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“Mum, please calm down,” Nina says, voice shaking. “I will get you money, okay?”
Her head snaps to her daughter, and my chest instantly starts to work. I can’t… I don’t think I can breathe.
“I want my money, all of it. What he promised.”
“Okay, I will get all of it.” I hear Nina pause like she doesn’t… like she doesn’t know what her mum’s talking about. “What did he promise?”
“A new life. A fresh start. A lot of money, and then he took it all away,” she spits.
Nina shakes her head at a loss. “Mason? Mason promised you that?”
I blink back the tears.
What have you done, Mase?
“Yes! I went to rehab. I did the time, and then when I came for my money, he told me no.”
“You went to rehab?” My heart breaks at Nina’s tone, the hopelessness in it.
“Yes!” She shakes her head, like Nina not getting it makes her angrier. Her arm jolts and she adjusts her hold.
I see Nina tense.
She puts her hands up as if to stop her. “I’m going to go and get my phone, okay, and then I will call Mason. Mum, please put the gun down.” Her voice is soothing now, childlike, but her mother’s face only reddens.
“Get me the money!”
A tear falls down Nina’s cheek, and I fight the urge to go to her. How fast could I make it to her if I had to? If this woman turned the gun on Nina. Mason couldn’t lose her again. Ellis couldn’t lose his mummy.
Nina’s eyes drift to me, her face devastated.I’m so sorry,she mouths.
I’d make it to her. No matter what.
I nod, letting her know it’s okay.
She looks back at her mum but mutters over her shoulder, “Joey. Go to my bag at the kitchen island and get my phone, okay?” She gives her mum a look, nodding at her as if it will make her understand. “I’m going to call Mason and get him to send me your money, Mum.”
Joey doesn’t move. He’s staring at me, at the gun, desperate. Terrified. He’s terrified. I shake my head no, telling him with my eyes that it’s okay.I’m okay.
“Joey,” Nina repeats, looking between us.
He doesn’t move, stuck in a trance as he stares at me. “Joe!” Nina snaps, but it’s a plea. A desperate plea for help. “Go to the kitchen and get my phone so that I can call Mason.”
Joey’s head twists at the grit in Nina’s tone. The pain. The fear.
“Please.”
She won’t leave me here with her. That’s why she’s asking Joey. She thinks her mum might hurt me.
“Okay.” Joey nods.
Nina breathes a sigh of relief as he walks around the sofa and toward the kitchen.
Nina turns back to her mum, and I break a little inside as she frowns at her daughter in disgust. “Mum, please put the gun down. I’ll get the money. You’re scaring us all.”
“He should have just done as I asked,” she sneers, staggering as she steps back.
“He was going to give you money to go to rehab?” Nina asks again, casting a lost glance at me.
