Page 59 of Scars of Silk

Barry gave me some options and I’ve been mulling them over. I should have reached out weeks ago, months possibly.

I’m not sure which offer to take him up on, but in my veins is a rush of blood I haven’t felt for a fair while, and I’m eager for it. Even in the ring, desperate for an end, I never felt that rush.

It’s her. The woman with the skin of silk. She’s woken me up in ways I never anticipated.

I knock on Abi’s door and then wait for the slap of her feet against the laminate floor on the other side. With the fall of her footsteps, I try to school my face into one of sheepish apology but I can’t quite pull it off, so instead I hold my hands up in an act of surrender.

“What do you want?” She leans against the door frame and a broad smile spreads itself across my face. “Oh, smiling now are you?”

I hold my hands up higher. “I’m sorry. I’ve been an arsehole. I can admit it, and I’m sorry.”

“Sorry you nearly died twice? Or sorry you failed?”

The whispered sound of my dark thoughts from earlier in the study threatens to steal back in, but I lock it down. I’m going to fight those whispered words if it’s the last thing I do.

“Sorry I’m an idiot. And I’m sorry I caused you so much grief.”

“You said that to me two weeks ago. Why should I believe you?”

“Because we are best friends and you have to.” I attempt a cheeky smile.

“And you’ve given up the fighting?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“No more pills?”

“That was once.” It was more.

“Still.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

She pulls me into a tight hug on the doorstep. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Feed me?” I ask optimistically.

Pushing me back, she rolls her eyes right in front of my face. “I’ll see what I can find. Come on, Charlotte has been asking after you. I couldn’t tell her Uncle Dan was a prick.”

I step up behind her into the warmth of their family home. Adam, her husband, is there with Roger on his knee. Roger is much bigger than I remember him, but then I can’t even remember the last time I saw him. I lean down and hold my hand out to shake Adam’s. “Alright, mate?” I ask.

“Yeah. You?”

“Doing good, better.”

Abi’s head spins around at my statement and I can sense her scrutiny. Her and Faith have always been as subtle as sledgehammers. “Did Sienna get what she needed, you know?”

I blush, my neck burning until I understand what she’s talking about. “About Faith?” I shake my head, noticing her eyes narrowing further. “No. She’s gone back to London, I think. She said she doesn’t think she will get the evidence they need.”

“That’s nonsense.” Abi bashes the teaspoon harder against a mug before she hands me a well stirred cup of coffee. “Faith will be devastated.”

“I know.” Hell do I know. “I wish there was something we could do.”

“Aiden’s a tricky bastard. It’s how he got her to stay quiet all those years.” Adam chips in, bouncing Roger on his knee and making him squeal. The sound of his laughter shoots straight to some place in my chest.

“I’d kill him outright if it didn’t mean I’d go to jail instead of him.” I mean this, but the urgency behind the words is less that it would have been before. I can sense the ebb to my anger. “Anyway, I’m here, firstly to apologise for being an arsehole these last few months.”

Abi nods sagely and I kick my toe out to jab her in the shin.