Page 80 of Corrupt

I didn’t answer.

Couldn’t.

So I nodded. A sharp, pathetic jerk of my chin. Because anything else would’ve broken me open in front of Keeley and her baby.

He understood.

Of course, he would.

That was the worst fucking part.

Cause he walked out. No scene. No question. Just gone.

And the flat felt instantly colder, emptied, as if he’d taken the last warm thing in it with him.

“Who the fuck was that?” Keeley settled Maisie onto the sofa and handed her a rattling chew toy.

The toy shook. Maisie gurgled. And I saw what she was sitting on.

Foil.

Crystal dust.

A glittering smear of the life I dragged everyone into.

I lunged forward, sweeping it into my palm, heart punching hard against my ribs. The truth hit like a slap. Clean. Merciless. Keeley was right. I was a fucking lowlife. And Tristan had just seen it. All of it.

Keeley plopped down beside Maisie, rattling the toy with her. “Rich?”

“Hm?” I crossed the room, dumped the remnants of the best night and day of my life in the bin, scrubbed my hands, then came back with an antiseptic wipe. I cleaned Maisie’s hands, her toy, and wiped the sofa.

“Who was the bloke?” Keeley asked.

“Oh. My… legal adviser.”

Keeley snorted. “Legal advice? What was it—don’t do it?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.” I kept cleaning, anything to avoid looking at the door Tristan had walked out of.

“Please look after her tonight.” Keeley fluttered her lashes, as if that was going to work on me.

“I’ll watch her, sure. But not so you can go out with Toby.”

“Who can I go out with then?”

“No one.”

Keeley tutted. “What about him?” She jerked her chin towards the door. “He was cute.”

“Way too old for you.”

She rolled her eyes and sank deeper into the sofa while I cleaned up the wreckage of the flat. Condom wrappers, lube packets, Frosties on the floor, two empty glasses knocked over near the balcony.

Then her voice floated over, small, quiet. “Mum’s wasted again.”

I stripped the bed, shoved everything into a pile. “I’ll go see her later.”

Keeley played with Maisie’s tiny hand for a while. Then, “Is Darren gonna be inside for a long time?”