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Whatever comes my way now, whatever life throws at me or the crosses I have to bear, I will do so gladly if it means I’ll earn even an ounce of redemption.
Redemption I don’t truly deserve.
Seventeen
Jess
It’s been two days since I saw Rick and Ryder tearing strips off each other, and I’ve gone out of my way to avoid running into any of them.
I’ve even avoided Eleanor for fear she’ll ask me to go over to the Taylor’s on some errand, but today my hiding away ends.
I’m a coward, and those are words that I never thought I’d say. The woman who never shies away from any kind of confrontation, is never afraid to have her say and is always ready to fight her own corner and stand her ground has become a yellow belly plain and simple.
It ends now.
If I can face off against my father, thegreatArchie ‘The Archer’ Collins, or my even more charmingly abhorrent ex-husband, Alistair Croxley, then I can face a man I barely know and ignore the way my body reacts every time he’s near.
Whilst my temporary self-imposed exile from the world is over, it has been beneficial in allowing me time to sort my affairs.
Starting with Tobias’ lawsuit against me. My solicitor sent me through an unimaginable amount of paperwork. Not surprisingly, Tobias managed to bypass the usual protocols and serve me with papers, and my solicitor wants to make a counter claim against him for defamation—which given the recent articles printed and online slandering my name—I’m more than down for it.
I’ve managed to secure several viewings of my flat, which the agent is handling, and even though I’m loathed to return to London at all, I need to attend the annual charity ball and auction hosted by my parents this coming weekend.
However, I don’t have a car, and I’m not likely to get mine returned before then, so I’ve secured a hire car through my insurance until then.
Having given myself a major headache with all the paperwork, I decide to take a walk and head up to the main house to collect Rocco.
Two hours later, with Rocco sufficiently worn out and back at home, I’m just about to jump in the shower when my phone rings.
“Jessica Fisher?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“It’s Gaz at DP Autos. I’m calling ‘bout your car. It’s gonna take a bit of time, love. You made quite a mess of the front end.”
“Shit. Okay, do you have a rough idea of how long?”
“Well, there’s a couple of parts I can’t get delivered till early next week, so probably end of next week. Hope that’s alright for yous, but to be honest it’s the best I can do.”
“That’ll be fine, Gaz. Thank you.”
“No worries, love. I’ll be in touch.”
Looks like I’ll be rolling up to the auction in some shitty hire car after all. Can’t wait to see my father’s face. I let out a laugh knowing how much it will irritate him.
For as far back as I can remember, if there was something I could do to piss my father off, I would do it without thought for the repercussions. Getting married at twenty was one, or so I thought, but my biggest fuck you to my father was becoming a cop. He wanted me to become some hotshot lawyer or even better, a damn judge. The marriage, as it turns out, wasn’t as big of a fuck you as I first thought.
A year after our wedding, Alistair and I were meeting up with an old friend of his, and after several drinks, his friend, Miles, let slip that actually us getting hitched wasn’t really anything to do with meeting and falling in love, but more a marriage of convenience. One that I wasn’t privy to and was never meant to be.
Stupidly, I stuck it out for another year, still naively believing that even if it started out that way, Alistair loved me. Right? The only thing Alistair loved, more than himself, of course, was the leg up my father gave him in the force, and the nice down payment for taking his unruly daughter off his hands.
Aside from his constant need to stick his dick in anything that had a pulse—including men, as I discovered late one night after coming home early because I was sick—Alistair wasn’t averse to laying his hands on a woman in a less than loving way.
Having endured more than a beating as a teen, there was no way I was becoming a victim again. So, after the first time he hit me, the blinkers were well and truly off, and I left him. But not before outing his predilections for guys to the world, well, attempting to. Unfortunately, my good ole Dad managed to prevent too much damage. That’s another black mark against my father. There are many.
After Christian’s death, I stayed on the force long enough to gather as much information as I could, which wasn’t all that much. Trying to uncover intel on an operation that never existed is like trying to break into Fort Knox.
A little over a year ago, Tobias’ name came up as a person of interest whilst I was looking into another soldier that was in the same platoon as my brother. Unfortunately, he died before I was able to speak to him, leaving me with no answers and the name of a man who, on the surface, appeared to be a respectable self-made millionaire.
