Page 58 of Their Diamond Ring Ruse

She looked over at him, still he said nothing.

‘I think talking to him now could give you some closure. Allow you to move on with your life.’

Lily sighed, looking across the Bay towards the bridge.

‘I want so much more for you, Julian. More than just IRES. You deserve life, and you have so much of that in you, but you’ve got it all shackled. I want you to see that you’re not like him. That you don’t have to keep running from your past. Because it’s only going to hold you back from what you could have. What you might want to have. I’m not presumptuous enough to believe that’s me, but there’s a whole world out there for you.’

She looked at him then, to find he was staring at her. Still silent, but listening at least.

‘Please just think about it.’

She moved to stand up, wanting to leave him in peace, but his voice stopped her.

‘I vowed never to go back there.’ He was looking at the floor again. ‘I’ll think about it.’

* * *

Julian looked at the small bungalow. The blue paint that haunted his dreams was peeling away. The yard was overgrown with weeds. The windows were nearly opaque with crusted dirt.

His hands tightened around the steering wheel of the rental car.

Lily placed her hand on his shoulder. He didn’t have a smile to give her. He had nothing right now. His shoulders were tense beneath his black suit.

This place brought back nightmares. He could still see himself entering the house for the first time. Could see his mother take her last breath. Julian would never have come back here at all. He had left Lupine Heights and everything in it behind. Yet Lily had said she didn’t believe she was what he wanted, he’d wanted to scream. She was all he wanted and didn’t deserve. So, for her, he would try. Try to put this place and this man behind him. And maybe then, for as long as she would let him, they could be happy together. Until she had to walk away.

Julian wasn’t foolish enough to think it wouldn’t end, because of course it would. He hadn’t changed and neither had she. The stakes were still the same.

He tried to push all that away as he climbed out of the car. All he needed was for his stepfather to accept accountability for what he’d done. Nothing more.

He walked around the car, but Lily had already climbed out, was holding her hand out to him. He took it, keeping her a little behind him as they set off up the broken concrete path.

Climbing the stairs to the front door, he felt his stomach turn with disgust at the sight of the empty beer bottles all around the porch. Anger was growing within him, burning a trail through his veins.

He took a breath. He didn’t lose control these days and he wouldn’t give his stepfather the satisfaction of doing it now.

Raising a fist to the door, Julian knocked three times, then waited, shielding Lily just a little bit more with his body. He had asked her to stay behind, even though he’d wanted her with him. The idea that she should be around this vile man had made his stomach churn. But she’d refused, saying she wanted to be there for him just as he was for her. As much as he appreciated it, everything in him was now screaming to protect her.

‘Well, well, well... Look who it is,’ said the man with the sneering face who came to the door.

He was a head shorter than Julian, with cruel blue eyes that held no beauty at all, and he was portly, with a yellowish tinge to his skin and the whites of his eyes.

‘Vincent.’

Julian had avoided saying that name as much as he could throughout his life.

‘What do you want, boy?’

He felt Lily tense and couldn’t blame her. No one else would dare speak to him this way.

‘To talk.’

Vincent stepped aside, allowing them to enter, and a horrible sense of déjà vu overcame Julian as he stepped over the threshold into the dark house. It reeked of alcohol, stale cigarettes, and whatever it was that was rotting in the kitchen.

‘You better sit, then.’

‘We’ll stand,’ Julian said, looking down at a small brown stain on the carpet.

He could almost see a small, pretty woman curled around that spot.

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