Page 108 of The Bad Wedding Date

She rolled her head against the back of her chair. “Nothing you’re able to give.”

I scowled, not used to seeing this side of her. “Don’t you feel safe here anymore?”

“I feel nothing.”

That was the problem. She’d become so numb to everything; her personality had drowned in the silence of her sorrows.

“What about Anya? Do you feel bad about the way you treated her?”

Mum shrugged in response.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means I regret upsetting her, but if the same thing happened tonight, I’d most likely do the same again.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I want to scream at the world and everyone in it. I also want to be left alone.”

Getting off the sofa, I walked across the room, dropping to my haunches in front of her and resting my hand on her knee. She stopped the chair from rocking with her foot, her eyes drifting to my touch and focusing on it.

“If you keep saying things like that to me, I’m going to call a doctor,” I told her softly.

Her eyes drifted up to mine. “You will do no such thing.” Mum’s distrust of other people had even seeped into the very ones who would want to help her, doctors and nurses included.

“They’d be vetted, just like Anya was. Look how much you love her now.”

“I rely on her. That’s not love.” I thought of Charlotte and how much I’d relied on her recently, the thoughts of her taking over my every waking thought.

“What is love, then?”

With a soft sigh, she turned her gaze back to the window and the ocean she could see beyond it. “With any luck, you’ll find out one day. Although I won’t hold my breath. Not with the way you live your life and all.”

“We’re back to this?” I sighed.

“And we’ll keep coming back to it until you realise how foolish it is to spend your life chasing monsters that breed much faster than people like you or me.”

“You need to have faith. I’m good at what I do.”

She shook her head. “For such a big man, you’re still such a silly fool.”

I was about to ask her what she meant by that when the phone in my pocket rang. I pulled it out to look at the screen, and Charlotte’s name stared back at me. I thought about ignoring it, not wanting to mix my two worlds together right now, but something told me Charlotte wouldn’t ring me unless she needed to.

Moving away from Mum, I stalked to the other side of the room and accepted the call.

“Fraser?” she breathed heavily before I even had a chance to say hello. A squeak of emotion escaped her before it sounded like she put her hand over her mouth to collect herself, her words now muffled until she took the hand away and blew out a breath. “I’m so sorry for bothering you—”

“What’s happened?”

“I… I think someone’s been in my apartment while I’ve been out today.”

The blood in my veins turned cold, and I was suddenly wide-awake, alert, and ready to kill. “Talk me through it.”

She sucked in a breath before she said, “There’s a picture of me on the kitchen floor with the frame and glass smashed all around it.”

I began to pace back and forth, my hand running through my hair. I was an hour away from her. A fucking hour! That was too long. Too far. Too much distance between us. A cold, sharp feeling hit my heart and every nerve I had in my body, making my skin prickle.

“Are you sure it wasn’t an accident? You haven’t knocked it with your bag or anything.”

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