Page 24 of The Hand that Frays

Her hands shake on the bar as she steps forward and eyes Neo.

“I don’t know what role your mother had in your abuse, Cecily, but I bet your father was at the helm, steering the ship.”

“What the fuck does it matter now? She’s free, and he’s…” Cecily swallows.

“He’s what?” Neo asks her, prodding.

He’s so close that it’s making my stomach giddy.

“Tell me.”

“Why?” Cecily says, but I know he’s got her. Tears are streaming down her cheeks.

When someone gets close to a truth burning a hole in your chest, it’s easy to let go of it—to let that other person take on the burden of the thing you’ve been withholding.

Neo leans over the bar. “Because I’m a man who makes men like him go away, Cecily.”

Cecily looks at me, her eyes full of tears and her chest rising and falling at the idea of a world where her father isn’t a part of it.

I give her a slight nod.

“I can’t talk about it here,” she answers, never droppingmy eyes.

“Then, we can meet you somewhere,” Neo tells her, and she turns back to face him.

He writes on a coaster and slides it over to her. “Get in touch when you’re off work. We’ll meet you.”

She sniffles and grabs the coaster.

Neo grabs her wrist, squeezing. “People like your parents shouldn’t have children. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through.”

“I’m not alone, though. I see it in you, too. The way I feel… You’re like me,” she says, tugging away from Neo and heading behind the bar.

Neo walks back over to me, tossing his arm over my shoulder. “Let’s get some lunch, stupid girl. I have a feeling tonight is going to be a difficult one.”

My heart thrums at how he’d been with Cecily and let her see him.

Not in jealousy but in awe.

Sometimes, Neo opens up and gives rare glimpses of the man he could’ve been without what his mother and the world did to him.

They failed him.

But I won’t.

After lunch,Neo and I get a text from Cecily to meet her at a park after dark.

Battersea Park.

“She said to meet her by the fountain,” Neo says.

He’s been a bit off since our encounter in the pub earlier in the day, and I don’t blame him.

If I’m honest, I’m a bit off myself.

It’s as if bits of the me before him are creeping back in. Like I’m awakening from the psychosis that my life has become over the last couple of years.

We don’t have to wait long before Cecily emerges from a dark corner of the walk before us. The sound of the fountain behind us lulls me into complacency as she approaches.

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