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Beth:I’m so sorry to not say goodbye. Please reconsider talking to someone about everything. I hate for you to be alone. And please kiss Amara goodbye from me.
I stood there for a few minutes staring at my phone, hoping she would reply.
When she finally did, it was one word.
Chiara:Okay.
The finality of that word was like a punch in the guts.
How many times had I sent one word to friends because the thousands of words I wanted to say might come out as a torrential scream into a void?
I knew what okay meant.
Okay, I’ll tell Amara you’ve gone.
Okay, I understand that it was no use ever asking you to be my friend because I knew you never really could be anyway.
Okay, you’ve walked out of my life and there’s nothing I can do about it, so it’s okay because it has to be.
Okay, goodbye.
I couldn’t help her anymore and she knew it. I was leaving her all alone.
Crying harder now, I walked towards the tube station like some pathetic weeping weirdo, not caring about the people staring at me.
I was going home, and I knew I shouldn’t. Jonathan was out of jail. Would he be looking for me? What if he came to the apartment?
But I had nowhere else to go.
I waited at a traffic light to cross the road. I knew I shouldn’t go back to Whitechapel but I had no friends to take me in. No Dolly. And I couldn’t bear to go to Toby’s.
Bernie would help me in a heartbeat, but her two daughters lived with her, and her grandbaby too. She sacrificed so much of her time for me and Mom anyway, and I wouldn’t drag her into my mess. The thought of bringing her family into danger made me shudder.
The lights changed from red to amber. I waited for green. A van pulled up in front of me, and the back doors flew open. Two men in masks dragged me inside.
A hand over my mouth muffled my scream, and something sharp jabbed into the side of my neck. And darkness descended.
Chapter 33
BETH
I slowly regained consciousness, my head throbbing with a dull ache. The room around me was hazy, as if I was peering through a foggy lens. Blinking several times, I realised I was on the rough wooden floor of an unfurnished room. The air felt stagnant, and all was silent around. As if I was in an old, abandoned house.
A movement at the edge of my vision made me roll over sharply, gasping as pain jolted through my limbs. My wrists were bound tightly behind my back with what felt like wires. My ankles too.
A figure was crouched over me. I blinked to clear my vision. It was Jacob! Marco’s head of security.
Relief washed over me.
“Thank goodness you’re here,” I croaked, my voice sounding as disorientated as my mind.
I strained my neck, searching the room for Marco. Was he here? Had he forgiven me? How had he found out what had happened to me?
But, other than Jacob, the room was empty. Marco was nowhere to be seen.
I blinked again, focussing on Jacob’s face. His expression sent a shiver down my spine, the strange calmness in his eyes so cold.
Something was terribly wrong.
