Page 2 of Kali

Chapter One

One Year Later

Kali

Standing on the cliff edge that cuts across Lora’s property, the cool breeze washing over my face as I close my eyes and tilt back my head, I take a deep and cleansing breath. A morning ritual that I have done every day for a year. The sea churns beneath me, the papers I received this morning flutter violently in my hand. I roll my head, stretching out every kink in my neck, something I couldn’t do when I first arrived back on the island. One large inhale fills me with the salt air that has healed me.

That continues to heal me every day.

Rugged Island has never felt like this before. Growing up here, it felt more like an open prison. Trapped but for the ferry that goes to the mainland twice a day, except on Sundays. Now it feels like a haven. The place where I am safest in the whole world. I’m surrounded by friends, and I have my mother here too. People who only want the best for me.

When I first arrived here, Lora provided me with a room, rent-free, no questions asked. She fed and clothed me. Helped me to get better every day. She sat with me at night when the nightmares came, and never left my side. We had always been close growing up, and the guilt I felt for letting that slip away in the ten years I was on the mainland, still eats at me.

Now I carry the scars of years of abuse, but I'm so grateful I escaped.

I've kept a close eye on my ex-husband. As close as I can anyway. After reporting me missing he played the part of a worried husband until I threatened to take him to court. At last, he gave me the divorce I demanded. That's what I'm clutching in my hands now while the salt air tangles my hair and blows away my past.

It's truly over.

I'm finally free.

Free to start my life over again here on the island, away from the hustle and bustle of the mainland. Here where the days are slower and there are no expectations. I've even started painting again. Something I was unable to do when married to Gary. He hated finding me with paint smeared across my fingers and paintbrushes holding up my hair. But now I feel that it has not only helped me to heal, but also helped me process everything that happened when I couldn’t find the words. Things about myself I had lost, things about the island I have found. I've even managed to sell a couple of canvases to tourists who saw them in a friend’s bakery, which has given me the confidence to consider opening a small gallery here on the island.

Noah mentioned when I first got back that the island has grown in popularity amongst holidaymakers and tourists. That it isn't the same as when I left all those years ago to start my new life at university. I was so excited to get away from here, and now I can't imagine what had ever possessed me to leave. But that's hindsight for you. Had I known Gary would turn into a sociopathic bastard I wouldn't have married him.

I had been so young and foolish and thought the first man I fell in love with off the island must be the man I would spend the rest of my life with. Now I want to go back and scream at the silly girl I was. Yell at her to live her life for her and not some stupid man.

That's how I know I won't ever let a man take control of my life ever again.

The sound of gravel crunching beneath car tyres has me turning to face the house. I can see Lora moving around in the kitchen preparing breakfast and warmth fills me. She is more than a friend to me. She is like a sister. The person I can rely on, depend on.

Even though I have made amends with my mother since returning to the island, it's Lora who took care of me when I honestly thought I'd die from the pain of my injuries. She held my hand, she cried with me, forced me to eat and drink, so that my mum didn’t have to.

Now it's finally time for me to move on.

Noah

Being called out to the cliffs on the northern part of the island at six in the morning is a sure-fire way to get me pissed off before the day has even started. But luckily everyone is safe and back on dry land and now I'm heading to Raye's for a well-earned coffee.

'Your tab's due, Gatling,' Raye says though I can see the smile behind her eyes. I grab the three take out cups and head to Lora's house. It's been a year since Kali arrived back on the island. Battered and bruised. It took a further month before she would talk to anyone about what had happened to her. How her husband had beat her to within an inch of her life then driven her to a dump and left her for dead.

Anger rises from the pit of my stomach. I still can't believe he got away with it. How she let him get away with it. But the flash of her face in those early days, the bruises, the fear...I can understand how she didn’t want him to find out where she was until she was ready to fight her corner.

I feel like I've known Kali forever and yet never really known her at all until this year. The attraction has always been there, but the age gap was too much to overlook. I'm eight years older than her, and when she was eighteen and heading off to university, I was already an officer here on the island. This year has shown me how determined, strong, capable and independent she is, and made me fall in love with her more than ever.

By the time I arrive at my sister’s house a storm has begun to work its way to shore. The wind is whipping through the trees that surround her property on three sides and I can hear the sea as it batters against cliffs behind the house.

'It's going to be a rough one,' I say as I jog through the front door and meet her in the kitchen. 'Where's Kali?'

She nods her head to the far side of the kitchen where, through the window, I can see Kali standing in the garden, too close to the cliffs for my liking. It's the position she has taken up every morning since he arrived. At first, she would be almost bent double with pain, she would limp out there for a few minutes and then limp back. Now she stands tall and proud. Her curves have filled out since she started eating properly again, and her shape makes my mouth water.

'Jesus, Noah, put your eyes back in and ask her out will you.' I can hear the laughter in Lora's voice. I don't need to look at her to know how amusing she finds me.

'She isn't going to be ready yet,' I mumble, turning back to sit at the table. 'Busy day?' I ask in a feeble attempt to change the subject.

Lora is halfway through filling me in on what's been happening at the animal sanctuary and vet surgery when Kali comes back in. Her skin is pink from the wind, and she is glowing. Lora clears her throat.

'Anyway...' she trails off, rolling her eyes and spotting the papers in Kali's hand. 'Wait, are those...?'

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