Page 74 of Scars of Silk

I take a moment to remember the road my old family home is in.

“Yes, my girlfriend’s father has attacked her mum, but she’s hit him in self-defence.” Dan is saying all the words I should I have thought of. All I have in my brain is static, an endless buzzing sound. “He’s got a weak pulse. We’ve just walked in and found them. She’s injured too.”

His eyes are on me and I know he’s giving her the emergency call that will help her defence in court if it goes that far.

I kneel next to Dan, the cold flagstones of the kitchen pressing into my kneecaps and I slide my hands around him. “Thank you,” I whisper. “Thank you.”

He brushes a kiss across my hair.

I can’t stop looking at my dad. The man who has terrorised us all for years doesn’t look any kind of man at all right now.

I cry. For my mum; for Will, the brother I miss so much; for every single moment of destruction I’ve had to fight my way through.

Then across the room my mother's voice cuts through my tears. “Is this the man with the tattoos, Sienna?”

I blink up at her, trying to see her through the tears. “Yes.” My bottom lip wobbles uncontrollably.

“He seems like a very nice man.”

Epilogue

The sun is warming and while winter was hardly a winter at all, the warmth of spring lands with a heated kiss on my skin.

“I can’t believe we’ve got to fly back already. It feels like we’ve only just got here.” Sienna stretches on her sun lounger next to mine and I drink in the satin skin I love so much. Despite her pouting she still only has one tattoo inked on her canvas of perfection, and that’s the way it will stay. For as long as I get a say in the matter, which I think may well be forever.

Ibiza has been a heaven-sent gift.

A time for us to just be. Sienna and Dan. Two people wrapped up in crazy love.

“I promised Elijah I would be there for the court case. Are you sure you don’t want to come? I know Faith would be so pleased to see you there.” Sienna speaks to Elijah often, although she’s asked him not to tell anyone else where we are.

Since the police cars came that fateful Saturday, and the press were all over the story of the Richards falling apart, Sienna has wanted to live low key.

Can’t get more low key than manning the reception at Big Bad Barry’s ink shop during the day and then drinking cocktails with me every night until we fall into bed.

What a life.

Seriously what a fucking life.

I pick up my beer and tilt my head up towards the sky. You’d have loved this, Dad, I think. Stupid bugger could have had the time of his life if he’d done something like this all those years ago. But then I wouldn’t have got the life I had, and I don’t think I would change it for anything.

“Can I be honest?” I meet her gaze. “I don’t need to be there. She has her crew now, so many people that care for her, but it’s taken me a long time to put the demons from our youth to bed. She’ll understand that I don’t want to bring them back to life by hearing it all again.”

Sienna nods, her green gaze sweeping and deep. “You don’t have nightmares anymore. Nothing makes me happier.”

I lean over and kiss her mouth, lingering and sweet. “I no longer have anything to have nightmares about.”

Another kiss. Another perfect moment I never thought I’d find. “And anyway, I’ll be there for the surprise wedding.” She will be massive. I can’t even imagine what her ink will look like. I chuckle to myself, turning slightly on my sun lounger, running a hand over the gentle tiny swell of Sienna’s tummy.

Some surprises are welcome, and while I know when Faith and I do finally talk she’ll tell me this is purely a case of my FOMO, I know I’ll just laugh and know otherwise.

This was a decision made by Sienna and me. Two people who want to be a family.

“So you think she will enjoy the secret wedding idea? Elijah isn’t sure, but he’s kind of running with it.”

I squint up into the sky and remember the Faith of my youth, the girl so bright and bold and I know she’ll be that woman again once she’s received justice—I’ve seen someone else flourish under the freedom of escaping repression. She’s sitting right by my side. “I think she’ll love it and squeal a lot.”

“How do you feel knowing you are going back, but no longer own any stake in your home town?”