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“I mean it. From this second, this is real, Casper. I can’t worry what you’re up to behind my back, so you need to be straight up. If you’re worried about me, speak up. If you don’t want me to go somewhere or do something, speak up. I mean, no guarantees I won’t still do it, but I need to know how you feel. Let me in.”
He smiles so brightly that my heart skips a beat. “That sounds good to me. You know, I’ve always admired my parents’ marriage. They didn’t have parenting young children figured out, but they have always been a team through everything. I want that. There is nothing off-limits. We talk, all the time. You’re going to be so sick of me talking.”
“I doubt that.”
“Promise me something, though, sweetheart.”
“Anything.”
“In the bedroom, you’ll still call me a bastard.”
Laughing, I nod in agreement. “That I can do.”
“Casper!” Flora bursts into the room with tears flowing down her cheeks.
I try to move away but Casper holds my hand tightly. All I can do is shuffle farther down the bed so that his mum can hug him.
“Hello, Mum.”
“Darling, you frightened us to death. Don’t ever do that again.”
“I’m sorry. I’m fine now, as you can see, and I’ll try not to be on the pointy end of a knife again.”
“Not funny,” I say. “The nurse has been. They’re going to redress his bandages later and someone will remove the wires soon, but aside from that, they’re going to let him rest and do the usual checks.”
Flora nods and moves to the chair beside the bed. Casper isn’t letting me go so there’s nowhere else for anyone to sit next to him on the bed. None of us want to be on the side where all the wires are bunched.
“The police called while we were in the cafeteria,” Frederick says.
All eyes are suddenly on him.
“I have a contact at the station who heard that a man who was drugged to his eyeballs had been picked up this morning. He was covered in blood splatter, muttering incoherently about someone named Katie.”
My face falls, and a shudder ricochets down my back.
No, this washim. Oh my God. My dad attacked Casper. He and my mum couldn’t get what they wanted from my house, from his house, from me, so that bastard took revenge. That withheld call in the early hours was probably my mum.
My father went from doing drugs and breaking into houses to trying to murder the man I love.
“Don’t do that,” Casper says. He squeezes my hand to get my attention. “Ainsley, don’t. This isnotyour fault.”
“Well, of course it’s not her fault,” Flora says. “No one is blaming her.”
“Wait, Mum. You know who Katie is, don’t you?” Penelope asks.
“Yes, she’smymum,” I mutter. “Casper, I’m so sorry I–”
“Do not apologise,” he says. His voice is firm and authoritative, but it’s also calm and reassuring, like he wants to protect me.
“Your mum did this?” Frederick asks, his eyes wide in disbelief. “Are you sure?”
Casper tries to sit up and winces.
“Will you stop that?” I tell him, pressing my hand to his chest to prevent him from moving. His eyes become fire at my touch. Now is not the time. I try to pull my hand away, but he covers it with his own, keeping me as close as we can get right now.
“This isn’t her fault,” he repeats, then addresses his family. “You know that her mum and dad aren’t in her life.”
“We understand, love. No one is blaming Ainsley, but we do need to know what this is about,” Flora says.
