“I’m not sure what I had in mind exactly, but that sounds pretty fucking marvellous, Livy.” He grins.
The real Mason Harding has clearly recovered fully from his earlier nervousness as he gets out of bed and pulls me out too, throwing me over his shoulder to carry me to the shower.
Before calling the police, I call Jimmy to check who I should speak to. He seems pleased that I’m going to them rather than waiting for them to come to me. I ask him a few questions and explain that Mase and I have discussed everything. When I bring up the subject of my brother, Scott, Jimmy simply sighs.
“Olivia, there’s no trace of him at the moment, but I’ll keep looking into it.”
“Thank you.” I am unsure whether I want him found or not, just in case he brings his own can of worms with him.
Once I hang up from speaking to Jimmy, I immediately dial the number I now have for the police. I know that if I don’t make the call now I may just chicken out and bury my head in the sand again, but that would be wrong, especially if I want Mason to see me as being strong enough to handle things, of truly being his equal.
Mona enters the flat behind me and immediately freezes in front of me when she hears me say Conrad Mathers and Raymond’s names. So, Mona watches the news and knows or at least suspects what my connection to them is.
I smile at her and point to the coffee machine, desperate to give the poor woman a focus that isn’t me, them, or the abuse she suspects I was victim to. She looks glad to be making coffee as I arrange for the police to come and visit that afternoon meaning there is no going back now. I have committed to making a statement and suddenly I feel sick from the pit of my stomach to the very tips of my hair.
Chapter 53
Mason
The meeting I almost missed is over. I sit back in my chair, my new chair in my new office that I want to be working from starting now but am prevented from doing so because the rest of the floor is unfinished. It still has people working on it meaning it is not suitable to receive visitors. I know this because Arianna has told me at least six times this morning.
I feel all out of kilter today, possibly because I started it running late, very late. I roughly rub my hands through my hair as I try to remember a time when I have ever overslept and come back with never as my response. Although, I have never woken to find the woman I love in a state of terror after being badly hurt by me, like I had the previous night.
Things are good now, we’re back on course, Olivia and I, not that I am no longer worried about her. In fact, now she has decided she can handle everything that can be discovered about the doctor and her stepfather my worry has increased.
She drops me a text as I consider if I should be totally honest about the lengths I have gone to in order to keep her safe, including putting a tracker on her phone and investigating Nigel, her father.
Before I get a reply, or my ridiculous grin spreads any further there’s a knock on the door and unsurprisingly when I look up, I find Arianna filling the doorway.
“Problem?” I replace the paperweight on my desk, the one I hadn’t realised I’d even picked up.
“No, unless you’ve moved back in here. You?” She steps over the threshold.
“What?” I snap, not wanting this conversation.
“Do you have a problem?” she asks as she begins to move around my office, taking it all in before she sits down opposite me. “I like it, the office. It’s very you and very Olivia,” she adds and I’m unsure whether she has just made a barbed dig at my girl.
“I don’t have a fucking problem,” I snap again making my ex-wife raise her eyebrows at me.
“Mason Harding, how long have we known each other? Too long to lie to each other that’s for sure and I have never known you to need to be woken up at ten in the morning to come into work,” she states, and I can’t disagree with what she’s saying. “And these mood swings, what are they about? If you were a woman I’d think it was PMT or that you were knocked up.”
I laugh at her words despite my own confused state of mind. “No PMT, nor babies and I really did oversleep, it was a long night.” Seeing Arianna’s face, I shake my head. “No, not like that, there are things going on, about to kick off…shit, I can’t tell you, but I had stuff on my mind, me and Olivia, we both did and it was after six when we fell asleep and I had no alarm on, no more than that.”
“Mase, you can talk to me, tell me anything. You know you can trust me.” She’s wearing a sad expression at my refusal to discuss my problems with her because I have always talked to her, but this is not my problem it’s Olivia’s so it’s not my place to discuss it.
“I know,” I reply with sincerity because I do believe her words, I have no reason to disbelieve them. She is my friend first and foremost. “Arianna, I appreciate the offer, but I am fine. I need to go and check some stuff out with Nicola and then I’m going home for a while, personal stuff.”
“Mason,” Arianna calls as I pass her on my way out.
Turning, I see her torn expression as she deliberates whether to speak. “Olivia, is she pregnant? I wouldn’t mind, well, not much and you seem really happy with her, she makes you happy like I didn’t, couldn’t…”
