“I laced his water with my anti-anxiety pills. He must have drunk it and fell off the Brigg. Whoops, clumsy wife,” I said jokingly with a shrug.

“Why? Why would you do that to him?” Poppy cried.

“Because if I couldn’t have him, no one else could.”

“He was never yours,” Kim said venomously.

“Of course he was! He was my husband!”

The frustration finally got the better of Kim, and she let out a scream, which must have been heard for miles around, and dropped to her hands and knees. She started pounding the rock with her fists, and Yvonne went over to console her. I could see that all three of them were starting to get very aggravated by me and my lack of empathy, but could they expect? For me to break down with them? Harry had been playing me for a fool for months on end with his infidelity and even exposing us to danger and extortion.

He deserved it.

“Now you know how I feel,” I said emotionlessly.

Kim immediately rose to her feet again and thundered over to me, standing tall above me with her finger pointed in my face.

“Harry loved me. And I loved him. We were going to have a family together. In the end, he hated you.”

“No, he didn’t,” I replied matter-of-factly.

“You broke his bones. And his spirit. Yet you have the audacity to think he still loved you. You killed him long before you poisoned him.”

“I may have put the pills in the bottle, but you are the one who poisoned him. If you hadn’t come into his life, he would still be breathing.”

“I saved him. When he was at his lowest moment.”

“You didn’t do a very good job.”

“You are disgusting,” Poppy added.

“Pipe down, Poppy, let the adults speak. You don’t need to get involved,” I dismissed.

“Oh?” Poppy said, while taking out her phone and tapping on the screen. When she was finished, she put her phone away, and my phone beeped. She had a weird smile on her face as I took it out to look at the incoming text, supposedly from James.

I’m already involved, bitch.

It was Poppy. The entire time. She had planted the idea in my head at the very start of this journey and continued to sway me throughout. I knew that my gut feeling, after finding his number in Harry’s deposit box, was the right one. The only reason I dismissed it was because I received a text from James when Poppy was in front of me. I felt ridiculous for believing her for even a second.

“I knew it was you,” I said knowingly.

“James was all of us,” Yvonne added, “we knew you were involved the second we found out Harry had died.”

“Why was the number registered to Harry?”

“It was his secret phone,” Poppy started, waving the phone, “on the night of his death, we went looking for him. He had dropped the phone; it only had one call on it, and it was to you.”

“When I asked you in that bar if you knew who Harry was trying to ring, you said you didn’t. And that’s when I knew it was you. I just needed you to hear you admit it,” Kim added in a quiet rage.

“So, what is this? Hijinks? A widow harassment club? Was Steve involved in all this, too?”

“Steve didn’t want anything to do with this; he just wanted to move on with his life,” Yvonne added, shaking her head, “Kim almost blew the whole thing when she led you to him. He would have exposed us.”

“So you burned down Steve’s house just to get to me? And I’m the psychopath?” I laughed.

“Steve got what was already coming to him. John had just asked the Broadheads to delay it until we’d dealt with you,” Yvonne said.

“And that slag, Becky? The blackmail? Was that just for fun? Or did she know all about this?” I asked.

“Mum did that to try and split you both up after she found out about the abuse,” Poppy argued, “we tried convincing Harry, but he wasn’t having any of it.”

“Yes, I made mistakes. But I would have tried anything to get my son away from you,” Yvonne added angrily.

“Even sending me to the Broadheads? They could have killed me.”

“Chance would be a fine thing,” Kim said under her breath.

“They weren’t going to kill you, Amelia,” Yvonne said, “John just asked them to scare you.”

“Why?” I said.

“In case you confessed,” Poppy answered.

“Well, I’d say all your schemes backfired slightly, wouldn’t you?” I teased ironically.

“Enough nonsense,” Poppy said forcefully, “We have done all this to expose you and the way you treated Harry. You deserve to rot for what you’ve done.”

“He got what he deserved,” I affirmed.

“Harry was the kindest man I’d ever met. He made mistakes, but largely because you forced him into them!” Kim shouted.

“He was a cheat.”

“No, Amelia. You just thought he was. You thought he was slipping away from you, but you were pushing him away the entire time.”

“He was weak. He saw a younger blonde woman and didn’t have the strength of character to say no.”

“Harry was the strongest man I’d ever met. He was strong enough to leave you.”

“He didn’t leave me though, did he?”

“Come on, Amelia. I was with him that night. He walked off to make a phone call to you, but he had no signal, so he was walking to find some. When he finally got through, he told you he was leaving you, didn’t he?” Kim said.

I’d already confessed to his murder, but that was one step too far. There was no way I was going to admit that. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. Whatever she had planned for this revelation at the Brigg, it wouldn’t include that. If she didn’t have enough confidence in his love for her, I wasn’t going to be the one to give it to her. She could live the rest of her life not knowing, just like I would have had to.

“I’m not playing this game anymore,” I announced.

“It’s not a game,” Yvonne said, producing her phone from her pocket, which had been recording the whole thing.