The Girl Beyond the Gate

by Becca Day

Of course, I do, but they don’t need to know that. My plan is already in motion. Everything is resting on what happens over the next twenty-four hours. I can’t afford to make a single mistake.

Paul is so the Ken to her Barbie.

But if Lacey has decided she wants to befriend her, I’m afraid I’m going to have to put much stricter measures in place. I can’t have a repeat of last time.

Alison? Murdered?

‘You’re going to have to find some other sick kid to show off on TV.’

The benefits are shrinking.

‘I know what you did.’

Bitch what? Tell me already.

The thing with grief, I’ve discovered, is that there is a time limit to how long you’re allowed to grieve.

There is nothing like losing a child. Because you’re not just losing a baby, or an embryo, or a sweet, sweet twelve-year-old. You’re losing everything they could be. Everything they should be. The life you had planned out and all the future memories you were hoping to enjoy with them.

Gareth Wilson is Lacey’s dad.

Who the hell is that??

I lean closer, matching Gareth’s stance. ‘Do you think she killed your mother?’ There is a long pause. Then: ‘Yeah. She killed her all right.’

Lacey is standing.