Cassie is self-sabotaging, a dry sense of humour, a sultry melody, a sarcastic remark. She's a dead gaze, smudged eyeliner, a garden of withering red tulips, and... an addict. 

Etienne is indecisive, anxious, classically handsome, a teller of great stories. He's a smile that doesn't reach the eyes, a lit cigarette, an alternative rock song, and a bad friend.  

It all started when they were only six years old. And it hasn't stopped. It keeps happening. They weave in and out of each other's lives, with their strange connection to blame. Their bond is both strengthened and weakened by their shared traumas. Their relationship is a ballad about codependency and the electricity of first love. 

Their lives are an unmanageable mess that sees them dwell in the world of drugs, depression, and the multitude of young women being found dead in the Merseyside Area. They each must confront their faith in second chances, fate, and circumstance. 

                                                         ― ― ― ― ― 

 And he's somewhere in the middle. But you can also find him at the beginning, and he'll be waiting for you by the end. He's everywhere. He is good with ropes, great at sketching, addicted to pornographic content. He hates his wife, hates his son, knows how to avoid leaving fingerprints on his victims.

ON MOUNT EVEREST WITH YOU.

HENRY grew up in one of the nicest neighbourhoods in Liverpool. A gated community that, in its majority, housed broken families that could easily cover up the faults in the foundation of their homes with a trip to the Alps or a summer in Italy. 


 This was the case with the Pedersens. I'd heard the stories. Henry talked a lot in the minutes that passed between his orgasm and sleep. 


 I knew that Jakob, his father, had an affair with the nanny growing up. Henry recalled how the blond twenty-something-year-old woman would leave them to their own devices when they were eight to eleven because his father would always take her away. 


 Eventually, Jessica ended up getting pregnant and Henry wasn't sure what exactly happened, just that she never returned to their home. 


Chapter Thirty-Three.