Page 6 of The Lie

“I wish you didn’t have to go to work now, sweet girl. I worry about you. You’re overdoing it.”

“I only have a few more months until I graduate; it’s onwards and upwards from there. This home loan won’t pay itself off.” I force out a smile. “Besides, you need a home to go to when you get out of this joint; we can’t have you living on the streets.”

“Oh, Poppy.” She lifts her frail hand and rests it on my cheek. “You and I both know⁠—”

I quickly draw away from her touch and steal my spine. “I’m going to miss my bus,” I say, cutting her off. I know exactly what she was about to say. That she won’t be going back home, and I can’t deal with that right now.

If I let the reality of her situation sink in, I’m likely to curl into a ball and never get up again. So I’m going to do what I always do when things get too hard. Keep moving. Because if I stop for even a second, the grief waiting beneath the surface might swallow me whole.

I blow her a kiss as I start towards the door. “I have classes in the morning, so I’ll see you around lunch time. Love you, Nanna.”

“I love you too, Poppy.”

It’s not until I’m standing in the corridor that I finally let the tears burning the backs of my eyes fall. I swipe at them angrily, frustrated by my own weakness.

I know she’s dying. I’ve known for weeks. But knowing it and accepting it are two very different things.

My feet start moving before I break into a jog. The tears are coming thick and fast now, but I ignore the stares from the people I pass. It’s a hospital. I’m sure I’m not the first person to completely lose her shit within these walls.

My chest aches as I move through the automatic doors and into the evening air. I keep running, telling myself that if I move fast enough, I can outrun the grief clawing at my heels.

But I know better. Grief doesn’t disappear just because you run from it. It waits, patient and relentless, until you’re forced to face it.

Chapter 4

Bennett

I tense the second the Wicked Witch of the West barrels into my brother’s room because, honestly, the sight of this woman makes my balls shrivel up and retreat.

The hospital kept Nolan overnight for observation, but he should be able to go home later today. That’s if he survives the tornado that’s currently heading his way.

Last night, when I arrived home, I had to bite the bullet and call his fiancée since he was still out of it from the anaesthesia. As expected, she lost her shit, but not enough to book an earlier flight out of Melbourne. She said she’d grab an Uber to the hospital when her plane landed this morning.

If it were anyone else, I would’ve picked her up from the airport, or at the very least sent a car to collect her, but this is Amanda we’re talking about. The thorn in my brother’s side. She may be a stunner, but unfortunately, that’s where her appeal ends. And the thought of spending any length of time trapped in a vehicle with her—especially when she’s pissed off—is the stuff of nightmares.

A huge smile spreads across my brother’s face the second he spots her. He’s clearly happy to see his future bride, but I’m fighting the urge to smack him in the back of the head. The idiot is completely oblivious to the death stare she’s currently levelling at him.

“I leave you alone for a few days, and this is what happens?” she squawks like a banshee, throwing her arms in the air for added emphasis. The reaction immediately gets my back up. “Are you fucking kidding me right now, Nolan? You’re thirty-one years old, when are you going to grow the fuck up?”

No hello. No, are you okay?

I grunt in frustration because this chick has a damn hide. She’s twenty-six and has never worked a day in her life. She lives in my brother’s home for free and contributes absolutely nothing. He actually pays someone to cook and clean because she claims she doesn’t know how.

“And you,” she adds, pointing a long red fingernail in my direction. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my cue to leave.

I plant my palms on the armrests and push myself to my feet. “I’ll catch you later, little brother,” I say as I stride towards the exit.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the she-devil snaps.

I don’t bother answering. Where I’m going is none of her fucking business. I’m not the one who’s about to marry this lunatic. I never signed up to be henpecked.

I can hear her tearing into Nolan as I stride down the corridor, and my stomach churns at the thought of him spending a lifetime tied to that miserable excuse for a human.

One of the nurses raises an eyebrow as I approach the desk, clearly tuned in to the chaos unfolding behind me. They can probably hear her in the next fucking ward. “Is everything okay in there?” she asks.

“You might want to call security. That woman is trouble with a capital T.”

The nurse scrambles to her feet and reaches for the phone receiver. “Is she a danger to your brother?”