Chapter 17
Simone
I’d had headaches before. The occasional hangover when alcohol had been the only answer, and one or two migraines when I was younger and my hormones hadn’t sorted themselves out.
This had not been a headache. It had been someone cleaving at my head with an axe and a red hot poker. I had no memory of what had happened, not just of the event, but things were patchy with events just before that too. Apparently I’d talked to Seph and Payton about Jack, although I wasn’t convinced that I’d told them how big Jack’s dick was and what I did with it, which was what Seph told him.
Jack had just laughed and asked me about it later, goading me with other things I’d apparently done or said to him and then making me laugh, which had made my head ache even more.
I was still in bed, the shutters wide open to let in the light and remind me that daytime and night time were still actually things, even though I spent most of the time asleep. Which was apparently what I should’ve been doing.
“Simone, the police are here.” Jack’s mum popped her head round the door. “I can ask them to come back…”
“No, I’m awake. Can you ask them to come up?” I was able to move about, get to the bathroom, have a shower. Washing my hair had been traumatic, given the head wound that I was sporting. Jack had done it after I’d broken down in tears, too tired to manage it myself and in too much pain from my own hands. I’d hated feeling so reliant and vulnerable, but his hands had started to feel good and his words had been cushions, supporting, reassuring.
He’d dried my hair with expertise, reminding me he had a daughter he’d been pretty much a single parent to, and not for the first time since leaving hospital, did I think about him having more babies.
The police were the two detectives I’d met when I’d been in hospital, nice people, kind. They hadn’t expected me to remember anything. The knock I’d taken to the front of my head had rendered me unconscious but my attacker had come at me from behind. I hadn’t seen them even if I hadn’t lost my memory.
“How are you feeling, Simone?” The woman, a Detective Croft, asked. She was about the same age as me, pretty, with curly blonde hair and the sort of skin that didn’t need make-up.
Her partner, Detective James, was built like Jack, tall and broad, his eyes as dark as his skin.
They oozed chemistry and if they weren’t sleeping together, they were both thinking about it. Even me in my concussed state could notice it.
“Not as bad as yesterday.” It was an accurate assessment.
“We have good news. Something that might help you sleep easier.” Detective James perched on the chaise longue that Ava had found somewhere. I actually liked it, mainly because Jack and I had made a certain memory there.
“Not much helps you sleep better than a concussion.”
They both laughed, politely, humouring me. I rolled my eyes.
“We’ve made an arrest for your assault.” Detective Croft smiled. “We’re pretty sure that we have the right person. Not sure if this will come as a surprise.”
I sat up a little straighter, surprised at how I was anxious to know, feeling almost sick. If they had the right person, then Jack would feel better about leaving to go home in a few days. I wasn’t sure I wanted that and I needed to explain that to him, I just wasn’t sure how.
“Who is it?” I forced the words out.
“Trina Guilder.”
I blinked a few times as I processed the news.
“Phillip’s fiancée?”
Croft nodded. “We caught her on camera. When we processed the footage along the road we were able to make her out. She went into a shop and used a card – CCTV footage inside verified her identity. She’s been arrested and is now in police custody and bail won’t be happening.”
I expected myself to feel shaky, my usual state over the last few days, but instead a calmness threaded through me. I felt sorry for Phillip, his heart would be broken doubly; he’d lost his fiancée and his choice of woman had resulted in me getting hurt – something I knew he would never want, but this simply meant that this phase was over.
“I don’t understand why she would attack the restaurant. She wanted my ex-husband to sell his shares and invest in an art gallery for her. The more the restaurant was worth, the more he’d have to invest.” My head felt slightly better, clearer.
Croft nodded. “She thought he was still in love with you. It seems she became a little fixated on what you were doing and the fact you never called her when she asked.”
“Fixated?”
The detective smiled. “She talked extensively about your life when we took her in. She was adamant that you were trying to get him back and you wouldn’t let him sell his shares because you wanted to keep your ties with him.”
The atmosphere in the room shifted as the door opened and Jack came in. He looked over at me, his eyes checking to see how I was - how they did every time he first saw me when he came in from being away.
