Background: Angela is shocked when William, an old friend from her past, who she hoped never to see again, comes back into her life, after he applies for a role at her work and successfully secures the job. William’s sudden reappearance puts Angela on edge. She’s terrified he’s discovered her secret, which she needs to protect her family from. William’s convinced Angela knows what happened to his former girlfriend, Caz, who hasn't been seen for twenty years, and that something terrible happened to her. The only person, who can help Angela, is her once best friend, Michelle, but Angela hasn’t seen Michelle for more than a decade. Faced with the threat of William’s return, they know they’ll need to work together to save their future, even if this does mean reopening old wounds, and revisiting a past they'd rather keep buried.

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January 2000

‘Okay. When did you last pull the envelope out?’ Hayley asks. She’s trying to be as patient with me as possible, but I can hear the frustration in her voice. She wants to lay into me about my stupidity. I can see her itching to get it out, but somehow, she holds back. No doubt she’ll be moaning to Lauren about me later. If Michelle was here she wouldn’t hesitate.

I’m collapsed in a heap on the floor in my room; my eyes are thick with tears. The money is gone. The money I’ve spent a year saving is gone.

My mattress is still up against the side of Michelle’s bed. I’ve turned the room upside down. The drawers in the bedside cabinet are hanging off their hinges. I’ve pushed my bed aside to check underneath, just in case it slipped out from underneath the mattress when William was in my bed yesterday. The wardrobe doors are open, even though I knew it wouldn’t be in there. Clothes are strewn across the carpet.

We’ve spent the last half an hour going through everything, even searching the living room, kitchen and bathroom. In my head I know all of this searching is hopeless. There’ll be no getting it back. Not now. I’ve blown it. The one chance I had of making a difference in my life, of proving myself to Mum and Dad, and it’s been shattered. Hayley and Lauren will be late for work, but that thought doesn’t seem to have crossed their minds yet.

‘I . . . I’ve never taken it out of this room.’ My voice comes out hoarse. This can’t be happening. I’ll wake up any second and it will all have been a nightmare. ‘You only found out I was keeping it under my mattress last night.’

‘Well, we didn’t take it,’ Hayley snaps, looking to over to Lauren, as though she’s waiting for validation from her.

I shake my head. ‘I wasn’t accusing you of taking it.’

I wrap my arms around my knee caps and burrow my face into my thighs. Why do bad things always seem to happen to me?

‘But . . . how could anyone else have known you had the money here?’ Lauren asks.  

In my head I already know the answer. But I don’t want to believe it. It was all a trick. All of it. William telling me he’d broken up with Caz. Even yesterday I thought it was strange that he wasn’t more disappointed, when I told him I didn’t want him to . . . go all the way. I swallow. I thought he was a real gentleman, when he respected my wishes. Then I remember how I leapt out of bed when I realised what time it was, and how I dived into the bathroom. I was in there for a good ten minutes, perhaps longer. That would’ve given him plenty of time to throw his clothes back on, and have a quick snoop around. Did he know about the cash? Caz could’ve told him at some point that I was saving up for the course. I told everyone about it. Had he done this because he was angry with me for rejecting him on New Year’s Eve? He couldn’t be that bitter about it, surely.

He must’ve gone into Lauren and Hayley’s room as well; perhaps looking for anything else that might be there he could steal. That would explain the bag that Hayley had said wasn’t in the place she’d left it.

‘William was here yesterday,’ I say.

‘What?’ Hayley clearly she hasn’t been reading the signs like Lauren and Michelle have.

 ‘He . . . he was the reason why I quit my job. He told me he and Caz had split up and we . . .’

Pictures swarm inside my head of him reaching under my bed, while I was sorting myself out in the bathroom, and pulling out the envelope stuffed with notes. He must’ve thought all his Christmases had come at once. He was gone by the time I got out. He would’ve been laughing as he ran up the road towards the station, the envelope carefully stored in the inside pocket of his jacket.

‘Okay, let’s report this to the police,’ Hayley says keeping her voice calm. ‘There’s not a lot we can do about it now other than tell the authorities.’

‘We need . . . we need to speak to Caz,’ I say, my breath coming out in short rapid gasps.

‘Angela, you can’t go round accusing people without the evidence,’ Lauren says.

‘What other evidence do we need?’ I shout. ‘The money was there yesterday before William came here, and now it’s gone. There’s no other person who it could be. I didn’t think you were stupid, Lauren.’

I regret the last part of my sentence. Lauren says nothing. She’ll put it down to me being stressed out and upset.

I thought William loved me. I thought he wanted to be with me. It was all a lie. I’d been a complete fool. Michelle’s never going to let me forget this. How can I trust anyone ever again?

‘Let’s go to the police,’ Lauren says again carefully. She’ll be doing her best to avoid snapping at me after my last comment. ‘We can tell them who we think it is, and they’ll investigate.’

‘If they can be bothered,’ I say bitterly.

I think of Michelle. She’s the only one, right now, who doesn’t know what’s happened. All those times she told me to put it away in the bank, and I didn’t listen.

I’m dreading the thought of telling her. Lauren and Hayley have been just as devastated as me, and Michelle will be too. They raised half the money I needed for my birthday last year. Even if I do, by some miracle, get the money back, it could take days to get it back to me, especially as there’ll be an ongoing police investigation. I’ll miss the deadline to get the cheque off for the course. I imagine myself ringing them to explain what happened, and for them to tell me they’re sorry, but there’s nothing they can do about the deadline, and that there’s always next year. Next year. Another year.

I can’t wait another year. If I’m going to move forward with this next phase of my life, I need to do it now. The chances of building a career are slipping away from me. I’d fallen for William like a love sick puppy. The warning signs were clear and plain for me to see, and I ignored them. I’d been so blinded by my affection for him. He’s treated me like dirt and I’ll never forgive him.

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Character List:

Angela Watkins - Protagonist 

Paul Watkins - Angela's husband

Rebecca Watkins - Angela's daughter 

Michelle Blake - Angela's former best friend 

Kirsty - Receptionist (Angela's friend) 

Olivia - Angela's boss

William Harris - Angela's former friend 

Caroline (Caz) - Angela's friend 

Hayley - Angela's former friend

Lauren - Angela's former friend