Chapter 27 #2
She didn’t realise Matthieu was watching until she lifted her gaze and stumbled into his. Before she had a chance to feel self-conscious, he granted her an agreeable nod.
“That must be the healthiest way to cope with stress these four walls have witnessed.”
“Healthier than street fights, I guess,” Eris quipped, eyeing the man almost apologetically. Her spicy past surely wasn’t going to make his job easy.
“You do have a staggering record of misdemeanours for a woman your age.”
Eris would’ve almost taken it as a compliment if it hadn’t been for a particularly firm tug from Denny. She wasn’t proud of that, but it testified that she had never wimped out in front of a challenge, even when she’d been the underdog. Broken and bleeding, but never bent.
“Throwing fists used to be the only thing that made me feel alive.”
It felt like someone else’s morbid recollection. The growling animal that Eris had been bobbed its head up, sniffing the air for trouble, but Denny’s gentle movements, her reassuring scent, lulled it back to sleep.
“You’d be surprised by how many variations of that line I’ve heard.”
There was a knock at the door. The curly head of the secretary poked in.
“Sir? Mr Keane is here.”
“Thanks, Javier. Let him in.”
Micah came in. His attention lingered on Eris and Denny.
After a moment of perplexity, he waved at them, his expression softening.
He then leaned across the table to shake Matthieu’s hand for a quick introduction.
Seventeen-year-old Micah would’ve been appalled to see the prim and proper man he’d become.
“Sorry for the lateness.” Micah tugged at the front of his trousers as he sat. “What did I miss?”
“We were doing a general recap of the situation. At the moment our case is significantly weaker than our opposing party’s. The probability that the private negotiations will be fruitless are high.”
“Hold on. I haven’t got all the details, but doesn’t Denny’s ex have a whole collection of harassment complaints?”
“And Eris has several ABH charges. Besides, we can’t produce any physical evidence of our allegations, while Miss Mead can.”
Eris was sure she hadn’t used enough force to actually do any damage to Blake’s throat, but who was she to contest a doctor’s diagnosis?
“The audio clips aren’t good enough?”
“Good enough to prove that Miss Mead is a narcissist. However, in the eyes of the law psychological abuse is regarded as less serious than physical violence.” Matthieu powerlessly spreads his hands. “It’s a deplorable flaw in the system.”
“She assaulted Denny in the shop,” Eris spat. “There’s footage of that. It’s not physical enough?”
“I saw it: it’s virtually irrelevant. Denny didn’t react, didn’t fight back…”
Denny’s motions stilled. The mortified expression that appeared on her face ignited an uncontrollable rage in Eris.
“Has the fucking law never heard of freeze response?!”
“I know, Eris. I’m with you here. But a piece of evidence like that wouldn’t hold up in court.
” Matthieu looked at them one by one. “I’ll be able to evaluate the situation more accurately after the preliminary meeting with Miss Mead’s solicitor.
We are, of course, hoping to reach an agreement without getting to court, but they have the upper ground at the moment. ”
Eris sank back into the couch. That wasn’t what she’d imagine they’d be hearing. She was no saint and had nothing to say on her own behalf, but the idea that Blake might go unpunished just because Denny hadn’t been able to react hacked her off.
“That bleached bitch can’t get away with this so easily.”
She was so wired that she nearly jumped when Denny put a hand on her knee. “We’ll figure out something.”
The silence that fell afterwards was laden with dejection.
“What if she had an autism diagnosis?” Micah wondered.
Matthieu’s dark eyes darted to Eris. “She’s autistic?”
“Very likely.”
“Yes. Yes, that would help.” A speck of hope animated Matthieu’s tone. “If we had an official assessment.”
Micah already had his phone out.
“From nine months to over two years with the NHS. Four to eight weeks with a private clinic.” He sent a smirk Eris’ way. “We can rule out the NHS, eh?”
Eris wanted to smirk back, to savour a moment of sibling complicity that she had dreamed of for years, but the subject wasn’t one she was willing to joke about. Lawyer, private psychiatrist… She had no clue how well-heeled Micah was, but it was thousands of pounds they were talking about.
“It’s going to cost an arm and a leg.”
“I’ve got two of each,” said Micah and Denny in unison. They turned to each other with a quiet laugh. Something passed between them, a look of understanding that left a warm, fuzzy impression inside Eris.
“We’ll save this as a last resort if we end up in court. Our goal is to keep this dispute private.”
Micah rubbed his jaw, nodding gravely. “Do everything you can, I’ll cover all the―” A funny scowl spread across his face. He straightened up, mouth falling open as he turned to Eris. “Bleached bitch, you said?”
Without waiting for an answer, he tapped and swiped frantically on his phone, muttering ‘Hold on, hold on’ like a mantra until he came to an abrupt halt. He swiped back a couple of times. There was a cursory hesitation, then he pinched the screen to zoom in.
“Like this one?” He showed the screen to Eris and Denny.
Their jaws dropped.
Eris snatched the phone: it was Blake. White leather jacket, white jeans, white boots, the platinum bob…
Zooming back out, she saw herself and Denny in the foreground of the picture, walking hand in hand.
She remembered that day: the first day at the gym, Denny had panicked at the zebra crossing, only to dismiss it as nothing right after.
Blake had been there, after all.
“Where the fuck did you get this?” Swiping on, she found more and more photos―photos of herself and Denny in the shop, in the street, at the supermarket.
In many of them Blake’s platinum head was easy to spot in the background.
“All of these… Oh my god.” There were time stamps, too.
She shoved the phone under Denny’s nose.
Denny brought a hand to her mouth. She gawked at Micah, then at Matthieu.
“Let me see,” Matthieu said.
He went back and forth in the camera roll, pausing often to zoom in. As the seconds passed, the contraction in his forehead progressively arched higher and higher up.
“How did you come into possession of these photos?”
“They’re from the private detective I hired to find Eris.”
“A licensed detective?”
“Of course.”
“And this person is based in London?”
“Baker Street.”
Eris snorted. Denny poked her shin with a foot.
“Well.” Matthieu handed the phone back to its owner. There was a light in his expression that hadn’t been there before. “As soon as I get to speak to our witness—”
“Witness?”
“The detective. Add that on top of the photographic evidence and that translates to terrific news for us. The tables might have just turned in our favour.”
Micah let out a disbelieving little laugh.
Eris met his eyes, bright with a joy she had never seen in them before.
‘What the fuck?’ she mouthed.
He grinned, same crooked teeth as hers, same curl a little more pronounced on the left.
“Everything’s going to be okay, sis.”
A sliver of sun peeked out of the clouds outside. It cut through the glass vase on the table, casting a shimmer on the dark surface.
Eris could feel Denny’s grip on her forearm, see Micah’s smile at the periphery of her visual field, but all she could do was gape at Matthieu and follow him with her head as he gathered his stuff and rose to his feet.
“Did Mikey just save my arse?”
A web of crinkles fanned out the corners of Mattheu’s eyes as he smiled down at all three of them.
“Why, Eris, I believe he did.”