Page 149 of Take Me Away

‘Can’t what?’

‘Face them. Face everyone who’s seen⁠—’

‘Isla, you’ll never have to face anyone alone again. I’ll always be with you. If you tell me we’re going to London, we go to London. New York, then we go to New York.’ Using my thumb, I swipe at the trails of tears across her cheeks. I wish I could erase what happened to her just as easily, but I can’t. But I can do it the hard way, the long way, with her. Just as she’s shown me it’s okay to love again after loss, I’ll teach her that she doesn’t need to hide.

She’s quiet for a long moment, her arms clinging onto me like I’m the life raft keeping her buoyant as the current wants to pull her under. Like the rope that Peter threw to me only days ago that I held onto like my fucking life depended on it, because I knew I had to see Maisie again, see Isla again.

‘Maisie brought Mr Snuggles. She thought you might need him.’

‘When Piper called, she was the first person I thought of. I’d never want to hurt her, Kit, she’s an amazing kid.’

‘She’s your kid too, if you want her to be.’

The tears come again. But different this time. Softer.

‘I want to come home,’ she whispers. ‘I’m just so scared.’

I dig down deep into the parts of me that hurt, that still hurt, because only honest truth is right in this moment. ‘After Jess died, I couldn’t face anyone. I didn’t go to the pub, the shop, anywhere. I was driving thirty miles out just to go to the supermarket where no one would know me.’

A crease lines her face with a frown. ‘Why?’

‘Because I couldn’t bear the thought of people looking at me like they knew I lost everything. They knew that I’d sat there that day and when I’d walked out of the hospice I’d lived through my very lowest moment.’

‘Kit, I wish…’

I gently place my finger on her lips. ‘Let me finish. I had all this anger inside. In so many ways I hated Jess for leaving me. How could she leave me with a kid I had no idea how to look after? She was supposed to love me, but she couldn’t have, could she? She left me. Left her daughter.’

‘What changed?’

‘Sea Salt Bay happened. Dot dropped the newspaper at my door every day with a KitKat for me and a bag of sweets for Maisie. Nina left glass containers full of meals on the doorstep, with detailed instructions on how to warm them up. Tom and Jude drove me to a pub three towns over so I could have a beer without feeling it was being poured with sympathy.’

Isla smiles. It’s small, not the blinding brilliance that emits from deep within her, but it’s a small curve of a start, and I’ll take it.

‘Pack a bag, Isla.’ I glance around at the empty shell of her London house and I want to give her everything she’s never had. ‘Let’s go home.’

She nods against my chest.

And this time, when she promises to come with me, I believe her.

Because this time, she’s not running and I’m not staying.

This time, we are together.

Epilogue

KIT

It’s six months since the storm. Six months since Peter died and Isla ran away.

Halloween.

Christmas.

Six months since Isla officially accused Marcus Going to Die in Prison of grooming, sexual assault and coercion.

Four months since three other women also came forward.

Now it’s spring tides and new starts.