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“Babe, you’ve gotta give us a name. Whoever did this cannot get away with what they’ve done to you.”
I barely had the strength to deal with Louis, I don’t have the reserve to repeat myself.
“I’m tired. Can we talk later?”
He grits his teeth in frustration. “Sure, get some rest. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
My eyes ache as I close them and it’s not long before reality morphs into memories or nightmares. Either way, my captors’ faces are before me.A blur passes me and the taste of blood fills my mouth.
“We know it was your brother who made Matt and Beth disappear… because of you!”
Another swing and I nearly choke on a back tooth coming loose. “I told you I have no idea where they are. Louis would’ve told me if he did anything to them!”
It’s pointless. The more I deny, the angrier they become. “Ten fucking years we waited, and you still can’t give us peace. I warned my son to stay away from you and your fucked up family, but he wouldn’t fucking listen!”
“I don’t know what else you want me to say. As far as I know, they left town.”
“Bullshit!” Beth’s brother calls and kicks me in the stomach. “People who leave town don’t make plans.”
I want to be strong like my brother. I don’t want to show them they’re breaking me. But a tear escapes and I sob into the filthy mattress.
“So you can nearly beat the life out of my son but you can’t take a little kicking?”
I keep my mouth shut and it seems to anger him further. They don’t want to hear the truth and they’ll hurt me worse if I lie. Between a rock and a hard place has never made sense to me until now.
“I’ve dreamed of what I’d do to you when I had the chance and now it’s here, I don’t know where to start. You left my sister with a speech impairment when you struck her so hard with the bat. Her jaw never fixed itself…”
They only see me as a monster and in their defence, I was a monster that day. I see now that my actions were completely over the top but if I’m going to die, I’ll go out as the monster they believe me to be. They don’t want to hear I’m changing my life. They don’t want me to have a life.
“Your sister was a fucking whore. When you climb in beds you shouldn’t, you get fucked up.”
Spit flies from his mouth as rage consumes him. The sting from his slap covers my cheek. Over and over until it becomes numb.
“You and your psycho brother should’ve been aborted.”
I force out a mangled laugh. “Tell me something I don’t already know.”
“You’re both psychos.”
One action that changed three lives. One mistake. It will be how people see me for the rest of my life if I survive. The guys at the club make jokes about what I did. My brother believes I was perfectly justified. The only person who looked at me and saw a woman I could be, I wanted to be, was Manik. Vincent Hayes. As blows rain down on me, I take my mind back to his new flat. It’s just me and him on his living room floor eating dinner. It’s him pushing the plates away and leaning over to kiss me. It’s his touch I pretend is covering every inch of my body. With him, there’s no pain. He was good and I regret he’ll never know that I fell in love with him…
“Babe?”
My eyes open into slits and Vincent is at my side.
“You were crying in your sleep.” He softly dabs the tears away. “Please fucking tell me who did this to you. I can’t sit here seeing you suffering knowing who’s responsible is still out there.”
I won’t tell him or Louis who attacked me. I’ll deal with him myself. This is my mess to fix. In one way I understand why they came after me, but I paid the price with ten years of my freedom lost. I never once complained because I knew what I did was wrong. They now have to pay.
The day shift started an hour ago and Vincent will no doubt be here within the next hour. The only times he leaves my side is when he leaves for the night or when I’m in the bathroom.
I’m glad for his company but it comes with a price. He keeps on me for the name of the person who hurt me and when I don’t pay that price, he switches wanting to talk about us. I’m not emotionally strong enough to deal with either conversation.
The door opens and instead of seeing my brother or Evie, or Vincent, two detectives walk in. It’s far too early even on a good day to see them this early.
“Miss Mitchell, I’m DCI Waterson, and this DCI Barnett. Are you well enough to talk to us?”
“Not really, but I want it over with.”
