Page 150 of Arran's Obsession

Dad raised his grey eyebrows. “Your brother, too? I figured you’d both think I was off on a bender.”

“We were far off the mark. A revenge mission, Dad? Really?”

I heaved a sigh, and he continued.

“It was the anniversary of your ma’s death, the day I left. I had this idea, see. Nothing was right since she was taken from the world, and it burned inside me.” He tapped his chest. “I’m getting on now, and my hands shake. If I didn’t take the time to do it, I might not have had another chance, and believe me, it needed to be done. That bastard, Peters, had to die. I owed it to your mother and to you kids. Sorry about the money, though,I needed it to buy a gun, then I ran out of cash and had to take more to follow that bastard around. I’ll pay it back. There’s reward money to be had for his death. I’ll be able to claim it.”

“Don’t. Please. I’m just happy you’re alive.” I took his hand. Held it. Forgiveness was my word of the day, and happily I’d take him alive over any other result. “By the way, I’ve moved out of home now. And I have a cat.”

Brushing past his legs, Rosie chirped a greeting.

Dad reached to scratch her head with a thick finger. “Seems to me a lot has changed. On the phone earlier, Riordan yelled at me for how worried you’d been, but I wasn’t so concerned. Thought you’d got yourself a boyfriend when I saw him visit you at the flat.”

I stared at him. “When did you see that?”

“I was popping home and saw you both from along the road. Then this car sped past down the hill and hit a lamppost. It burst into flames, and I stopped to watch. Cops and fire engines were there fast, but it made a real sight. I was trying not to bump into you. You know I can’t keep secrets, I would’ve given up the whole plan and you’d have tried to stop me.”

Vaguely, I remembered hearing about a car fire a couple of streets away from ours, but it hadn’t registered as important. Not until right now when I knew Don’s car was still missing.

“What kind of car?” I said, my throat tight.

“Dark green, a man driving, far as I remember.”

“Did he get out?”

Dad shrugged, his interested gaze taking in Arran’s apartment.

God. Quickly, I took up my phone and texted Arran, asking him to check with his police contact. If that was Don’s car, and he’d perished in that fire, that would explain why we couldn’t find him.

With one mystery potentially solved, at least in part, Arran and I took Dad home. Later, I’d let him know that I owned the place, but he’d had enough surprises for now.

Chapter 46

Arran

For a decade, I’d pictured the house I was looking at now, and I’d been oddly close to the mark. A sweet three-bed semi, a garden to the front and back, in a quiet suburban location. Trees and trampolines. Normal family life.

My little sister’s home.

Parked across the road, a good distance away so we wouldn’t be noticed, we watched the house, Gen finishing her ice coffee and me just fucking frozen. In the background, one of her soundtracks played. Something soft and sweet marking the comeuppance of my life.

“There, that’s Flora. It’s them,” she suddenly said.

A small group of people ambled up the road. A mother with three girls, the older two in school uniform, and the youngesttoddling along. I stared at the tallest of the children.Addie. Even at twelve, she was the image of our mother, from the shade of her hair to the way she moved.

The toddler stumbled, and Addie stooped to pick her up, holding the smallest one’s hand while the second girl grasped her other and they swung her between them. Flora, the mother, smiled at her children.

Gen took a short inhale. “She’s happy.”

I held my breath, waiting for the pain, but none materialised. The family entered their Edinburgh house, shoes kicked off and school bags discarded.

All these years, and she’d only been one city away. Every time I went north to see my friends, I passed within minutes of her.

“I used to daydream about providing a family for that child,” I said into the minutes of silence that followed. “But she has one.”

“It doesn’t mean there’s no place for you in her life.”

Unmoving, I stared at the now-closed front door.

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