Sisters - Michelle Frances Page 0,45

some sort of response to her grief and shock – when suddenly—

‘Hello?’

Ellie felt the room spin. ‘Mum?’ she whispered.

‘Ellie! Oh my God, it’s really you. Are you all right? Are you hurt?’

‘No . . . I’m fine.’

‘I can’t believe you’re there. You’re alive. Thank God.’

Ellie shook her head. ‘Of course I’m alive.’ She felt a surge of relief, of joy. ‘It’s you who . . . We thought something awful had happened, Mum. When you fell. We thought . . . Abby said you’d died.’

There was a silence at the other end of the phone.

‘She did?’ her mother said eventually.

‘Yes. I mean, we both thought it. It was so terrible and . . . well, then Abby told me to get in the car. We’ve been driving—’

‘Ellie, listen to me carefully. Are you listening?’

‘Yes.’

‘This is a hard thing to say but you need to know. Your sister . . . Abby is a very damaged individual. What she was telling you, yesterday, when we were on the terrace. That awful accusation.’ Ellie heard her mother take a breath. ‘It wasn’t me who poisoned you, Ellie. It was Abby.’

THIRTY-TWO

Ellie grabbed the wall. Her mind felt as if it was splintering into a million pieces.

‘What?’

Her mother was speaking deliberately slowly. ‘I realize this will be hard to take in. But you must believe me. Abby is the one who poisoned you when you were children.’

Ellie was struggling to absorb it all. ‘But she said it was you.’

‘She was lying. You must try and understand.’ Ellie could hear her mother’s strained patience. ‘Abby resented you from the day you were born. She still resents you. I’m incredibly worried about her state of mind, about her capacity for lying.’

‘Lying?’

‘Ellie, you said she told you I was dead.’

‘Well, yes, but that was what she thought . . .’ protested Ellie.

‘And why did she think that? What made her come to that conclusion?’

‘She took your pulse . . . Oh my God,’ said Ellie, the bottom suddenly falling out of her world.

‘Did you take my pulse?’ asked Susanna.

‘No,’ whispered Ellie.

‘And now she’s driven you somewhere. Where are you, Ellie?’

Ellie rested her forehead against the side of the wall. She couldn’t process all of this. And then, through the shop’s interior glass windows, she could see Abby in the queue at the checkout. It was her sister’s turn to be served.

‘She’s coming.’

‘Coming where?’

‘I’m in a supermarket,’ blurted Ellie. ‘Abby’s getting food.’

‘Do not tell her we’ve spoken,’ said Susanna. ‘If she knows I’m alive, she’ll know I’ve told you the truth. For God’s sake, don’t tell her, Ellie.’

‘I’m . . . I need to go.’

‘Call me back. You need to call me back as soon as you can. And don’t take anything she gives you. Promise me,’ urged Susanna.

Ellie saw Abby finish packing the shopping, saw her hand over some cash.

‘Ellie? Ellie! Are you there? Promise me!’

‘I’ll call you, Mum. As soon as I can.’ And then Ellie hung up. She moved away from the phone to the green plastic seats. She sat down, her world now tipped on another axis.

‘Here,’ said Abby, as she approached. In her hand were two tablets. ‘I got you these.’

Ellie started and looked up at her sister, as if seeing her for the first time.

‘Are you OK?’ asked Abby. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have left you.’ She put the two tablets into Ellie’s hand. Passed her a bottle of water. ‘Take them.’

‘What are they?’ asked Ellie faintly.

‘They’ll make you feel better.’

Ellie looked down. Had she seen Abby push the tablets out of a blister pack? She was suddenly aware she hadn’t. She stared at them.

An alarm sounded in the shop, loud and aggressive, catching their attention. Someone’s purchase had set off the sensors at the exit and they had their bag open, letting the security guard check it.

Ellie dropped the tablets on the floor. They bounced a short distance from her. Quickly, she shifted her foot so that she covered them up, then took a swig of water, just as Abby turned back around. Seeing Ellie swallow, Abby smiled approvingly. ‘Good. Are you OK to get going?’

Ellie nodded and stood up. She sensed the hardness of the tablets under her shoe and, as she lowered her weight onto them, felt them crumble to dust.

THIRTY-THREE

Ellie sat motionless in the car, aware of Abby busying beside her, putting the shopping bag on the back seat, breaking off some baguette and taking out a wheel of cheese. She tore open a bag of plastic cutlery,