‘Stop. Don’t. There’s no reason to apologise.’ He held my hair back as another awful wave took hold of me. He was telling me it was all going to be okay, but I could barely hear him over the pounding in my ears. I panted and dry-retched, clutching my sides as if they’d split open any second.
‘Breathe,’ Miles said, crouching next to me. ‘Just try to breathe.’
I drew a deep breath and concentrated on stopping my insides from coming out.
‘I’ll kill her,’ Miles said, his voice laced with anger. ‘Randolf is already there, he’s with Mother now, and an ambulance isn’t far away.’ His hand was rubbing my back but I didn’t hear another word he said. The walls were closing in around me. I felt like I was about to pass out.
‘Ow! Unhand me, you wretch!’ Jeannie’s voice pierced through the clamour outside.
‘What… has… she…’ I tried to get the words out between my laboured breaths, ‘done… to… me?’
‘I don’t know,’ Miles muttered through gritted teeth.
‘The kids…’ I managed.
‘They’re okay, they’re in the study with an officer.’
My field of vision was a pinprick. I felt my body falling, falling through what could have been forever. I was aware of a pain in my stomach– and Miles’s shouts, though I couldn’t make out what he was saying. The darkness called to me, and I willingly went into it, anything to stop the pain, to make it go away.
It was the end. I was going to die. Jeannie had won.
* * *
The room was spinning as the light crept back in. I blinked through a fog, my whole body sluggish and foreign. Someone was talking. Not Miles. Someone else.
‘Lucky… lucky she’s?—’
‘Lucky she’s not dead?’ Miles hissed.
I struggled to focus. The voices were closer now.
‘Liv!’ Miles’s face came into view, pale and desperate.
‘What’s—’ I managed.
‘Oh, thank God,’ he breathed, clutching my hand. ‘Thank God.’
Everything was bright and blurry, but I could make out another figure standing behind him. Tall, with a grim expression.
Randolf.
‘Welcome back, Mrs Weiss,’ Randolf said, but his voice didn’t hold warmth, or sound pleased to see me at all. Miles shot him a murderous look as I tried to sit up, but he gently pushed me back down.
‘Don’t move,’ he said. His eyes were red-rimmed and tired.
‘I’m fine,’ I whispered, not believing it myself.
‘You look like hell,’ Randolf said bluntly. ‘But you’ll live.’
‘The kids?’
‘They’re absolutely fine,’ Randolf said more softly. ‘DS Birch is bringing them over in an hour.’
‘I can’t believe Jeannie…’ I started to say. It felt like my tongue was wrapped in cotton.
‘Yup. She poisoned you,’ Randolf said, without any hint of satisfaction.
‘Poisoned me with what?’ I said.
