Page 57 of The Puck Stops Here

The Ice King reigned supreme as he let rip on his past. Eyes cold, jaw set, his voice devoid of any emotion.

‘But you know all that already so what you’re really asking is: was it so bad that we had to rescue her from it?’

‘Yes.’ Because karma pact aside, her article demanded that she understand this.

‘You want to know if he beat her? If he beat us? If we played hardball with our very first contract to ensure it wasn’t just us being gifted an escape, but our mother too? Yes. Yes. Yes. And too right we did.’

She swallowed, admiration swelling, even as she realised that the contract to which he referred was the one that saw him walking away from Ashbury Falls. Walking away from dear sweet Sissi.

‘That was quite the risk, negotiating like that?’

He shrugged. ‘By that point, we had several colleges vying to recruit us; we used the competition to secure a deal to take her with us. To start a new life, free of him and it got Blake – well, it got Blake away.’

He’d hesitated… she felt like he’d been about to say something else. Admit something else. But what?

‘You say that like Blake needed it more than you – did he?’

He stared back at her, eyes revealing nothing. ‘Weallneeded to get away.’

That didn’t really answer her question… She scribbled a note to pick it up later.

‘All you need to know,’ he said, rubbing the back of his neck, ‘is that my father was poison, he killed everything he touched. After he lost his job, it was unbearable. Mom became this tiny, broken woman. Quiet as a mouse most days. Unless she was at the rink, watching us play…’ He gave the smallest of smiles. ‘Then she was so full of life, fierce, amazing and everything we wanted her to be at home.’

‘That must have been heartbreaking to witness. And the pressure you must have felt at such a young age to make her life better, to make your own life better…’

Astrid ached for the boy-cum-man he’d been. But to leave without explaining it to Sienna… Not to have answered her calls. Given her some closure. After all the promises he’d given her.

‘Do you see your father now?’

‘Not if I can help it.’

‘So, you do see him?’

‘He’ll rock up every now and then, when he wants something.’

‘Like?’

‘Tickets to a game, an introduction to someone, money…’

‘Do you give it to him?’

‘That depends.’

‘On?’

‘How much trouble he’s likely to cause if I don’t. Sometimes it’s easier, and quieter to give him what he needs and move him on. Though I draw the line at introductions. I don’t want anyone in my life tainted by breathing the same air as him.’

His eyes flashed, the first sign of a simmering anger just below the surface and then it was gone. Like it had never been there at all.

‘Where does he live now?’

‘Around.’

Deliberately evasive.

‘Do you know where?’

‘Why? You planning on talking to him too?’

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