“What do you want, Sean?”
“That’s not a very polite way to greet your brother, Chaz. Especially when I haven’t seen you in months.”
“I’m sorry — how are you? Fine weather we’ve been having. I hope you enjoyed your ferry ride over to the island. Now, what are you doing here? We had an agreement.”
His grin widened. “That’s much better. And yes, I’m enjoying the weather. There’s no place like Coral Island. I see you moved. When I broke into the flat, there was no one there. Not even that ugly cat you liked to fawn over. Where do you live now, sis? A brother should know where his sister stays, don’t you think? I thought I might follow you home, but instead you came here. Seems like you never stop working. That’s an affliction I don’t share.”
“I’m going to ask you one more time, and then you need to leave. I paid you to stay away from Coral Island. So, why did you come back? What do you want?”
“You know what I want, sis.”
“But I already gave you money.”
“I don’t want your money. I want the jewellery. I know you have it. I’ve searched the house—I’ve asked around at the bank in Newcastle. No one knows anything about any jewellery. Not the accountant, or the solicitor, none of Mum’s friends. So, the only logical explanation is that you have it. I’ll admit, you did a good impression of a clueless person the last time I was here. You even had me convinced. But now I want my jewellery. And I want it now.” His smile disappeared, and his face turned thunderous. “Hand it over.”
“Everything okay here?” Aidan asked, stepping in between Charmaine and Sean.
Sean’s smile reappeared as quickly as it had gone. “All good, it’s a family reunion. Right, sis?”
Charmaine didn’t want Aidan to get in the middle. This was her fight and hers alone. No one else should be hurt because of her family or the drama that’d surrounded them for so many years, she couldn’t remember how it felt to live without it. “We’re okay. Thanks, Aidan. Sean is leaving.”
“I think I’ll stay until you give me what I came here for.” He stepped closer, his looming presence menacing.
The staff were packing up the restaurant and dance floor around her. Guests were being encouraged to find their things and leave. Charmaine couldn’t move. She was frozen in place. If she moved, Sean might do something they’d both regret. All the people left in the room were her friends. She couldn’t stand for any more of them to be harmed by her brother.
“It’s at the bank,” she said. “I can’t get it now—the bank’s closed.”
“You brought it here? I should’ve known. I tried asking at the bank in town, but they wouldn’t cooperate. I guess they like you better than they do me. I guess we can head home for a good night’s sleep then, and we’ll go to the bank together in the morning.”
“I think you should go,” Aidan said, taking another step towards Sean. Evie’s boyfriend, David, came into view, a frown on his face. He didn’t understand what was happening, but seemed ready to intervene if necessary. Charmaine didn’t want anyone to get hurt. Her brother was so unpredictable. All of this was her fault, she shouldn’t have come.
Sean’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a bit overconfident there, Grandpa.”
Charmaine pressed a hand to her mouth. She wanted to scream, to shout, to say something, anything to make it stop.
Aidan shook his head and laughed. “Why don’t you leave your sister alone, Sean? We can discuss it more tomorrow.”
Sean lunged, his fist aiming directly at Aidan’s nose. Aidan caught his hand firmly, twisted it up until it was behind Sean’s back, and within moments had Sean hopping on tiptoe, yelping with pain. David helped Aiden to hold Sean still.
Charmaine strode around the two of them to stand directly in Sean’s line of sight. “I guess you didn’t remember that Aidan was a professional football player for years. Not very bright to try punching a footballer, is it, Sean?”
Aidan offered her a wink, prodded Sean in the direction of the bar. Just then, the police wandered into the restaurant. They saw Aidan with Sean and hurried to intervene, soon placing Sean under arrest. They left with him shouting for Charmaine to help bail him out. She ignored him and went to sit with her friends. They’d ordered her a drink, and they all sat in a circle outside on the deck with the sounds of the ocean in the distance and mused over the events of the evening.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Bea said. “I sent Aidan over to help you, but the rest of us kept our distance. We weren’t sure what to do.”
“You did the right thing,” Charmaine replied. “I don’t want any of you to get hurt because of me. You’ve been through enough. The police have him now, and I’m sure they’ll be able to determine that he was the arsonist who burned down your café and bookshop. I’m so sorry about all of it. I feel terrible.”
“Never mind,” Bea said. “We both got insurance payouts and have moved on to other adventures. The main thing is, you’re safe. We’re all safe.”
“I’ll drink to that,” David said, raising his glass high. He clinked his drink against Evie’s, and the rest of the group followed suit. They drank together, and Charmaine felt the weight of fear and doubt, of loss and regret, lift from her shoulders. Sean was finally locked away—Betsy too. Perhaps now they could all get back to some semblance of a normal life together on Coral Island.
Twenty-One
Two months later,Charmaine was working in the florist shop on her own. She’d hired three high school students to help her out on afternoons and weekends. But most of the time, she was in the shop alone. It was Betsy’s business, but with Betsy in prison, she wasn’t sure what to do with it. Should she keep managing it until told otherwise? Surely Betsy would reach out to her at some stage to give her some direction. She couldn’t simply abandon it. Besides, she’d never get paid that way. Betsy must have set up the payroll to continue automatically, so she received a paycheck every two weeks. If she stopped working, she couldn’t keep collecting that.
So, she continued working, serving customers, and delivering flowers to weddings and events all over the island. There was a sadness to her days, though, thinking about her boss in prison, the murderer who’d gotten away with it for fifty years but was also the only mother figure she had left in this world.
It was confusing, concurrently loving and despising someone who’d had such an impact on her life in so many ways.
