Page 117 of Knights Game

The meeting with the lawyer Luca arranged feels like a lifetime ago.

“Thank you so much. I’ll get them on my way out.”

He’s hurt because of me.

He’s hurt because I couldn’t protect him.

Because Luca couldn’t protect him.

Luca stands up, sticking his hand out to shake Sylvia’s.

Everything in those boxes will lead back to my parents, their will, legal documents. Everything that Sylvia had stored for my grandad. It’s creeping up to the anniversary, and I feel like I’m drowning. Desperately trying to tread water, and for once I’ve got someone beside me throwing me a life vest.

Luca passes his business card to her. “She’ll be staying with me, here’s my contact number. If you can’t get hold of her, please call me. Layla?” He crouches down next to me, and I turn my tear-filled eyes to him, at this point I don’t even try to hide the state I’m in. “Let me take you home.”

Home.

He tucks me under his arm again and Sylvia stands. “Take care of her,” she says.

“I just want to pop in and see him before we go,” I say as we navigate back through the tired hallways. I let him hold me to him, sending me strength through the little touches of reassurance. A squeeze of my hand, a rub on my back. “Here’s his room.”

He can’t see the tree he loves so much from his bed, where I see he is settled and sleeping peacefully. I pull the stool out; Luca rests against the door frame, his gaze falling on the shelf of family photos.

“Well, look at you,” he whispers, crossing to pick up a picture of me and my family. “You look so cute.”

I smile and join him.

“Your parents?”

“I was ten, we were visiting Grandad. I think he took the picture. It was one of my fondest holidays. If I close my eyes, I can remember my dad and Grandad bickering about which bait was best. I can see Mum roll her eyes and I can see the book I was colouring. It’s weird how some memories just stick.”

I put the photo back on the shelf, turning it towards Grandad just in case he can see it from the bed.

I take one last look at him sleeping peacefully and leave, closing the door just as another bird lands on the new bird feeder.

Strange that I’ve never noticed it before.

38

Layla

Luca reaches across andsqueezes my hand, our eyes connect momentarily before he turns his attention back to the road.

He grips the steering wheel until his knuckles whiten, he revs quickly and brakes sharply, changing up and down through the gears with more force than necessary.

War is coming.

One spark and it’s going to go, and I fear I may be the catalyst.

If I hadn’t met him that night, if I hadn’t helped, Levi wouldn’t have seen the opportunity to blackmail me, I wouldn’t have become Luca’s weakness, he wouldn’t have had to protect me.

But here we are.

A whole fucked up relationship—built on happenstance and a lie.

The man’s a menace, weaving in and out of cars, swearing when someone gets in the way. Horns blare at us, and my nerves are frayed.

But somehow, I manage to shut my brain down and slip into nothingness.

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