“I’ll make a statement,” Liam offered quietly when Ellie put down the phone. “I’ll tell them what happened and hopefully it won’t be too bad.”
Josh muttered his agreement, while Ellie replied, “Thank you. I have an investigator lined up and I’ll call them in the morning. Waiting for a face-to-face meeting doesn’t make sense now. Maybe they can find something that helps. And if not… then yes. It might come to that. But I think it would be helpful to speak to a lawyer first.”
“Okay.” Liam dragged his hand down his face tiredly. “Whatever you need.”
Vic was utterly silent throughout, and she didn’t say anything while Ellie bustled around making up the spare bedrooms for her and Liam—by some unspoken agreement, it seemed thateveryone was staying—she simply disappeared into her room and closed the door.
Ellie stared at the door uncertainly before finally giving up and going downstairs to warm up the pie.
It was too late for dinner, but no one had eaten. Everyone was exhausted and pale. And no one looked like they could sleep. It was hard to wrap her head around how much had happened in the few hours since she’d opened the dashcam video. And, in the end, she wanted everyone taken care of, even if it was just by eating something warm.
But damn, dinner was painful.
Victoria emerged from her room looking rumpled and red-eyed, sat at the end of the table as far away from everyone as she could get, and silently pushed her food around her plate. Her phone was conspicuously absent, and Ellie could only imagine Warren had been blowing it up for hours. Liam sat between Vic and Ellie, devouring the food as if he hadn’t seen a meal in days. While Josh sat on Ellie’s other side, with his hands linked behind his head and a vicious glare trained on Liam.
“So, Liam, Josh mentioned you trained as a sports physio,” Ellie said after a particularly torturous few minutes of listening to cutlery scrape along the porcelain. “Did you enjoy it?”
Liam finished chewing and put down his fork. “I did. I was really happy at uni.” He tilted his head to the side, smiling softly, as he remembered.
Josh grunted. “Of course you were happy. I was paying your fees while you were playing football and drinking beer.”
Ellie kept her focus on Liam. “Do you think you might go back to it now? Or do you like being a stock trader?” she asked.
“I like?—”
“Sitting around in your pajamas with your dick in your hands,” Josh grumbled.
Ellie glared at him and then turned back to Liam. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“I liked the idea of making lots of money,” Liam admitted. “My friends who went into management were making much bigger salaries than I could earn.” He looked away. “I just wanted it to be easy. Easier, anyway. And”—he scraped his hand through his hair in a gesture that looked just like Josh—“I thought if I could make enough, I could help my mum more, you know? Maybe even pay my brother back. I thought I could go back to being a physio later.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “I also wanted a BMW.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle, and then when Josh turned his brooding glare on her, she snorted and had to look away, swallowing the urge to laugh at him.
“Josh said you loved that car,” she said sympathetically. Selling it was obviously a big step for Liam. And wanting to pay Josh back meant something too. Maybe he really would turn things around.
“Hmm.” Liam put down his knife and fork and leaned back, watching her. There was confusion in his gaze, but also intelligence as he eyed the chair beside her. “How exactly did you meet Josh?” he asked. “You said you met while cycling, but he’s been away for a long time. And he’s never said anything about you. In fact, the first time he went cycling after he came back to stay with mum was when…” He swallowed the rest of the sentence, but they all knew what he meant.
Ellie glanced at Josh uncertainly. How much should she try to explain? Liam looked even more suspicious, while Josh was back to looking a little stabby.
And then Vic looked up and made it worse. “Who even is Josh?”
“My brother,” Liam replied. But Victoria didn’t let it go. She pushed her plate away and focused directly on Ellie.
“No, who is Josh toyou?”
God. There was no way she would deny him, especially after how vulnerable he’d looked, how bereft, when he’d said they had no future. Josh needed to know that she saw him. But what was she going to say? He’s my lover? He’s haunting me? I’m haunting him?
She looked across at Josh and told the truth. “We’re together.”
“Since when?” Vic demanded, at the same time as Liam frowned and said, “You haven’t visited him in the hospital even once.”
“I was at the hospital today,” Ellie argued weakly, but Liam wasn’t listening. “It’s been weeks,” he muttered, “you haven’t visited him at all.”
“Hey,” Victoria turned on him, high streaks of color burning on her pale cheeks. “She’s hardly left her house. She was in the same accident. An accidentyouhelped cause.”
“I still think—” Liam started.
“That’s not important now.” Vic cut him off. Liam responded with a mocking laugh, and in seconds, they were sniping viciously at each other across the table. Both blaming the other for not stopping Warren, both claiming the other should have done more, seen more, cared more.
