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“Right? She should be. I knew from the very beginning that she’d—”
“Oh, just shut up you big idiot,” Millie snaps. “She isn’t sorry because she did something wrong. She’s sorry because she doesn’t think she’s good enough for us, for you… for this.” She throws her arms out wide, gesturing to the extravagance around us. “Do you even know her, Theo? Really know her. Where she came from, what her life was like before here? Why she was in therapy?”
I swallow thickly because no, I don’t know any of that.Not really.
“You’re the one who should be apologising.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong.”
A bitter laugh spills from Millie's lips.“You’re an idiot. She loves you and look what you’ve done.”
“Me? Millie, I haven’t—”
“Find her,” she demands, placing her hands on her hips while giving me the full weight of her stare. “Find her and bring her back. She belongs here with us, Theo. You know I’m right.”
The Chapel turns deadly silent as we continue to glare at each other. My friends are watching, waiting for one of us to cave or blow.
But that never happens because footsteps and voices approach before the final two of our group emerges.
Together.
Interesting.
“What’s going on?” Elliot barks after quickly assessing the situation.
“Raine has left,” Millie states at the same time Reese supplies, “Theo was going to fuck Keeley.”
“You were what?” Millie screeches in such a high-pitched voice I’m pretty sure only dogs should be able to hear it.
“I didn’t do it, clearly,” I mutter.
“Yeah, because I stopped you on your way out. Jesus, Theo. Could you fuck this up anymore?”
My teeth grind so hard I’m surprised one of them doesn’t crack as I glare at my little sister.
When I started putting everything into place to get Dad locked up for crimes he thought he’d gotten away with, I expected to be the one taking over the parenting, not the other way around.
“She might have a point, Theo,” Abi says, walking farther into the room with a folder in her hand. “You need to read this,” she says, smacking it none too gently against my chest.
“What is it?” I ask, peeling it away and finding Raine’s name printed on the sticker in the top corner.
“Her file. Transfer documents. Medical reports. Her past, it’s all there,” Elliot says.
“And you just picked these up from where, exactly?”
“The admin office, obviously,” he deadpans.
“Right? Just hand these over willy-nilly, do they?”
“Obviously not. But how we got our hands on it doesn’t matter. It’s what’s inside that does.”
“Well, go on then,” Millie encourages.
Turning my back on all of them, I take the folder to the sofa and fall back into it. Flipping to the first page, I scan through her information. Full name, date of birth, address, social worker…
“Keep going,” Abi encourages, coming to sit next to me.
The list of her previous address makes my head spin. She told me she’s been pushed around a lot, but hearing those words and seeing the list of addresses is an entirely different thing.
