Page 170 of Serenity Falls

I think about the card in Mum’s belongings. Enjoy the hour. It’s later than you think.

‘Okay.’ I stand, and the room spins for moment. The headache is a battering ram inside my skull. ‘Either you are batshit crazy, in which case Sadie and I need to get out of here. Or you’re telling the truth, in which case we need to get out of here.’

‘But, Dad?’ Sadie says.

‘No. We’re leaving.’

She shoots me an accusing look. ‘We could help. I told Davey about the stuff we discovered. We could work together. Expose what’s going on here.’

‘And what is going on? We’ve got no real proof. Just suspicion and speculation.’

‘We’ve got Davey.’

‘Who doesn’t remember anything. We still don’t really know why his mum sent him away or faked his death.’

‘We’ve got Frankie’s research. I mean, that’s something.’

I look back at her. ‘Sadie, the Winsom Corporation is a massive beast. We’re just little people. They’ll eat us alive.’

‘You ever hear of David and Goliath?’ Davey says.

‘Yeah, I’ve also watched Jaws. We do not have a big enough boat to deal with this shit.’ I turn back to Sadie. ‘It’s too much. Too dangerous. I lost your mum, and I am not losing you.’

My head is hammering so fiercely now it’s hard to see. I squeeze the bridge of my nose. Something wet trickles down my chin.

‘Dad! Your nose.’

I look down. Fuck, it’s bleeding again.

‘S-ukay,’ I say, even though it isn’t. Not at all.

‘Sit down,’ Sadie says. ‘I’ll get you some tissues.’

I try to say, It’s fine, but, weirdly, the left side of my mouth doesn’t feel like it’s working properly.

‘Dad?’

‘Um fuh—’ I say as everything goes grey and I hit the floor.

50

‘Is he going to be okay?’

Stella looks up at Sadie through thick-rimmed glasses. ‘I’m a mortician, not a doctor. Living patients aren’t my specialty.’

‘That’s good to hear,’ her dad mumbles from the sofa.

Sadie squeezes his hand. ‘We didn’t know who else to call.’

After Dad collapsed, Sadie had tried to wake him. He had groaned and his eyelids had fluttered, but he hadn’t come round right away. Sadie had wanted to take him to the hospital, but Davey had shaken his head: ‘If you take him there, he’s not coming out. Trust me. I’ll call Stella. She’ll know what to do.’

Sadie hopes he’s right. She’s scared. Seeing Dad like this, the fear he might not wake up. It was too much. She blinks back the tears biting at her eyes.

‘He’ll be okay,’ Stella says in a more reassuring tone.

She leans over Dad, peels back his eyelids and shines a light into his eyes. She checks his pulse, listens to his chest, and then she opens her case and takes out a pair of bolt cutters.

Dad’s eyes widen. ‘What are those for?’