His name floats from my lips like it’s being carried on wind. ‘Gregory.’
He doesn’t react, as if he’s known this moment would come, as if he’s been waiting for it.
‘You’re Elsa’s son.’
He nods once and his lips twist like he’s fighting emotion.
I move my free hand to my mouth as silent tears roll down my face. Kevin Pearson raped his daughter and she bore his child. Gregory said she was sent away for a time but he never understood why. Now I do.
‘Stuart, he doesn’t know.’
‘Bullshit!’ He turns and fiercely punches the wall, cracking the plaster further, a strangled wail escaping him as he looks at his damaged hand.
I try to stand but my legs are lifeless. ‘Stuart, you have to believe me. He doesn’t know. I know about Elsa, about your mother. I know she killed herself and I—’ I hang my head and my words are barely audible. ‘I know why. She went away, Stuart. Gregory was only a boy and he didn’t know why she left, never mind why she came back.’
He faces me, his eyes wet. I can feel his thoughts flying, as frantic as my own.
‘Think about it. If he knew and didn’t care about you, he would never have employed you and taken a chance on you. He loves Elsa. If he knew her son was out there, if he knew he had a nephew, he’d want to know you.’
His shoulders sag and his breath hitches.
‘He tried to help her, Stuart, and one day, he can tell you about her. You could have a family.Yourfamily. Gregory cares. He’s the most loving man I know. I want you to know him, to see that about him.’
He slumps onto the table in front of me as a tear rolls down his cheek. I reach out cautiously and when he doesn’t pull away, I wrap my hand around his. ‘Iwould like to get to know you, Stuart.’
He looks up to me now and I know I’ve gotten through to him.
‘I don’t know how this happened,’ he whispers. ‘I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to punish him for being the child they chose. I wanted to take from him the way they took from me.’
‘But he didn’t, Stuart. Please, believe me.’
‘I do.’ He squeezes my hand then wipes his face with his other. ‘I don’t know what to do. This wasn’t part of the plan. He was supposed to just buy the game for the price Nick wanted.’
I nod, taking a deep breath, not yet able to put all the pieces together. ‘You need to go to Gregory. You need to tell him where I am. You have to warn him about Nick and Trina. Trina has a gun. I don’t know about Nick. You have to tell him.’
‘He’ll kill me as soon as he sees me, Scarlett. There’s CCTV, the cleaner. He’ll know what I’ve done to you.’
‘Then you have to make him listen. You have to tell him everything.’
‘Isn’t this cosy!’
We snap our heads to the door to see Nick.
‘I have someone on the phone who’d like to speak to you, princess.’
I take my hand away from Stuart’s. He’s afraid.
Nick leans towards me, twirling my hair around his index finger, then he holds the phone to my ear.
‘Scarlett?’
‘Gregory?’ His voice is more than I can take. A violent sob bursts from my chest, then another and another. ‘I love you!’ I scream as Nick pulls the phone away.
‘There’s your evidence. Ten o’clock.’ He hangs up the phone then angrily takes my chin in his fingers. ‘Looks like your man’s coming to get you.’
I cast my eyes to Stuart and try in that moment to tell him to go. I don’t know whether he follows me or his own moment of enlightenment but he slips out of the room.
‘I love you! Gregory, I love you!’ Nick Henshaw mimics in a high voice before releasing my chin and bending forward to his knees, laughing from the depths of him. ‘Ah, you kill me.’
