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‘It’s your own fault you weren’t here, Fleur. You were out all night.’

‘So what? I’m a grown-up.’

‘People will talk. Act like a slut, you will be labelled that way.’

‘Nothing slutty about where I was, Irma. It was wonderful,’ she said, wishing she hadn’t.

‘So you reward your friend, even though he insulted you, by letting him have your body. My, my . . . how proud your father wouldn’t be,’ Irma said, making a tsking sound.

‘Tom was beaten. That’s why he didn’t come.’

‘But he could still take you into his bed.’

‘Don’t make it sound tawdry, Irma. I went willingly because I love him and he loves me. Do you know anything about love, Irma?’

Her stepmother laughed with a cruel sneer. ‘You poor dolt. You likely won’t see him again now he’s got what he wants.’

‘Well, I’ll enjoy proving you wrong. Anyway, I thought you’d be packed, already on your way.’ Fleur said, still helplessly impressed by Irma’s ability to hold face, to go on attack and engage in full battle, even though she must know she was losing.

‘What would be the point? It would make me look guilty.’

‘You are guilty!’

‘Listen to yourself, Fleur. You’re going mad. I’m now convinced of it,’ her stepmother baited. ‘And I shall tell anyone who comes to hear your unfounded accusation just that. I swear I’m going to make you pay for this.’

‘The only place you’re going is to gaol. I’ll bet my last dollar on it.’

Irma laughed cruelly. ‘You don’t have any money to be placing bets with. You do realise it’s all mine, don’t you?’

Fleur frowned. ‘Why’s that?’

‘Your father has made a new will. In it he leaves everything to me.’

Suddenly Fleur could feel the pound of her heartbeat in her throat. She had not been given this information but she refused to betray her shock. And already she was letting it dissipate because her rationality was taking over quickly and making her accept that it didn’t matter. All that mattered, now that her father was gone, was being with Tom. Even so, her anger outweighed her sensibility and it was demanding that Irma pay for her sins. ‘I’m presuming you convinced him that you’d see to my best interests, did you?’

Irma smiled. ‘Of course. You see, Fleur, I always knew how to get around Henry. A man is easy. You just have to have the right . . . shall we say . . . enticements on offer.’

‘Ugh.’ Fleur closed her eyes, helpless to control her revulsion at the thought of Henry rolling around with Irma but even as she did, she knew Irma wasn’t lying. She would have used all her conniving charm and indeed her body to coerce her kind and trusting father to do whatever she wanted.

‘My mother—’

‘May she rot in hell! Both of your mothers, actually,’ Irma said. ‘The first for giving birth to you and not smothering you when she had the chance. The second for even bothering with you.’

Fleur wouldn’t fall for Irma’s word blows, designed to wound, to draw her into the trap of making a mistake. Irma clearly hoped Fleur would reveal her proof, maybe that she would lose control and try to physically harm her. But Fleur was wise to this woman after years of being conditioned. ‘You know, you may have others hoodwinked but you really can’t hide your cold-blooded nature from me. I see you. I see you for all that you are. Search though I have, I’ve found nothing redeeming about you. There isn’t an ounce of empathy for others within you. I know you killed my father, and you will pay the price for your heinous work.’ Fleur didn’t let her gaze leave Irma’s as she finished speaking.

‘I’d like to see you prove it, Miss High and Mighty.’

‘Don’t underestimate me, Irma. You’ve been doing that for too long.’

Irma laughed and Fleur, despite her icy anger, couldn’t help but feel slightly unbalanced by her stepmother’s composure. She seemed fearless in her crime.

‘It’s curious, Fleur, because we could have been a good mother-and-daughter team.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Fleur replied. ‘We weren’t even friends. I saw straight through you from the moment you started living in my house.’

Irma shrugged as if to say, so be it. ‘All mine now,’ she said. ‘And I’ll make sure you don’t get a cent – I’m happy to see you cast out into the street with nothing.’

Fleur forced herself to swallow the keen fury that Irma believed money was at the heart of their feud. She leaned into that error now. ‘Your mistake has always been measuring me against yourself. You see, Irma, I won’t give a moment’s thought to any of this,’ she said, waving her arms in an arc. ‘Money does not drive me, but it’s all you think about. It’s your weakness . . . and now it’s become your downfall. You had it all – he would have given you anything you wanted. Why did you have to kill him?’