isn't about you. It's about me and making my life better."
"But it affects me. I want to know who did this to me more than anything. The flashbacks, the anger, the sense of loss...I want it to go away and knowing who did it will help, but-" Skye shook her head slowly from side to side, eventually halting it as she bit the side of her lip. She took a deep breath. "What happens when the police tell your parents that I was the only one found in the car at the scene of the crash?"
"I had run off to try and get help. I had no phone signal and needed to find somebody to come and help you." She said it so confidently that Skye was almost convinced that it was true. She watched as Lalia tried to muster up some sympathy in her expressions but it didn't quite come through. It was more deadpan than anything. "I just want to be free."
"You won't feel free when you're caught in a web of lies, Lal." Skye's featured softened, altering from anger to one with concern. "The only way you'll feel free if is you stand up to your parents for once. Until they can respect what you want, then maybe they don't deserve to be in your life. Think about it. You hate all of the fame, it makes you feel depressed and miserable, I know it does, so end it and put all of your time into training to be a doctor, like you want to. Regardless of this messy situation that you've now got us tangled up in, find a way to take the jump."
"This is me jumping," Lalia snapped with tears in her eyes. Skye got up and left the room, pulling the door shut behind her. She found Charlene lurking on the stairs, listening into every word.
"I can't get through to her," Skye breathed out in a whisper, scraping back her blonde locks in frustration. "I need you to try."
"Well we're not really that type of friends. There is no advice giving or lecturing. We're fun buddies," proclaimed Charlene with a joyful smile. Skye gave her a firm look and she added, "fine."
Skye breathed out, "Hold on..." and walked back into Lalia's room. Charlene followed her through. For the first time, the redhead looked worried. "You've wanted a reason to stop competing for a long time. Did you crash into my car in an attempt to get that? Was it you?" It didn't entirely make sense to Skye but it sure did seem convenient.
"Of course she didn't," Charlene chimed in before Lalia even had chance to react. "Why would she want to smash into her own cousin when she could choose to smash into anything? Make it make sense, hun."
Lalia looked shocked. "There are many ways I could do damage to myself, Skye," the older cousin replied. She didn't raise her voice, it remained as in control and elegant as ever. "I would never choose to hurt you for my own gain."
"You're hurting me now," Skye stated with a narrow gaze.
"And you're hurting Lalia. You've just accused her of a disgusting crime which I know she didn't do because I was with her on the time and date you told us. No, I don't think she should be lying but what you've just done it worse." Charlene looked at Skye in disgust and moved over to where Lalia was sitting at her desk and put her arms around her. "It could have been anybody and you want to accuse your own family?"
Skye could feel pain begin to beat down on her eyes as she exited the room and hid away in her own and swipe around to the side of her head. She didn't want to mention the pen that had been found. She didn't want anybody to know that she knew, that she had proof that the owner of the vehicle was somebody she knew.
Charlene was right in a way, though. Lalia wasn't stupid enough to get private investigators in if she was the one who had crashed the vehicle. That would be outing herself.
Unfortunately Skye couldn't just rest her stress headache off because this afternoon was her first physio session since the accident.
Adam, her swimming coach had driven her to her appointment. Marcia had meant to be the one to do it, but had left town to tend to an old friend, so Adam had volunteered. Skye had never really felt unsafe in the small, beach town of Riverwell Bay but if she ever did then Adam would be the man she'd want by her side. He was so tall and muscly. Adam had spent most of his days playing sport or swimming from a young age and you could tell just from one glance at him.
In Skye's physical evaluation, the physio had suggested she wear something loose to the session, so she'd turned up in a purple tracksuit with her hair tied up in a bun. It was comfortable, but something she'd only usually wear out jogging.
The physio began to talk through some motion exercises with Skye. They began with the knee, flexing it and then extending it. Skye pushed through the pain, knowing how much it would help her in the long run. When she said she'd do anything to get her career back, she wasn't lying and she had never run away from hard work. Her physio seemed nice enough. She was a tall brunette who didn't put up it when Skye started whining or saying she couldn't do it. It wasn't like the swimmer to be like that, but the mixture of stress and pain was weighing down on her shoulders more and more by the day.
"We'll be able to start some strengthening exercises in a couple of weeks," the woman informed her towards the end of her appointment.
"Even though I could barely extend my leg?" Skye asked, hopelessly. She felt let down by herself, like she thought she could do better. Despite everything that was going on, Skye had gone into her appointment with more hope than was realistic. She wasn't sure what she expected. She knew she would hardly be running by the end, but the process felt slow.
The blonde's eyes looked over to the window and focused on the wind howling outside. She got lost in the loud noises and the trees swinging vigorously from side to side.
"Make sure you practise today's exercises at home and you'll be fine. We'll get those crutches off of you in no time."
Despite the physio's positivity, Skye still felt a hole of disappointment in her chest.
She had invited Cassandra over for a drink that evening, it was a chance to ask questions. It was nothing personal, she planned on doing it with all of her friends and family - except Marcia because Marcia was the purest person in all of history. Besides, Skye knew Marcia had been busy in an ambulance saving lives, as always.
The swimmer didn't want to seem too suspicious, so she acted as she would any other night. She'd got out the champagne flutes, claiming that they were celebrating her first physio session. She knew how much of a sucker for champagne her best friend was.
After stepping into the house and greeting Skye, Cassandra grinned and said, "Mmm champagne. Exactly what I need after walking in on Niamh kissing my brother this morning." Skye looked her best friend up and down. Cassandra was edging her way towards her forties and still looked so young. Her make-up was always good, today she'd even turned up with gorgeous, wavy hair. The black crop-top she had on showed off her atheletic figure and her matching black jeans showed off her curves perfectly.
"We have a whole bottle to get through, so let's not waste any time," Skye exclaimed. The younger blonde let out a laugh and walked over to her own glass, tipping it down her throat as quickly as possible. There was a lot of small talk and a lot of discussing old memories which made Skye feel bad. It was amazing how they could chat endlessly despite having very little in common. The whole evening had brightened Skye's eyes a little but she knew she still needed to bring it up.
It was when Cassandra started talking about abhorrent reality TV that Skye knew she was tipsy enough to begin questioning her.
"Cass, I need to ask you a question, but please don't take this personally because I will be asking everybody I know."
"What is it?" she asked, carelessly, clearly trying not to laugh at how solemn the expression on Skye's face had suddenly become.
Skye pushed her lips together and then said, "Were you with Freddie on the night of my car accident?"
Cassandra rolled her eyes immediately and stood up defensively. "Are we really doing this again, babe? Cheers for trusting me." She grabbed her drink from the table, and downed it. "We were in Freddie's bar making out in the back office. I can get you the CCTV evidence it you want." She smirked and then rolled her eyes.
Skye definitely didn't want to see that evidence, so she ignored the comment. "What time did you leave?"
"I dunno, about 1am and before you ask, we walked home. Are you going to question me all night or should I just leave?"
Skye took a deep breath before replying, "I'm sorry, I don't think you had anything to do with it, if that helps. Freddie however, he used to have this big crush on me and I can't help but think I offended his ego." She spat it out without considering whether it was a good idea or not.
"Why do you keep going on about Freddie? There are so many people around here, so many tourists every bloody day. There must be another reason you're being so narrow-minded." Cassandra was much smarter than she acted. Skye knew she had to come clean if she wanted to salvage their friendship after this.
She took a long and deep breath and then said, "The police found some evidence that the person who did this has been in my home before."
Cassandra loved a bit of gossip. "What kind of evidence?"
"I'm not allowed to say because it could affect the investigation, but it's scary and it's almost like somebody did it on purpose."
"Well it wasn't me. Christ, I think we need some more drinks." Skye watched as Cassandra's eyes stared towards the empty bottle. Skye hadn't even realised they'd run out, her mind had been too fixated on getting information out of her friend. "The thought of Freddie fancying you is hilarious. And you rebuffing him? Do ya have eyes?"
Skye lifted her eyes and tried to hide her surprise. Was Cassandra annoyed that Freddie had a thing for Skye once upon a time or was she annoyed that Skye didn't ever have a thing for him back? She let it go and walked to the kitchen, forcing herself to slide around without her crutches. She felt a little pride as she returned to the living room without them. For those few moments she'd managed to act like her leg was perfectly fine, but she knew the pain would come back shortly.
As the swimmer placed the second bottle of champagne on the table, her eyes reached out to meet Cassandra's. The older woman was now stood by the front door with her arms crossed against her chest. There was a different look in her face now. Before, she seemed to be finding the whole situation and Skye's questioning mildly humorous, but now her eyes were icy. They stared sharply at Skye as if they wanted to rip her head off in one quick glance.
It had been a while since Skye had seen such fury on her best friend's face, but why had it come on so suddenly? Then Cassandra's low-pitched tone suddenly bellowed, "Are you sleeping with him?"
Skye lifted her left brow in confusion. "I'm not sleeping with Freddie. Yuck." The last word was accidental and her hand immediately flew to her open mouth as if to try and catch it. But it was too late.
Luckily, Cassandra didn't seem to even notice. Unluckily, she was still raging about something else. That was when the older blonde pulled out Skye's phone from behind her back. The screen was now blank but Cassandra must have seen a text slip through whilst she was in the kitchen getting more drinks. Craig must have finally text like he'd promised he would.
The light in Skye's eyes dimmed and her lips fell from their curve. "I-It was only once," she stammered. Pain shoved itself down Skye's throat and pounded at her stomach. Just the memory alone was enough to make her feel sick. Cassandra finding out only made her feel ten times worse.
The older blonde's jaw thrust forwards and her face darkened, becoming more red with every passing second. "Skye, how could you do this behind my back?!"
Skye's hands fluttered around as she tried to explain. "We were both so lost and drunk. We found something in each other for the night, but I swear, I haven't seen Craig since. It will never happen-"
She was cut off. "Craig?!" Cassandra's brows narrowed. "My dead sister's boyfriend, Craig?"
Skye hovered from one foot to the other. A flush of pink crept onto her cheeks and her voice weakened. "Who did you think we were talking about?" she mumbled under her breath.
Cassandra screwed up her face as she crossed her arms tighter. "Jake Pendleton. My ex boyfriend who cheated on me. I know you're back in contact with him."