Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 160356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 802(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 802(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
I’m not derailed enough to appreciate what this must look like to the officers. “Dominic and I separated years ago. Divorce pending,” I explain. “Dec Ellis is the guy I’m seeing.”
“Dec Ellis?” Dominic blurts, his voice high-pitched.
“Are you just going to repeat everything being said?” I ask, irritated, unlocking my door. “Please, come in.” I open the way for the police officers, stepping in Dominic’s way when he tries to follow them inside. He doesn’t take the hint, swerving my static form and putting himself in the thick of things. “This really isn’t necessary,” I say.
“An unprovoked assault isn’t nothing.” PC Jones says, lowering to the couch while Hyde remains standing. “Would you mind walking us through what happened?” she asks. I sigh, not seeing the bloody point, but I lower to the chair anyway, eyeballing Dominic, who has perched himself on the arm next to me.
I start from the beginning, clarifying the date and time as Hyde makes notes, and walk them all through step by step. “I didn’t think anything of it because there were no other footprints behind me. Well, not until I looked closer.”
“What do you mean?”
“He was stepping in my prints.”
She nods slowly, thoughtfully. “And the woman who came down, she was at the window of her flat?”
“Smoking. She yelled before she came down.”
“Do you know which flat?”
“No, sorry.”
Looks of disapproval come at me from Dominic constantly.
“Okay, I think we have everything we need.” Hyde stands, and my head cranes back to look up at her as she hands me a card with her details. “If you think of anything else.”
“Thank you,” I murmur.
“Thanks,” Dominic says.
“We’ll be in touch. We’ll see ourselves out.”
They leave, and I drop the card on the coffee table, standing and getting out of my coat.
“What are you doing walking the empty streets in the dark on your own, Camryn?”
“You didn’t come here to lecture me, so why are you here, Dominic?”
“Dec Ellis?”
“Yes, Dec Ellis.” Although I’m not talking to him right now.
“Dec Ellis of DEA&M?”
I frown, my mind unravelling the abbreviation. Dec Ellis Acquisitions and Mergers. “So you know him?”
“Not personally. DEA&M just bought Cloisters.”
If I recoil anymore today, I’m going to find myself with a debilitating bout of whiplash. “He’s what?” Dec’s bought the company Dominic works for? What the hell?
“Swooped in at the eleventh hour and gazumped the firm favourite.”
“Oh.” What the fuck is he playing at? TF Shipping, and now my ex-husband’s company?
“You’re seeing him?”
I tilt my head, my jaw tight. “We’re not going there, Dominic. Why are you here?”
“Right.” He takes in air. Lots of it. I want to yell at him to spit it out, but I also don’t want to hear whatever he’s got to say. “Fuck,” he breathes, reaching for his eye, rubbing. “I work with Kiera.” He’s unable to look at me. I don’t need to ask who he’s talking about. That’s her name. Kiera. He works with her.
“You were fucking her when we were together.” The words tumble out of my mouth intuitively, and just the way Dominic keeps his eyes on my feet tells me my intuition is bang on. “You were having an affair.” I’m stating facts, not asking questions, my words robotic. As if I’m shutting down, once again protecting myself.
All I get from him is a small, ashamed nod. He deemed it necessary to come here and tell me this the day before the anniversary of our little boy’s death? He thought that would be appropriate? For what fucking purpose? To hurt me even more?
But then something comes to me.
I inhale, scared to voice what’s ping-ponging around in my head. “The work call you were on when you were picking Noah up from school that day.”
His eyes shoot up to mine, wide and worried.
“It was her, wasn’t it?”
“We were drifting, Cam.”
Oh my God, no. “So you started fucking a tart from work?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like?”
“I didn’t plan for it to happen. It just . . . did.”
“And then you got so wrapped up in it, you failed to stop our boy from running out into the road.”
“The car was supposed to stop, Camryn. It didn’t stop. She was twice over the limit, for fuck’s sake.”
“All attention on Noah,” I grate. “That’s what we agreed. Always. When we had Noah, it was all about him when we weren’t at work. It’s the very fucking reason I asked you to get him that day, because I didn’t want to be on a call when I picked him up.”
“I know, Cam. I know.” His head hangs.
“Why the fuck are you telling me this now?”
There’s a brief, uncomfortable silence. Another long inhale. “We had dinner with Graham and Mindy.”
“How cosy.” Isn’t that just lovely? My brother probably always liked this shithead more than he loved his own sister. Even if he’s a cheating bastard . . . and the reason Noah wasn’t safe.