Page 130 of Knights Game

From Chiswick, Katy and Layla go back to their flat in Kensington. She should be at the penthouse, so why have they gone home?

I’m sitting at the club staring at the dot on the screen of my phone hoping that the blue blob gives me an inkling to what Layla is thinking.

But it doesn’t.

It’s just a featureless blue blob.

Layla’s found something.

Roman's voice echoes in my head, the words pinging around like a fucking pin ball machine. What the fuck has she found?

A garbled message from Katy to Roman that they were going to Chiswick is the only information I have to go on, as my little temptress is ignoring my calls.

I left her this morning going through the vast documents that she had in storage from her parents, so it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it’s linked to whatever was inside. I tap my lips and go over the last few days, racking my brains.

I’ve got a niggle.

I dial Henry, something scratching at the recesses of my brain, something from the gala dinner. After she went to the loo, before we left, she was…distant.

“What’s up?” he answers quickly.

“I need you to go through security footage from the gala dinner.”

“And what am I looking for?”

“I want you to track Layla’s movements from the evening. See who she spoke to apart from us and Levi.”

“Okay. I’ll call if I find anything.”

“No. Send it to me.” I hang up and pull up my maps. Seeing the little blue dot on the move. “Where are you going, my sunshine?”

44

Layla

Every heartbeat makes myhead spiral, every pulse makes me want to climb into my own head and pull my brain out, just to stop the questions, just to stop the noise.

Because I don’t understand anything, my parents, my whole life a lie.

I look down at the folder in my lap, the mustard yellow card looks like any other old folder, slightly dirty and bulging just like the envelope, apart from that, nothing obscure about it. The contents though, are somewhat more ominous. I open it and read the file along with the scribbled handwriting that has been added by, I’m assuming, my grandad.

Agents Sarah Johnson & Martin Johnson under investigation for the unplanned conception of a child.

Layla.

Grandad’s writing is slanted, other names sit next to mine. Including Terry Peyton.

Terry Peyton wasn’t lying the night I met him, he was their boss alright. But although he works in Home Office now, hehasn’t always worked there, and he knew my parents from being their case handler.

Their case handler who had to investigate them, because of me.

Their case handler who was on the Covenant payroll.

It’s funny when Luca was so adamant that he didn’t believe in fate. Because it would seem our lives have been entwined since we were children.

I need to see him, I made him a promise, and in this moment of turmoil there is one person who can bring me the peace I need, and also answer my questions.

I just hope this taxi can make it there before I implode. Because I’m close to having a breakdown.

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