The Guest List

by Lucy Foley

There was something weird about will’s speech just now. Something that felt strangely familiar, a sense of déjà vu. I can’t quite put my finger on it but while everyone around me cheered and clapped I was left with an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

The stag do is one more confirmation of this:

Am i having a stroke

I heard some of the best man’s words in the cave.

It is a gold crown.

Now, for the first time in a long time, it’s just the two of us. Me and him.

And I suppose he’s right in saying that he didn’t lie, not really. He just didn’t tell the truth.

It is only now that I realize it’s not all that far to the cliff edge. And he’s pulling me toward it. I can see all the water out there, glossy black in the moonlight. But … he wouldn’t, would he?

“It’s Jules’s crown,” Angus says. “Shit,” Femi says. “Of course it is.”

He spotted you in the chapel, you know—” “Shut up,” Luis says, flushing.

Freddy nods, he understands. “Well,” he says. “It’ll all be over soon.” He passes me the knife,

The bride asked for it to be sharpened specially—madness really, as a knife like this is really meant for cutting through meat. It’ll go through that sponge like it’s butter.”

Here was my husband. Here was also a man I barely knew.

I rip off my gold crown, cast it to the ground. I stamp down until it is reduced to a mangled piece of metal. It’s not enough.

“Well,” Jules says. “That was kind of you. But you should come inside now. We’re going to cut the cake.”

“Oh fuck,” Femi says. “Oh fuck … it’s Will.”

But that’s not me. I’m not a killer. I’m a good guy.

It made me want to corrupt her, rather like a girlfriend I had at uni once, who was one of the good girls—smart,

But Jules invited Piers without my knowing. Yes, actually, that’s where it all went wrong.

He’s dangerous in other ways too. I have no idea what he was about to do in the cave, because I had the blindfold on, but I’m bloody glad Aoife found us when she did, otherwise who knows what might have happened. Well. This time, he’s not going to catch me unawares.

I vowed that if I ever had a chance to get my revenge on the man who ruined my sister’s life—who ended her life—I would make him suffer.

I think of Will at the rehearsal dinner. Did we meet at the engagement drinks? You seem familiar. I must have seen you in one of Jules’s photos. When he said he recognized me, he didn’t recognize me. He recognized Alice.

The band begins to play again. Everyone spills toward the dance floor. I stand here rooted to the spot. And then the lights go out.

No one would believe me, if I told them now. Or they’d blame me. I can’t do it. I’m not brave enough for that. But I could do something. And then the lights go out.

The rage is growing inside me, overtaking the shock and grief. I can feel it blossoming up behind my ribs. It’s almost a relief, how it obliterates every other feeling in its path. And then the lights go out.

I’m trying to get back to the marquee. I can see the light of it, but it’s like it keeps appearing in different places … nearer then farther away. I can hear the noise of it, the canvas in the wind, the music— And then the lights go out.

I’m sure it was that and nothing more. Or, if needs be, I’m sure I can convince her otherwise.

I wipe one last tiny crumb from the corner of my mouth, smooth my hair. I smile. And then the lights go out.

“Johnno,” he says, very slowly and carefully. “Johnno—it’s all over, mate. Put the knife down.”

“So. It’s why I tried so very hard to get you here,” she says. “Why I offered that ridiculous discount to be featured in your wife’s magazine. I would have expected her to question it a little more than she did.

I CALLED IT

“But of course you’ll remember him as Loner,” she says. “Malone … Loner. That was the name you called him by, wasn’t it?

“Freddy?” “Yes, Freddy. Or, as I think you used to call him: Fatfuck.

OH MY GOD

And then I catch a glimpse of something. A gleam of metal, that is. In her other hand, the one not holding the light.

the gardaí are here now. They’ve put me in cuffs. They’ve arrested me. They’ll take me back to the mainland. I’ll be tried back home, for the murder of my best friend.

Anyway, it’s more than likely that it came from inside my head, what I saw. That would make a kind of sense, because in a way the boy’s been living there for years.

And maybe it’s like justice catching up with me, for that terrible thing we did. But I didn’t kill my best friend. Which means someone else did.

Perhaps it was what I overheard in the cave that changed my mind: the lack of remorse.

And then, for my little brother, I stab him. In his heart. I have raised hell.

And now he’s dead, they say. I’m not pleased. At least, I don’t think I am. Mainly I’m still just shocked.

It wasn’t me. But it could have been. I remember how I felt the last time I saw him, cutting the cake with Jules. Seeing that knife …

And in the middle of everything else, all the shock and trauma of this whole night, it’s just the two of us. My sister and me.

And in killing him, you could say that Will’s murderer avenged my sister too. I am only rather sorry I didn’t get the chance to plunge the knife in myself.