Samuel
the present
“Hey, Eli,” I said into my mobile, glad that things with my brother seemed to be okay again.
“Sam, you need to get here now,” Elijah said, sounding a little uptight.
“Why and where is here?” I asked, pushing up from my sofa and walking into my bedroom.
“I’m at Maisie West’s house.”
My stomach bottomed out, landing with a thud. “Is it Frankie?” I asked, pushing my feet into a pair of trainers. “What the fuck’s happened and why are you there?”
“I was jogging,” he replied, his voice lowering. “I saw this guy pull off a drive and then ram a car on the road outside the same house. The woman came out and it wasn’t until I walked up to the door to talk to her that I realised it was Maisie and that it was her car.”
“What, he just rammed her damn car?” I grabbed my keys from a bowl on a shelf in the hallway of my apartment and let myself out, rushing over to the lift, stabbing at the button.
“Yeah. She’s pretty shaken, but won’t call the police. I don’t really want to leave her, but I’ve been out for almost two hours. Amy’s told me to stay with her and make sure she’s okay, but I don’t know what I can do. Plus, Maisie pretty much told me to go home and shut the door on me.”
“Not sure I can do anything either, and if she shut the door on you then go home,” I replied, wondering what the hell he’d called me for.
“She needs someone to check she’s okay, and that someone should be you.”
“You do remember that I told you I have a kid with her? A kid I’ve had nothing to do with.”
“Yeah,” he huffed out. “Which is why I think you’re the best person to be here.”
“Eli, it’s not right that I be there. She won’t want me to be, I don’t want to be.”
“If you don’t want to be then why the fuck are you, at this very moment, on the way here?”
My brother chuckled on the other end of the line and I truly wanted to punch him in the fucking bollocks.
“You sounded worried, but now I’ve had time to think about it, I’m pretty sure it’s the wrong thing to do.” I walked out of the lift and across the apartment block lobby. “Just get her to call the coppers.” Pushing open the exterior door, I pointed my car key and beeped my lock open, the lights of my Range Rover flashing.
“So that wasn’t your car I just heard beeping?”
I remained silent, sitting myself inside and resting my forehead on the steering wheel.
“Sam, you need to man the fuck up and get over here. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shit scared to look your kid in the eye, or too chicken to talk to the woman who told you to fuck off eight years ago, you need to do what’s right.”
“I’m not scared or fucking chicken,” I protested.
“Yeah, you are. Put this address in your sat-nav, number twel-.”
“I know where she fucking lives,” I groaned, turning the key in my ignition.
Elijah’s laugh rumbled. “Well, well, well, who would have thought it?”
“She lives a few doors from Hannah, Frankie is in the same class as Hannah’s kid, Rosie.”
“You fucking told Hannah about your child, but not me, your own brother?” he blasted. “Thanks for that Sam, I know where I fucking stand now.”
“Eli,” I growled. “I got pissed one night when I was out with her and Connor. So pissed, she insisted I stay with them, in case I choked on my own puke or some shit like that. The next morning, Hannah was going to give me a lift home and Maisie came out carrying Frankie. He was just a toddler and I froze like a damn idiot. I didn’t know what to do, run, hide, or go over and speak to her. Hannah noticed and put two and two together – even then, if you knew, it wasn’t hard to see the likeness between me and him.”
“You could have told me then, once Hannah knew.” Elijah sounded hurt, and there was I thinking we were back on track.
“I’m sorry bro. I didn’t plan on telling anyone at all, but once she knew she kept me updated from time to time.”
