Free The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

of Sophie’s personality. Afterwards she always feels bad, and now she feels particularly guilty.
    Part of her had been thinking that this whole thing with Aunt Connie’s house had been all about destiny. It had been her destiny to become friends with Veronika, even though it was an annoying friendship at times. It was her destiny to date Veronika’s brother, Thomas, even though it had all ended so horribly. It was her destiny to live in Aunt Connie’s wonderful home on Scribbly Gum Island. That was the final pay-off. She deserved it!
    But now it occurs to Sophie to wonder if perhaps she had been subconsciously manipulating her destiny.
    She remembers when she first met Veronika at a friend’s baby shower. Sophie was supervising the cutting of the cake–one of hers, of course–featuring a pair of baby booties made out of cup cakes, when she heard somebody saying in a clear, sharp voice that she’d grown up on Scribbly Gum Island.
    ‘Did you really?’ Sophie had chimed in, leaning across another woman to hand the stranger a piece of booty. ‘What was that like?’
    Sophie had a thing about Scribbly Gum Island. She’d adored it ever since her first visit on a school excursion when she was a child. She disagreed passionately with people who described the island as ‘a bit twee, don’t you think?’ She’d done the Alice and Jack tour a dozen times, staring with fresh fascination at the clothes still hanging in the cupboard, the baby’s crib, the newspaper sitting open on 15 July 1932–the crossword halfway completed. She’d picnicked at Sultana Rocks, had birthday lunches at Connie’s Café and convinced friends that the blueberry muffins and hot chocolates were worth the train and ferry ride, especially on a cold winter’s day. She once had a terrible fight with a boyfriend when they were holidaying in the Greek islands over whether the view from Kingfisher Lookout on Scribbly Gum Island was prettier than the view from their hotel window in Santorini. (She said it was, he said she was deliberately being ridiculous.)
    When Sophie learned that Veronika was the granddaughter of the Munro Baby, she was as thrilled as if she’d met a favourite celebrity.
    It was true that Veronika had been the one to rather aggressively pursue the friendship. She had invited Sophie to lunches and drinks and bullied her into doing a belly-dancing course with her. Sophie had enjoyed the course. She thought it was a hoot. When she managed to restrain her gales of laughter she was rather good at it–the teacher’s pet in fact. Veronika was the worst in the class but took it all terribly seriously, listening intently to the instructions and zealously trying to jiggle her skinny hips. That was when Sophie became fond of Veronika. Sophie’s other friends would have been collapsing with giggles or refused to really try. There was something endearing about Veronika’s hopeless persistence.
    Still, the Scribbly Gum connection probably helped make the friendship more attractive and made up for Veronika’s more aggravating characteristics, such as her energy-draining intensity over everything. One of the guys at work had openly admitted to cultivating a friendship with someone who owned a yacht. What if Sophie had subconsciously been doing the same with Veronika, even while she was congratulating herself on her saintly fortitude?
    But what would she have been hoping to achieve? Veronika hadn’t even taken her to meet her family on Scribbly Gum Island–‘Oh, why would you want to go there? Boring! ’ It wasn’t until Sophie had started dating Veronika’s brother that she got to visit. Unless, of course, dating Thomas had been the next step in her dastardly plan.
    She looks at her watch. It’s time to get back to work. She has a meeting at two. She will read Connie’s letter to her parents tonight over dinner and see what they think. If they say it’s wrong to accept the house she won’t take it.
    I’m a good person, Sophie