“Yes,” Sammy confirms softly. “Your dad didn’t know she existed until a month earlier.”
“Mum knew?”
“Your mother found out first, before your dad did. Mrs. M. forgave him, Abigail. He made a mistake. You forgave him, too.”
Twisting on my heel, I stalk towards Lucy, stopping dead at her feet. “Were we sisters until I hit my head? Did I like you? Did you like me? Were we in each other’s lives for two years?”
Lucy nods slowly, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Yes. We were.”
“So why the fuck did you leave me? Why didn’t you stay with me and make me remember?” I choke, fresh tears clouding my vision of the girl standing in front of me.
Lucy, my sister.
“Honestly, I didn’t think you could handle going through that hurt again. It took you a while to forgive and accept me. I only wanted to protect you. I wanted you to be happy. You didn’t remember me when I walked into that hospital room. You were scared when they told you who I was, just as you are now. I’m sorry I left you. I’ve missed you so much.” Her fingers wipe away tears that fall faster than she can brush them away.
“Every one of you are liars. Deceitful and pitiful people. Stay away from me. Stay the fuck away.” The agony that pulses through my veins is soul destroying.
Feeling as if I can’t breathe, I run into the house and barricade myself in my room. I’m completely destroyed. Everything I knew, everyone I loved and trusted has betrayed me. This must be what rock bottom feels like. I’m broken beyond repair.
***
Marcus, Sammy, and Lucy spend the best part of the night talking to me through the door, which I’ve locked to prevent them from entering. Their words are meaningless and their apologies fall on deaf ears as time ticks away.
Mosby talks for a little while. He seems just as shocked by everything as I am, so his voice offers some comfort. As their words start to fade with fatigue, I search my phone for a way out of Sydney, the Sunshine Coast my desired destination.
“I can’t do this anymore,” I mutter as my eyes search the clock that reads 1:03 a.m.
Looking on my phone, I’m quick to learn that a bus service is offered throughout the night heading into Brisbane, so I decide that I will take the 2:25 a.m. shuttle from Kempsey. Opening the door, I spy four collapsed bodies in a line asleep against the wall. Tiptoeing shoeless down the staircase, I’m startled when Grady steps out in front of me at the bottom.
“Where are you going, Miss McMillian?” he whispers with narrowed eyes before taking me by the arm and pulling me a short distance.
“Well, I was going home.”
“May I ask how you plan on getting there?”
“Bus. I’m going, Grady. You can’t stop me.” Anger begins to spew a molten red throughout my core.
“Where is this bus leaving from?”
“Kempsey,” I reply, my voice sounding confident.
“Do you know where Kempsey is?” He cocks his eyebrow.
“Nope. Have no idea, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.” I flick my arm, forcing his hand to let go of its grip.
“After what happened last night, I can’t risk that. Here, let me take you,” he offers before taking the carryon from my shoulder and putting it over his.
“Why would you help me?”
“It’s for the best.”
“Grady, did you—”
“I heard everything, Abigail.” His expression becomes worried.
“Would you promise not to tell them until morning that I’ve gone, if I let you help?”
“Done.” A fair result to a non-existent negotiation. “Let me do one better. Let me get you on a flight out of Sydney instead. I’m sure we both agree it would be safer and it would most definitely make me feel better about the situation.”
“How? Why?”
He smiles kindly. “Marcus has a private plane on standby. He has since you two flew in. You see, as much as he wants you here with him, he also doesn’t want to hurt you, so if at any time you needed to leave, it was his strict instruction that I was to make it happen. It will take me about an hour to get everything done, but I will.”
“Thank you, Grady, you’re my hero.” I place my hand on his arm, showing my appreciation.
“No. I’m just your friend.” He smiles softly before walking to the front door. “Are you coming?”
“Yes,” I say hesitantly. “You’re very sneaky, Grady,” I confirm as he closes the door with extra care.
***
Rain trickles over the windscreen as we drive down what appears to be a highway, the many lanes and bright lights leading me to that conclusion. I’m glad I chose to sit in the front passenger seat rather than the back. Grady’s company is keeping at bay a brewing panic, as my heart plummets in despair. Noticing Grady is in jeans and a T-shirt, it dawns on me that this is the first time I’ve seen him in casual clothing and it also makes me wonder why he was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs tonight. Did he always know I’d run from this? I guess he also knows me well.
The dimple in his chin is smaller than the tip of my pinkie finger, but draws my attention every time I see him smirk or smile. It’s then I realise he’s smirking.
“What’s with the look?” I ask, unsure.
“What look?” he answers, not taking his eyes from the road.
“You’re smirking.”
“Didn’t realise I was.”
“Alrighty then,” I say in song, which causes him to chuckle.
“You have a big personality, just as Marcus described.”
“So I’ve never met you before.”
“No, ma’am, you haven’t. But I do know a lot about you.”
“That’s kind of creepy, you know.”
He chuckles once more. “I guess it is, Miss McMillian. I’ve been Marcus’ sounding board for years, and since he offloaded so many memories of you, I’ve learnt a lot.”
“He talks about me?”
“Every day. I thought he’d move on from his heartbreak and the broken man I picked up from the lock-up in my taxi, but he never did. I assume talking about you, and frequently, keeps you real to him, keeps you alive.”
“Lock-up?”
The bellowing laughter that spews from his mouth makes me jolt.
“How is this funny?”
“It’s not really.”
“Then why are you laughing?”
“Because you were the reason he was there.”
Gasping in shock, my chin tips back.
“And I happened to be the person who drove the taxi that collected him the following morning. Drunk and disorderly is not a great look for an up-and-coming lawyer, but one he took on the chin.”
“This is going to be a strange question. But I’ve no idea how old Marcus is.”
“He’s twenty-nine, Abigail.”
“Okay,” I whisper. “He’s very young to have such a position in a law firm, isn’t he?”
“If you mean partner, yes, he is. But he’s exceptional at what he does. He fights for those who really need to be fought for.”
“Was he already a lawyer when I met him?”
“No, ma’am, he was still studying at the university in Brisbane. I guess it was made easier for him. His father was a partner in a law firm, so he got plenty of hands-on experience. Marcus was born to do this. His father and his grandfather were both lawyers. It’s in his blood.”
A sudden hush falls in the car as we pull down a small dirt road that leads past a high concrete building. Four large spotlights come off the building, supplying light into the distance. Spying a single plane on what must be the runway makes my heart heavy.
Why must it be this way?
“We’re here!” Grady exclaims as the rain increases its force against the car. “They won’t have arrived yet, but soon. We’ve got clearance to fly, so it shouldn’t be much longer now.”
“The pilot?” I ask quietly.
“Yes. The pilot and air controller. The pilot’s a good friend of Marcus’ and very experienced. Thirty years under his belt. You’re in safe hands.”
“Safe hands,” I repeat mechanically. “Can you tell me more about Marcus and the lock-up while we wait?”
“Sure. What do you want to know?”
“You said he was there because of me.”
“He was.” Grady shifts his body so he faces me. His posture tells me he’s incredibly tired, so do his droopy eyes. “The night he said goodbye to you at the hospital after your fall was the night he wrote himself off. And by write himself off I mean drank himself into oblivion. Marcus was found trying to fight a man three times his size. He was fearless with all the drink under his belt and still is, if he ever hits the bottle. The police apprehended him and he co-operated. Honestly he was too drunk to resist. They never put him in cuffs. They just wanted to give him somewhere to sleep it off. Long story short, Marcus urinated on the patrol car tyre, and they weren’t overly happy as you can imagine. He spent his night in the watch house and was released the next morning. They didn’t even end up charging him. That’s when we met. They called him a cab, and I was it.”
“Marcus told me some of this story when I met him on the Coast, minus said tyre incident and the extent of his intoxication. He said, ‘The love of my life forgot me, and I was nothing to her anymore. I’d be surprised if she ever remembers our time together. Sometimes something so life defining for one person is meaningless to another. I guess I was feeling hopeless and that led to my night in the clink.’ The love of his life was me.”
Grady nods his head before sighing. “He loved you, Abigail. Really loved you.”
“So it seems.” I find myself biting my thumbnail. “Where did he go after this happened? Sammy, my friend, said that he was supposed to stay invisible.”
“Well, he has bounced around a bit. He was working as an undergraduate at Sims, General, and Klein on the Coast with his dad, Peter, when you had your fall. I’ve done a lot of driving for Marcus after the day I picked him up, so he got me a job working for the company.”
“How old are you seriously?” I blurt out as he looks too youthful to even have had a licence back then.
“Thirty-five.” Grady’s brows draw together in confusion.
“What is your secret? You look twelve.”
“Twelve.” He chuckles. “I don’t know whether that’s a compliment or…I’m actually not sure how to take that.”
I giggle at his response and his now flushed cheeks.
“Can I continue?”
“Please do.” I snigger.
“When Marcus first moved to Melbourne, I went with him. He worked at the office there for a while. Then he came back to the Sunshine Coast for a few months. It was too hard for him to stay away from you like he had promised, so he moved to Sydney and tried to settle down. I moved with him. His father retired not long ago, and he was offered his share of the partnership. That’s what brought him back to the Coast. I stayed behind with my new wife.
“Congratulations on the nuptials.”
“Thank you.”
“Why are you staying in the house in Sydney if you’re married and live here?”
“I always do when Marcus is in town. It can be a twenty-four-hour job when he’s here. Let’s just say Marcus throws himself into his work, a permanent distraction, if you will.”
“Workaholic, got it.”
“This case he is working on this week was really hard on him. It’s important, Abigail, and he has to stay here and close it. I can’t have his head chasing dreams of being with you. I need him to focus and do his job.”
“It’s a horrible case.”
“It is, and this one brings back memories of Victoria’s death for him.”
“Why?”
“Because Victoria was abducted and killed, Abigail.”
“Oh my God, no!” My mouth falls open and my breath hitches in my throat.
“I’m afraid so...”
“The day my dad died,” I mutter.
“She was found the day after your dad died. Nobody realised she was missing until that morning. It’s sad really. A night on the town with friends turned into such a tragedy. Marcus was supposed to stay at the Coast that weekend, but Victoria made sure he went back to Brisbane to study. He had an important exam the following Monday. She was always looking out for him like that. She was stubborn like you, Abigail, and although Marcus tried to get her to let him stay, she wouldn’t have it. Naturally, Marcus has blamed himself ever since. The coroner was able to establish that she died the day before. That brought Marcus some peace, I guess, mainly because she only suffered a few hours and not days.”
“Oh my God. Poor Marcus. I can’t imagine.” I sit shell-shocked.
“You were the person who kept him strong, Abigail. He is a kind and giving man, our Marcus, and he needed someone to need him more than his grief, so it didn’t engulf his existence. You were his saviour, as much as I believe he was yours.”
“And then I forgot him—us. Disposed of all our memories like they were rubbish. I’m a horrible person,” I cry out, dropping my head to my lap.
“I have to make him stay in Sydney, and I will, Abigail. He must see this case out for personal closure. You can see this now, right?”
I nod slowly.
“I promise once it’s finished, I’ll return him to you, if you promise to leave him and make no contact.”