AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The kitchen knife Caelan was very fond of sharpening was embedded in Eric’s heart.
“I loved the person you were pretending to be,” I told him. “But deep down, that wasn’t you. You knew Caelan would be suspicious if you behaved differently when he was around.”
Eric was taking his last breaths, stuck to the spot. Caelan’s aim had hit the mark. Eric’s arms were numb, his fingers twitching.
“You didn’t love Caelan, and I know that, because I love him,” I whispered. “And I know he’s a big dumb softie underneath it all. If you’d ever loved Caelan, properly, you’d have seen that. You weren’t looking for him, but for some self-worth, which he gave you. Caelan only ever tried to help you but you couldn’t find a way to let go.”
“Stop—” he begged.
“Real love is when you take the fall for them.”
I whipped the knife out of his chest and Eric’s breathing became much shallower. His entire body seemed to crumple and he had to look up from beneath his sunk form.
“Now you’ll die at my hand,” I said proudly, “because you brought a gun into a room where my baby was sleeping… and only a truly, truly brutal monster would do such a thing.”
“Sorry—”
“Ever wonder why he didn’t kill you sooner, Eric?”
His face had completely drained and he was barely breathing at all. “He’s better… than me… always was… hated him for it… hate you… hate myself… hate the world…”
“No,” I said, “because in his way, he loved you too.”
Eric took his last breath and was gone.
He would never have stopped.
That level of hate only had the power to destroy.
Not even Caelan had been able to save him from himself.
I went to my husband and son and we wept together.
Chapter Fifty-One
A couple of days later, the first person I called once we were cleared to go home was my father. At the airport, while we waited for our flight, I walked off to a deserted corner of the departures lounge and video called him.
“Jesus, Flora,” he said, before taking a hit of oxygen from the portable machine at his side. “I’ve been worried sick waiting for your call.”
Somehow, it’d got out about the son of a Russian military advisor trying to murder one of the UK’s greatest military heroes—in retaliation for his covert op having been scuppered. Something about him being a mole inside the British military all these long decades. He hadn’t, but, it explained away all the dead bodies including Ogarkov’s, not to mention those of our protection officers whose families were now no doubt devastated. The actual truth would never be revealed. It’d been personal, of course. Just as Caelan had recently explained that Sherry’s actions of two years ago were down to her personal vendetta against Jimmy’s killer.
It looked like Dad was in a big house with glass everywhere, a sumptuous sectional group propping up his tired body. He’d got to the point of only wearing pyjamas, I saw.
“I’m safe, we’re shot of him,” I said, shutting my eyes and breathing. “It’s over.”
“What about my ten mil?” said Dad, but with a wry smile.
I shook my head and snorted. “Oh, Dad.”
“I know.” He inhaled some more oxygen. “Tell me everything.”
So, I did. I told him how the news story was faked. Sherry had even been moved temporarily to a medical wing and segregated to bolster the narrative, so that even her fellow inmates would believe it. Caelan didn’t even tell me it was a sting because he knew Eric would scent the lie if I had to pretend with him.
Caelan had wanted Eric to wonder if he’d actually got away with it—then start questioning everything once he realised Caelan no longer feared his influence over me. Nor cared for his company anymore. Eric had been consigned to the sidelines once more, forced to bear witness as we fell even more deeply in love; he’d had to realise slowly, painfully, he hadn’t got away with anything. He’d only made us closer. He’d become surplus to requirement.
The mind games made him crazy enough to do what he did. Not to say Caelan had expected it to get as bloody as it had done, but it’d been obvious Eric was desperate for the fiction to end and was ready to confess. And confess he had.
My husband had taken a big risk and gambled with our lives, I knew that. However, I also knew Eric would’ve kept getting away with murder otherwise. They’d have never been able to pin anything on him, not concrete. Personally, I felt relieved to know none of it had ever been real and I could now go home with my husband and child and start again, with a fresh start and a clean slate. No more torment, my heart no longer divided in two.
