“For God’s sake, Will. Let me do it.”
Will’s phone vibrated in his pocket.
“You’re supposed to be in this meeting,” Jack said.
“I’ll be right down.”
Jack waved Will over when he went into the room. All the group leaders were there, gathered for the discussion about prize giving.
“Where’s Ed?” Jack asked. “His phone’s switched off.”
“No idea.”
“Well, sit down, man. We’ve wasted enough time. Justin—your turn.”
Will sat next to Jack and stretched out his legs.
“Addie was the outstanding member of my group. She—” Justin began.
“Oh, no. Forget her. Pick someone else,” Jack snapped.
Justin’s face hardened and he dropped his papers on the table.
“Hang on,” Will said. “Why should he pick someone else?”
Jack turned and patted him on the knee. “I think you should keep out of this one, Will. Conflict of interest.”
“What?” Will’s temper teetered on the point of eruption. Jack’s eyes flitted around the faces. “Justin—who else?” “Nobody else,” Will said.
Jack’s face turned through several shades of red, the veins bulging at his temples.
“Don’t you tell me what to do,” Jack barked.
“If Addie deserves the prize, give her the prize,” Will said.
“You’re taking this woman’s side over your wife?”
“Vee is a liar and a cheat. It’s a grave mistake believing anything she says.”
“Vee’s my goddaughter. She wouldn’t lie to me.” Jack reared up in his chair.
“She’s my wife and she’s lied to me. Unless you give Addie the prize she deserves and offer her a public apology, our business relationship is over.” Will didn’t wait for a response. He got up and walked out.
His head was spinning. He wanted Addie. He wanted to hold her and make things right, not for him but for her. Ed was right, he should have been taking care of her. How could he not have seen how much she needed looking after? How could he have believed Vee when he knew what she was like?
Chapter Thirty-Six
Addie turned up the radio as loud as she could stand. She didn’t want music, just noise. It was a long drive, made even longer by numerous wrong turns before she reached the motorway. With each wrong turn she remembered the drive down with Will, how happy she’d been. Every time she’d got them lost, he’d taken control and found the right way without showing an ounce of irritation. Addie wondered what the journey would have been like with Ed. Maybe they’d never have got there. She smiled.
What if she’d asked Ed to be Noah instead of Will? Would she be driving home alone if she had? A horn blared and she tensed but it wasn’t meant for her. It had all seemed so simple, once upon a time. Find someone to love her and life would be perfect. She could see it was easier to love no one, easier if no one loved her.
The pain in her chest was constant, and Addie accepted it as normal. Being humiliated by her mother was bad enough, but what Vee and Jack had done was cruel. It hurt to think people believed things about her that weren’t true. Addie had never come across anyone like Vee before. She doubted she was pregnant. If she was, Addie felt sorry for the baby. But she understood a little better why Will had behaved as he had. The woman was a manipulative witch.
Addie rolled her neck and shoulders, making a conscious effort to relax her grip on the steering wheel. She was stiff as a corpse. Her eyes ached from concentrating. It was dark and the M1 was busy with stop-start traffic that ebbed and flowed without reason. The snow had melted to slush in heavy rain and the windscreen wipers struggled. Every passing vehicle rocked the car and spat back a spray of dirty, greasy water, and Addie flinched, her body heavy with physical and mental exhaustion. Her head was full of buzzing insects, conflicting thoughts vying for her attention. All she wanted to do was collapse into bed, sleep and everything to be sorted when she woke.
She could do nothing to stop the surges of emotion that rolled from her heart. What had Will thought when he’d seen her in bed with Ed? What had gone through Ed’s mind? He worked alongside Will. They were brothers. They lived together. Addie knew she shouldn’t have let Ed get in bed with her, shouldn’t have let him kiss her. Her fault. She’d messed everything up.
The best thing for everyone would be to forget she’d ever met the Mansell brothers.
When Addie pulled up on her street, the house was dark. She doubted Lisa was asleep which meant she was out. Great, because Addie didn’t want to talk. The day had sucked everything out of her. She shouldn’t have carried on driving, but desperation to get back overwhelmed common sense. She caught sight of someone lurking in the shadows, felt a flutter of hope and stamped on it. Probably just a neighbour. Dejected, she lugged her bag through the door and up the stairs. Thought about whether she had the energy for a shower, decided not, then flicked on the light in her room.
She gasped. Was she in the wrong house?
Addie closed her eyes and then opened them. It was her room but it smelled like a chlorine-filled swimming pool and looked as though a violent storm had rushed through. She released a shaky breath. Every one of her clip-framed photographs lay smashed on the floor, glass scattered everywhere. On top of the duvet lay a heap of soggy books, together with upturned bottles of bleach and toilet cleaner. Pages had been ripped out and tossed around like confetti. Someone had hacked at her curtains and slashed her rug.
She opened her wardrobe with shaking hands. Her clothes hung in ribbons, her shoes were wet and ruined. Every Christmas present she’d bought was trashed—the wrap for her mother had been ripped, the necklaces torn apart, the wooden bowls gouged. Addie turned around. Her bedside lamp was broken and her alarm clock lay in the mess on the duvet. So did her camera. Oh no. The pain in her heart spiked. Addie pulled open her bedside drawer. Everything in there was wet and stank of chlorine. Noah’s cards had been torn, her teddy bear’s head cut off and the stuffing pulled out of his body. Everything she owned had been ruined.
On Sunday, after she and Will had left, this was what Vee had done and Lisa hadn’t stopped her. Maybe Lisa didn’t know. They were supposed to keep out of each other’s rooms. If she did know, Addie would never be able forgive her. She looked to see if there was anything she could salvage, but Vee had been very thorough. Addie wasn’t insured because she hadn’t thought she had anything worth stealing. A rampaging, jealous woman hadn’t entered her head.
The stairs creaked.
“Lisa?” she called.
“Fucking hell,” said a voice.
Not Lisa. Addie spun around to find herself facing Spiderman in a black hoody. She blinked as her brain tried to compute why there was a guy in her room wearing a mask.
I left the door open.
“You left the door open.”
She’d been so tired, she mustn’t have closed it properly.
Addie groaned. “Are you a burglar?”
“Opportunist liberator,” Spiderman corrected. “But looks like someone beat me to it.”
“Yes, so you might as well leave,” she said.
“After you give me your purse.”
If Addie had the energy to laugh, she would have. “Couldn’t you go and rob someone else?”
“That’s not very sociable.”
“My brothers are policemen,” she said in desperation.
“Your brothers aren’t here. Give me your money.”
He wasn’t going to be very pleased with three pounds sixty, Addie thought. But as she took her wallet out of her bag, something snapped. Without considering the consequences, she threw the bag at him and made a break for the door. Addie was nowhere near quick enough. He caught her arm and yanked her back. She brought her knee up into his crotch, but it was an ineffectual gesture and made matters worse because now he was pissed off. As they tussled, his fist slammed into the side of her head, sending Addie tumbling onto the broken glass. Whe
n she lifted her hands, she saw red flowers blossoming over her palms, but had no sensation of pain.
“You fucking bitch.”
He kicked her in the side and the pain took her breath away. When the foot hit her again, she wrapped her arms around his lower leg and pulled him over. While part of her brain was telling her to curl up and protect herself, the other part refused to give in. She drew strength from her anger and they rolled around on the floor with him swearing and lashing out and Addie thumping him anywhere she could.
She should have known Spiderman would win. It didn’t take long for him to pin her face down. He sat on her back, crushing her ribs so she couldn’t breathe.
“You’re hiding something. Where’s the money?”
She choked out a laugh. It wasn’t funny but it was. He dragged her up by her hair and slammed her head down on the floor. The pain ricocheted through her brain as everything lost focus. Addie could hear him talking, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. She tried to shut her eyes to block out beckoning tunnels of bright light and then lost the ability to do anything.
Lisa gave a yippee of delight when David pulled up outside the house. She climbed off the bike and removed her helmet. “One more minute with your mother and I swear I’d have slit my wrists.”
“She’d have made you clean up the mess.”
“I know. Oh look, there’s a light on. Addie must be in. I thought she wasn’t back until tomorrow.”
Lisa had discovered something she needed to tell Addie. A colleague at the language school had let something slip. Soon-to-pop Chris had boasted about doing work for Evelyne’s scientist brother, saying she’d have to be permanently pregnant to supply him with urine. It had seemed so odd, Lisa asked her to explain and now she knew the truth—Vee wasn’t pregnant. She was so desperate to keep Will she’d let him think she was having a baby because with Chris’ urine sample, she’d made sure of a positive reading on the test.
Lisa didn’t like being used. When Vee said she was pregnant, Lisa had felt bad that Addie had got involved with a guy whose wife was expecting. Vee had sobbed and wailed after Will and Addie had left. Lisa had never heard Addie mention anyone called Chloe so knew Will was lying about the coach. She let Vee stay the night and even lent her the car. Big mistakes. But the worst mistake was talking to Vee about Addie. She’d told her stuff she should have kept secret, told her how Addie had picked Will up in a gym and asked him to stay the night, how he’d knocked her over in his car and that he’d been the first guy Addie had slept with. Lisa hoped giving Addie the news about the fake pregnancy would make up for it.
“Oh, my car’s back.” Lisa walked down to it. “Fucking hell! David, come and look at this.”
Ed pulled his Boxster in behind Lisa’s car and jumped out.
“What are you doing here?” Lisa asked.
“Long story,” Ed said.
“Do you know what happened to my car?”
“Yes.”
“You’d better come in and tell me then. Ed, this is David, Addie’s brother. David—Ed. Will’s brother.”
The two men nodded at each other.
“Nice wheels.” David admired the Boxster. “What’s the acceleration?”
“Zero to sixty in six-point-two seconds.”
David whistled and Lisa stamped on his foot. “How about my car?”
David slid his arms round her waist and pressed his mouth to her neck. “Can’t that wait?”
“David, I am so not in the mood.” Lisa elbowed him in the chest. “I arrive back after having been on my best behaviour at your mother’s to find my car has been smashed up.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I am not thinking about sex.”
“But I like it when you’re pissed off.”
Lisa rolled her eyes and stormed up to the house. She stopped so abruptly, David banged into her and Ed banged into David.
“The door’s open.” Lisa walked in. “Addie?” she shouted. “Get down here. You left the door open and what’s happened to my car?” Silence.
“Addie,” Lisa yelled and when there was still no reply, she stomped upstairs.
When Ed and David heard Lisa scream, they both froze. The sight of Spiderman flying toward them, stirred them into action. David made a grab for him and they fell back into Ed. For a few moments it was a maelstrom of arms and legs, thumps and swipes, grunting and shouting until David managed to pin the guy face down with his arms behind his back while Ed sat on his legs. All three were panting. David pulled Spiderman up by his hair and wrenched the mask from his face.
“Who the hell are you?” David demanded.
And then Lisa screamed again and this time it sounded different. Ed’s eyes shot to the stairs. He fumbled in his pocket for his mobile and pressed 9-9-9.
“He’s killed Addie.” Lisa stumbled down, clutching the banister, her face white with shock. “She won’t wake up.”
Ed’s world slipped away. The man underneath him struggled. Ed wanted to crush him.
“Ambulance,” Ed said into his phone.
“Take Ed’s phone off him. You speak to them,” David ordered Lisa. “Go and get the handcuffs out of your bedside drawer. Ed, check on Addie. I can hold this bastard.”
Ed raced upstairs. The door of Addie’s room stood open. She lay on her back, blood speckling her face and her hands. He dropped down next to her.
“Addie, Addie, oh God.”
He tilted her head back and put his mouth against hers, felt a faint draught of air as Addie exhaled, and he exhaled. He didn’t dare move her. All he could do was hold her hand.
Ed wouldn’t leave Addie’s side. He went with her in the ambulance and talked to her the whole way there. It was only when the doctor in the hospital told him he was interfering with their work that Ed retreated to the corridor. He paced up and down, wearing a hole in his jacket pocket with his finger, pulling at a loose thread. He was still pacing when he saw David and Lisa coming down the corridor, followed by Addie’s mother and a tall guy with curly fair hair who looked a lot like David.
“How is she?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know,” Ed said. “They won’t let me see her.”
“You were with Addie in Lincoln,” Addie’s mother said.
Ed held out his hand. “Ed Mansell.”
His hand was feather touched and dropped.
“Where’s your brother? Why isn’t he here?”
Ed felt like she’d stabbed him. “Will doesn’t know.”
“Don’t you think you’d better tell him?”
Ed nodded.
“You can go now,” she said.
“I want to wait until Addie regains consciousness.”
“There’s no need.”
The door to the Observation Unit opened and a young woman emerged, a stethoscope round her neck. She retreated when five people stepped toward her.
“How is she?” they chorused.
“I think she’ll be fine.”
“Can we see her?” Ed just got in first.
“Are you her husband?”
“No, he’s not. I’m her mother.” She elbowed Ed out of the way and then turned to face him. “You may as well go.”
Ed backed off, but he didn’t go far. He wandered through the maze of corridors. His skin itched in dermatology, he limped through orthopaedics and his heart hurt in cardiology. When he stumbled across the hospital shop, he looked round for something he could buy Addie. Then he remembered her wrecked room. What could he buy her when she’d lost everything? He wished he’d hit the guy harder. He picked up a little silky-soft, grey teddy bear holding a card that said “I love you” and moments later thrust it to the back of the display. One at the front, just as cute, held a bunch of flowers with no message. He bought that.
When he got back to Addie’s ward, he’d expected to have to hang around and wait for her relatives to leave, but there was no one in the corridor. Ed pressed the buzzer and a nurse let him through.
“I just—” he began.
>
“I know. I remember you from earlier. Her family have all gone. Do you want to sit with her for a bit, before we transfer her to a ward? Ten minutes, no more,” the nurse said.
Ed nodded. “Is she awake?”
“Not yet.”
Ed’s heart pounded as he drew closer to Addie’s bed. She looked so fragile. There were tiny scratches all over her face. Her hands were bandaged, just the tips of her fingers poked out. He wanted to sweep her into his arms and hold her tight, never let her go. He put the little grey bear beside her in the bed, sat down on the hard plastic chair and reached for her fingers.
“Hi, sweetheart. Everything’s going to be fine. I thumped Spiderman for you. How brave am I?” Ed didn’t know what to say. “Wake up, Addie. You have to be all right. I wish I’d… Do you know how much I care about you?” He lowered his voice to a whisper, leaned close to her head. “I told myself I wouldn’t be hurt again, that’s why I flit from woman to woman, because that way no one gets hurt, only I don’t want to flit from you. I want to be with you forever. I love you.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
When Ed pulled up on the drive of the rented house in Alwoodley, he was surprised to see Will’s Lexus outside. He took a deep breath before he opened the door. He somehow wasn’t surprised to see Vee in the hall.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
She stood with a glass of wine in her hand, glaring at him. Ed had never felt more like hitting a woman in his life.
“You’re not supposed to be drinking. You’re pregnant.”
“Not anymore. I lost it.”
“That was careless.”
She sneered. “That’s just the sort of flippant, unpleasant remark I’d expect from you, Ed Mansell. Don’t you have any compassion? It was your brother’s child as well.”
“If it ever existed.”
Will appeared at the door to the kitchen. “What do you want?”
What Ed had been hoping for was a bed to save him looking for a hotel. He’d been going to keep Addie to himself but now he wanted to shock Will. “Addie’s in hospital.”
Doing the Right Thing Page 33
