I head to the bookstore. The girls there are like my family, and even though Rachel and I have been clashing lately I know they’ll know what to do.
I must l
ook a wreck because as soon as I walk into the store and Rachel spots me, she orders Cody to lock up and make me some coffee. I try to speak, to tell her that I’m okay, but I end up crumpling into a heap on her shoulder instead.
“What’s happened? Are you okay? Heather, tell us,” she prompts me, rubbing my back in the same soothing motion I use when Emma is crying.
“It’s all gone so horribly wrong,” I whisper, my voice hoarse from crying the whole way here. “You were all right. She was just using me.”
As I admit it out loud I collapse into more sobs. Cody and Rachel sit on either side of me, muttering soothingly until I calm down and stop hiccuping.
I tell them everything that happened during dinner and the showdown with Stefano afterwards. Rachel hisses and Cody looks vaguely murderous.
“What an absolute asshole!” She exclaims when I finish. “He’s the most lowlife piece of scum I’ve ever heard of and he should consider himself lucky that I don’t know where he lives!”
Her outrage comforts me a little, and I rest my head on her shoulder.
“She’s an asshole too for playing this whole game,” Rachel adds. I’m so sorry honey.”
“She completely blindsided me. How could I have fallen so quickly for a pretty face and pretty words?”
“To be fair, she has a really pretty face,” Cody interjects. I let out a noise that seems to be half laughter and half sob. Cody cuddles me closer.
“It’s not your fault,” they both insist at the same time, and I’m touched at how well they know me.
“I’m supposed to be cleverer than this though. I’m a mother, I let her into Emma’s life too. How long would this have carried on?”
Neither of them speaks and I continue my rant, now more angry than upset. “How long would I have been blind to everything she was doing just because I wanted so desperately for it to be true?”
Rachel opens her mouth to respond when she’s interrupted by the tinkling of the bell as the door opens.
“We’re closed, sorry!” She calls through to the front, to no answer.
She frowns and gets up to see who’s there, when suddenly Apollo and Daniella appear in the doorway. They’re wearing black suits and dark glasses, and I want to laugh at how dramatic they look.
Before I can tell them to leave me alone they grab me, one on each side, and propel me out of the bookstore in a seemingly well practiced routine.
I hear Cody shout my name as they bundle me into the back of a black car with tinted windows and we drive away. I’m scared now. Was Rafaela angry that I left?
I swallow and think about Emma. I can’t let anything happen to me.
I raise my voice, trying to sound more angry than scared, and address them. “You can let me out now!”
Neither of them responds, though Apollo looks at me in the rear view mirror.
I try again. “This isn’t funny! I don’t know what you think you’re playing at but the games have ended, remember?”
“It’s not a game anymore,” Daniella says from the front seat, and I feel a swell of panic overtake me.
“Look, please let me out. Please, I have a little girl, I have to get back to my little girl.” I start pleading with them instead, suddenly afraid.
Daniella swings round in her seat and whips her glasses off, looking mildly horrified. “Oh, god, we’re not going to dump you in the river! Do you think we’re going to hurt you?”
Apollo laughs. “Why do you sound so confused, Dani? We basically kidnapped the girl.”
Now I’m the one who’s confused. “If you’re not going to hurt me then what are you doing?”
“We’re-oh you’ll see. Look, we’re here.”