‘Whatever it is, Amanda, don’t. Please.’
‘No, I’m going to because if I don’t, I’m not sure anyone else will.’ She takes a deep breath and straightens her back. ‘Gregory is bad news, Scarlett.’
‘Amanda, I said don’t.’
‘No. I was never his biggest fan, you know that. He’s miserable and arrogant but I could’ve gotten past that for you. Now, things are different. He’s killed a man and?—’
‘Amanda, stop it.’ My tone is low and surprisingly ominous.
‘No!’ She’s standing now. ‘You shouldn’t be with someone like him. You’re nice, you’re perfect. You’re the person everyonelooks to when they need to know what’s right and wrong. He’s no good for you.’
I rise to confront her, matching her height in my heels. ‘That’s enough.’ The venom in my voice is so unfamiliar, there could be a third person in the room.
‘For Christ’s sake, Scarlett, he’s a murderer!’
My nostrils flare and my eyes feel like they’re going to explode. My lungs stretch with each deep draw of breath. ‘Get out before I say something I’ll regret.’
She stares at me for two seconds more then turns on the pointed toes of her shoes and makes to leave the room.
‘What would you have done?’ I call after her. ‘If you were him, in that room and that sick bastard was going to killyou, thenme, what would you have done?’
She’s thinking, turning my words through her mind. I know because she’s motionless. I don’t break the silence; I simply watch her until she leans her back against the door, facing me with her eyes closed. ‘I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.’
My anger dissipates instantly as I move towards her, taking her hands in mine. ‘He did what he had to do to protect himself and me.’
She slowly opens her eyes. ‘But he put you in that situation in the first place and he still killed a man.’
‘In self-defence.’
‘It doesn’t matter. How can you stay with him after that?’
‘Because he did the right thing in the circumstances and one night doesn’t define a person.’God,I hope it doesn’t.
‘He killed a man, Scarlett.’
‘Amanda, I won’t leave him over this and if you and I are going to be able to get past this, you need to never ask me to leave him again. I don’t want to lose you either.’
‘Please tell me this isn’t about your dad.’
My heart nearly stops beating.Does she know?
‘It’s still so recent. I don’t want you to think you need Gregory because you don’t. You have me and you’ve got Sandy.’
I exhale slowly. ‘I do need him, Amanda, but not because I feel alone.’
‘But how, Scarlett? How? Why?’
‘Because I love him. I’m in love with him.’
‘Holy shit,’ she whispers. ‘Come here.’ She pulls me into her body and gives me an Amanda bear hug. ‘And he loves you?’
A light tap on the door breaks our hold and saves me from having to answer the question I wish I knew the answer to, the question I keep begging my subconscious not to ask.
‘Come in,’ I say.
A young boy in an ill-fitting suit and too-skinny tie, but with quite a handsome face, is looking at us nervously. ‘Erm, I’m looking for Scarlett.’
‘Yes, that’s me. And you are?’
