Chapter 36
THIRTY-SIX
I swayed my hips, holding Amala upright against my chest as I patted her back, trying desperately to get her to stop crying, though it was too late for that.
My eyes were still trained on the door, wondering why he didn’t try to open it, what the hell he was playing at.
I had always hated this part, the waiting, the knowing what was coming next.
Jade pressed her hands to her face, her shoulders slumping as if she was too drained to fight any more.
It made me angry on Amala’s behalf that she wasn’t standing by my side, ready to face him head-on.
That she’d shrunk back from the danger, not even bothering to grab the axe lying in her lap, a pathetic mirror to my own past. The anger morphed to a realisation, an understanding, that it was myself I was most disgusted with.
The person I became whenever he was near.
‘Not any more,’ I breathed, the words barely a whisper.
If Jade wouldn’t fight for her daughter, I bloody would!
I would have to do it. I’d known it from the moment she arrived.
‘Jade!’ I whispered urgently, fighting to hold on to the baby, who was squirming in my arms, arching furiously.
‘Bring the axe here and take Amala, now! ’
Jade didn’t respond, but the sound of the latch being tried had me spinning back to face the door.
The metal creaked, the padlock holding firm, and I edged backward silently.
The door rattled, the latch creaking again, and then, after a few beats of silence save for Amala’s cries, my captured breath burning to escape my straining lungs, there was a sudden blast, and bright sunlight blinded me as the old door fell from its rusted hinges and crashed to the stone floor.
A cloud of sawdust erupted, making me cough, my hand covering Amala’s face to protect her.
She went utterly silent, her eyes round with surprise.
I blinked hard, focusing slowly, then gasped, shaking my head, utterly bewildered by who was standing in the place of my abusive ex.
‘Thomas!’ I cried. ‘You kicked the door down!’
My brother, dressed in heavy black boots, jeans and a khaki T-shirt, looked no less confused at finding me sequestered away out here, comforting a baby.
The last conversation we’d had had been filled with bitter accusations and a complete inability to relate to one another, but the relief at seeing his face instead of Ryan’s, the familiarity of his rosy cheeks and freckled nose, his cropped blonde hair, had me rushing forward into his arms. He hugged me tightly, then, gripping my shoulders in a way only he could without sending me into a panic, stepped back, shaking his head in wonder.
‘You had a baby?’ he asked, his eyes lighting up, reminding me of how boyish he could be, how delighted by life.
He touched Amala’s hand, and she stared at him, stunned by the sound of his voice.
I let out a shaky breath, baffled at what was happening.
Was Ryan still coming? It would be a different story now, with Thomas here.
I’d explain everything to him, be honest for once about what Ryan was like, and Thomas would stand with us against him.
I was safe now. I looked at my brother’s face and realised how deeply I had missed him, despite our differences.
Despite his inability to look deeper and see the trouble I’d been in back then.
How he could have made all the difference…
‘No.’ I smiled, shaking my head. ‘She’s not mine.’ I stepped back to reveal Jade, who rose in one swift motion to her feet, as if she had suddenly come to life. ‘This is Jade. Amala is her baby.’
The smile fell from Thomas’s face, and he stepped past me, his eyes wide, hurt. ‘You had a baby? And you didn’t think to tell me you were carrying my child?’
‘ What ?’ I gasped, looking at Amala in confusion. ‘Thomas, you know her?’
‘Of course I do! She’s my wife !’
He spun, looking at the baby in my arms again, taking her in properly now.
His expression morphed from a kind of wonder, filled with reverence – a man setting eyes on his daughter for the first time – to betrayal.
I saw the exact moment his reality shattered, his heart snapping into pieces. He set his jaw, his eyes hardening.
I knew what he was seeing. Amala was a beautiful baby.
But her hair was thick and black where his was blonde and fine.
Her dark eyes were so very unlike the piercing blue he’d inherited from our father.
And her skin, that unmistakable chocolate-brown skin, contrasted powerfully with both his and Jade’s.
He swallowed. ‘She isn’t mine,’ he whispered.
‘No.’ Jade’s voice was hard as she delivered the single word that wiped out any lasting scrap of hope.
I was too confused to speak. Was she having an affair behind Thomas’s back with Ryan? If so, things were about to get very nasty.
‘You had a baby with Ryan when you were married to my brother?’ I said, the words slow, stupid, not making any sense to me. ‘How? Why ?’
She gave a sigh, as if she didn’t have time for my questions, her face glistening with perspiration, reminding me that she was in need of a doctor to see to her bleeding.
‘Honestly, Annie,’ she muttered, fixing me with a look of absolute disdain.
‘It’s about time you stopped being such a victim and started questioning the stories presented to you. ’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
She frowned, clearly irritated. ‘I mean I’ve never even met your ex. I had no idea you’d been in an abusive relationship.’
I winced, seeing the shock on Thomas’s face at her words.
‘But your own fears, your own insecurities… your guilt ,’ she added softly, vindictively, reminding me of how much I’d divulged to her, ‘made you so easy to manipulate. You just let me into your home, barely put up a fight. You’re lucky it wasn’t someone else.’
‘But why come here at all?’ Thomas asked, folding his muscular arms.
Jade gave a dramatic sigh and lowered herself back down to sit on the bucket, fixing him with a cold stare.
‘Oh, Thomas,’ she said, her voice soft, impatient, as if she were talking to a small child who couldn’t grasp a basic problem, ‘I think you know why.’