AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Drained.
Empty… except maybe for a few dregs.
But she’d tell Rafe about those too….
Later.
Right now she was just happy to be home. And that in itself was a miracle considering a big part of marrying Sam had been to get the hell outta Dodge.
It has been an eventful week.
But as she reached across the seat and rested her hand on Rafe’s thigh, she realised that for the first time in ever, she felt…content.
Curling his fingers around hers, he said, “Do you want me to come with you when you speak with your father?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “Please.”
“Whatever you need, beautiful,” he said, then lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles.
While Jane had looked forward to ending the road trip and relished the fact they’d no longer be stuck in the van all day, she was not looking forward to the coming confrontation with her father.
She still had trouble wrapping her head around what Rafe had told her, and it wasn’t that she didn’t believe him.
Jane simply didn’twantto believe him.
She didn’t want to think her father, a man she’d always considered a paragon of truth and a testament to what hard work and dedication could bring you in life, could be capable of such hateful actions.
She wanted to see her mum. Had to talk to her first. Because if anyone could shed a little extra light on the situation, it was her.
Were Rafe’s recollections tainted by time and anger? Or was his truth the whole truth? Had her father really orchestrated the breaking of her heart under the guise of keeping her safe? From Rafe?
A man her father had once described as the human equivalent of a beige Volvo.
Not just boring.Safeand boring.
“Can you park outside the café, please? I need to see mum. And I want to show her the van. I’ve been telling her about the bloody thing for so long that if—”
Her words choked off as Rafe rounded the corner onto Main Street.
A police vehicle was parked in front of her mother’s café, and Sergeant Scott Turner was leaning against the side of the Land Cruiser, sipping from a coffee mug and nodding along to whatever her mother was telling him. He straightened at the sight of them pulling up behind his cruiser.
Jane leapt from the van the moment Rafe put it in park and raced to her mother’s side. “Mum! What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
But from the corner of her eye she could see exactly what had happened. Turning to stare at the patisserie, Jane took in the scene before her. Four giant letters, scrawled in red spray paint stretched to cover the entire shopfront.
SLUT
A quick glance to the left and right of the café revealed none of their neighbours had received such colourful language splashed across their shop windows, meaning Straight to the Hips had been targeted.
And Jane doubted very much anyone had to balls to call Mary Melville a slut.
No. This had happened because of her.
Her voice felt like sandpaper in her throat as she stared at the graffiti. “Where’s dad?”
Her mother’s voice sounded even more raw than her own and Jane put her arm around her shoulders. “In Sydney.” At Jane’s frown, Mary added, “He’s with your brother. He won’t be home for a few days.”
Jane turned to Scott. “Do you have any idea who might have done this?”
