Page 89 of Duplicity

She isn’t a slick professional operator.

She’s a desperate, terrified mother who will do anything, endure anything, to save her little girl’s life.

And Athena was looking out for her—Athena engineered the whole thing, thinking she could trust me to act properly. To look out for her friend and treat her with respect and decency.

Her face the other day in that meeting room.

Her face.Oh dear God, I can’t get it out of my mind.

Another wave of bile seeps into my mouth, and my entire body convulses.

I slam down my beer bottle and I turn, running out of the kitchen and across the huge hallway into Gabe’s downstairs cloakroom, where I fall to my knees and proceed to noisily, messily, empty the poison of my sickened stomach and my blackened heart into his toilet bowl.

CHAPTER 42

Brendan

Ireturn to the kitchen on shaky legs, my face still damp from the cold water I threw over it.

‘You alright, mate?’ my brother asks, holding out a glass of water.

I take it and shake my head. ‘Not even close.’

‘Sorry if this has been a bit of a shock for you,’ Athena says. ‘But Tabs will be okay. And know this: by giving Marlowe the job, you saved her daughter’s life.’

An image flashes into my head. A little blonde girl cuddling a dog.Tabby.The girl, not the dog. Marlowe was so antsy when I spotted that photo. And no wonder.

I shake my head. ‘I’ve treated her like shit, though,’ I say mournfully. I may have inadvertently bankrolled Tabby’s operation, but fuck did I make her mother jump through hoops to earn it.

Athena’s eyes narrow. ‘I thought you two were getting on well. What did you do?’

‘She didn’t tell you?’

‘No. Spill it.’ She crosses her arms.

‘Don’t think I will, thanks.’ I’m not that fucking stupid. I take a tentative sip of water. ‘How does it work, then? They stay out there until Tabby’s better and then come back?’

‘That’s the plan.’ Athena’s still frowning at me. ‘A day or two in ICU and then another week or so in hospital before they clear Tabs to fly.’

‘Does she have anyone else out there with her?’

‘No. She’s close with her parents—they look after Tabs when Marlowe’s at work—but she couldn’t afford to fly them out there and put them up.’

By my estimates, Marlowe is raking it in, even after hospital bills. ‘Why couldn’t she afford it?’

She rolls her eyes. ‘Because every penny she gets from you is going towards hospital costs. She wants to save a chunk before she quits so Tabs can have private care over the next couple of years, but there isn’t any spare cash knocking around.’

Before she quits.Something on my face must reflect my shock, because Athena rolls her eyes. ‘Come on, Brendan. Knowing what you now know, it can’t be a surprise that she doesn’t want to be your whore forever. That’s not who she is, believe me.’

I’m very glad Athena isn’t a doctor, because her bedside manner is shite. I may have been furious with Marlowe; I may even have been idly considering trading her in for a more promiscuous model, but it hasn’t occurred to me until this moment that she might end things on her terms, that she could just walk out of my life when her daughter’s medical coffers were adequately funded.

I have no intention of confirming that, yes, it is a surprise. Instead, I force myself to focus on the issue at hand, the issue which, in my eyes, is a major fucking problem.

‘So, she’s all alone over there with a sick little girl, and she’s got no one looking out for her?’ Just saying the words makes my chest feel tight.

‘That’s right,’ Athena says. ‘I wanted to go out there with her but she wouldn’t hear of it.’

‘How’s she holding up?’ I whisper.

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