It was difficult to ignore the looks that were exchanged between the prison officers who ushered her through the security checks, but Alex knew this was something she was going to have to get used to. She had worn a thick scarf; the cold weather meant she was easily able to cover her neck, though she knew that come the summer months, concealing her scars would be harder to achieve. Hiding her face was impossible. She figured that the sooner she faced the world, the quicker she would learn to accept her new self. She would learn, somehow, to deal with other people’s reactions.

And this was something that couldn’t wait any longer.

She recognised the back of Nathan Coleman’s head when she entered the visiting room. He was slouched forward with his shoulders hunched over, defeat oozing from him like an odour; an exaggerated version of the boy she had last seen over two years earlier at his sentencing.

‘Nathan.’

She sat in the chair opposite him. She gave him a smile, but it wasn’t reciprocated.

He studied the burns that snaked up from the scarf, patterning her skin. ‘Tell me what happened,’ he said. ‘I need to hear it from you.’

The events of the previous two weeks rolled out between them, the reality of what had taken place uncompromisingly brutal in Alex’s honest retelling. She watched Nathan’s expression morph from confusion to anticipation to horror, each reaction dragging him closer to tears and disbelief. With every detail and with each response received, she grew increasingly confident that the suspicions she had brought to the prison that day were to be proved correct.

‘I can’t believe it,’ Nathan said, pressing a hand to the fading bruises on his face.

‘Yes you can.’

There was a moment of silence. Nathan knew her words meant so much more than they said. Alex had worked it out. If she had worked it out years earlier, three lives could have been saved.

‘She’s been beating your mother. Sian’s probably managed to keep the bruises hidden during her visits. Keeley’s a clever girl. She wouldn’t have left them anywhere too obviously visible.’

Nathan turned to look at the prison officer standing guard at the door before shifting in his seat. He glanced down at his sleeves and pulled them over his hands; anything to distract himself from what he couldn’t avoid hearing.

‘But why?’

‘Control. Keeley’s life has been a bit of a mess really, hasn’t it? She grew up watching your father beat your mother, never able to do a thing about it. Sian made a decision to stay – Keeley had no say in that. She couldn’t control what happened to you either, could she?’

Nathan looked down at his hands, unable to meet Alex’s eye.

‘I know you didn’t do it, Nathan.’

The boy’s head hung forward in an attempt to hide his tears. He had protected a girl he had thought innocent; a girl he had believed had been pushed to extreme actions by a set of extreme circumstances for which she was blameless. A girl who had gone on to murder three people and cause fear among the community that had previously shown her family such sympathy and support.

He shook his head. ‘She didn’t mean what she did back then. She didn’t know what she was doing. She was just a kid.’

‘She’s still just a kid. She’s your father’s daughter, that’s for sure.’

He looked up, finally meeting Alex’s eye. ‘I don’t believe you,’ he said, though the statement lacked conviction. ‘Mam would have said something.’

‘About Keeley beating her? Would she, though? An ex-husband who put her in hospital, a son in prison for attempted murder … do you really think she would have wanted her daughter taken away from her as well? It didn’t matter what Keeley did. Whatever your sister is, she’s still your mother’s child. She had nothing left without Keeley, and Keeley knew it. It meant she could do whatever the hell she liked. Your mother doesn’t know, does she? You’ve never told her that Keeley was the one who poisoned your father.’

Nathan held her gaze, his face seeming to plead with her. With everything his sister had done laid bare before him, he was realising the mistake he had made in protecting her. ‘I thought I was doing the right thing.’

Alex sat back. She knew her burns were more exposed now than they had been, but perhaps this was exactly what Nathan needed to see. He needed to be shown what Keeley really was. She hadn’t attempted to kill her father because of what he had done to the family. She had tried to kill him because evil was inherently ingrained within her.

‘Some people can’t be protected,’ she told Nathan. ‘No one could protect Keeley from herself.’ She moved a hand to her scarf and pulled it closer to her throat.

‘This is my fault. If I’d told the police what she’d done to our dad …’ He broke off for a moment, his thoughts too much for him. ‘She should have been here, not me. That homeless man would still be alive. That old lady …’ He put his face in his hands, hiding himself from Alex. ‘You,’ he spluttered through his fingers. ‘You wouldn’t be …’

‘Listen to me,’ Alex said, reaching for his arm. ‘None of this is your fault, okay. None of it.’

She took her hand away, pushed back her chair and stood.

‘What happens now?’ Nathan asked, looking up at her with a face that now appeared so much younger than his eighteen years. He was still just a boy, Alex thought. Prison hadn’t changed him so much that the damage couldn’t be reversed.

She leaned across the table and rested a hand on his. ‘Now we get you out of here.’