18. Talia

"So you went out with Quinn last night, kissed him, but then Jensen took you home?" Mia asked, sitting on the opposite side of the table. She frowned, clearly trying to understand the clusterfuck Talia had created for herself.

"I think so," Talia replied, undoing Reggie from his pushchair to save Mia from bending. Being in the third trimester of pregnancy was hard enough without having a child to care for. Reggie jumped down, disappearing into the soft play jungle in front of them. "The most embarrassing thing is I don't remember either." She gave a surreptitious look behind her before taking her phone out of her pocket, pulling up the security app. Thankfully none of the other mums and dads were near enough to overhear them. "Watch this video. It's from the security cameras in my flat at about four o'clock this morning."

The enormous soft play jungle loomed in front of them, covered in brightly-coloured netting and tunnels and slides. Children zoomed around inside and out, occasionally waving to tired parents nursing cups of coffee. Talia would have been one of them without the tablets left by Jensen. Whatever was in them had, thankfully, rid her of her hangover.

Leaning back in her chair, Mia paused the video almost instantly. On the screen, Jensen was frozen as he lay her on the bed, still fully dressed. "Wait, this is the guy you had a one night stand with?" she hissed, eyes wide, her lip already curling. "You never showed me what he looked like before!"

"I know," she admitted, a grin splitting her face. She had to share the video with someone. It was too precious to keep to herself, to the point where she just wanted to squeeze Jensen's cheeks for being so adorable. "He's gorgeous, isn't he?"

"Um yes. He's the most beautiful man I've ever seen. Does he have a brother?"

"Two cousins… who are now technically my step-brothers."

Mia gasped, rubbing an absent-minded hand over her swollen stomach. "We could be sisters!"

"I'm not marrying him," Talia snorted. "And you're spoken for." At least until you dump your controlling prick of a boyfriend.

Blinking innocently, her friend gave a coquettish smile. "I'm fine with being shared."

"Of course you are," Talia pressed play on the video, a wry smile on her face. Somehow she didn't think Cameron would be quite as nonchalant about sharing, especially when he wouldn't even let Mia have male friends. "Watch the rest. It's on double speed."

Mia's smile faded as it played, watching Jensen put on her silk bonnet and tuck her into bed, until she let out a hushed noise. "Okay," Mia told her, handing back her phone. "If you don't marry that man, I will. Because that was so cute it was sickening. And you kicked him out this morning?!"

"I didn't kick him out!" Talia exclaimed. "He was sleeping on the couch when I woke up. In my defence, I expected Quinn to be there so I had no idea what was going on. He basically explained that he drove me home, asked if I needed anything, and then left of his own accord. It was only when I watched the security cameras back to piece everything together that I saw that."

In the video, she'd seen how Jensen had just stood there after closing her front door, gazing at her with such affection in her eyes it filled her chest with a soft, warm feeling she didn't want to name.

They hardly knew each other. There was no way she was falling for him.

None at all.

Definitely none at all. Just like she definitely hadn't rewatched it multiple times already.

She hadn't shared that bit of footage with Mia. Talia wanted to keep that to herself.

It had been fairly easy to work out how to save the footage, but she really needed to sit down and figure out the app. There had been a load of screenshots that she hadn't taken, and videos she hadn't saved. Most were of Felix, but there were a couple of her too. Presumably the app was saving them automatically—none of them were particularly interesting, just mundane, everyday snippets of life.

Or, a conspiratorial voice whispered into her ear, someone else has access to this app.

Don't be so silly, she told it.

"Hey Reggie!" Mia called out, waving back to her son high up at the top of the soft play jungle, pausing in front of a slide. "I'm watching. Go ahead."

Reggie slid down it, jumping up at the end to check if Mia was watching, and both Talia and Mia gave him a round of applause. Pleased with their offering, Reggie shot them a wide smile and disappeared back into the maze of children.

Mia's voice returned to her normal volume. "Wait, so why did he take you home and not Quinn?"

Talia hesitated, not sure how to answer. "He said because Quinn wasn't safe to be around when I was drunk."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Talia took her phone again, displaying her call log… and the eight missed calls from Quinn. Not to mention the barrage of texts she hadn't opened. "I'm not sure yet."

Talia knew Jensen didn't like Quinn. Was this just jealousy? Quinn had had plenty of opportunities to hurt her over the past few months, and he hadn't taken any of them. He was her friend. He wouldn't hurt her.

On the other hand, Quinn was blowing up her phone this morning, so clearly something had fucking happened.

Ugh, this is why I don't drink very often. She hated trying to piece together what had happened on a night out.

Mia's face twisted, her dark left eyebrow almost comically quirked. "Have you called him back yet?"

"Not yet. I've been putting it off."

"Why?"

"Either Jensen is exaggerating," she swallowed. "Or he's not."

Mia sipped on her coffee, the steam rising between them. "Meaning?"

Not knowing how to explain her hesitancy, Talia tapped her fingers on the table. "Meaning why was Jensen even there last night? How did he end up being the one to take me home?"

"I mean, you could just ask him."

"Yeah, that's another thing I've been putting off," she admitted, rubbing her forehead. "Because if he just turned up at the club that means he followed me there."

Or he was coincidentally at the exact nightclub she'd told him she was going to on the exact day.

Talia had overlooked him breaking into her flat purely because he'd given her the means to keep him out in the future, but Mia herself had demonstrated the slow slide of a relationship with a controlling partner.

Controlling turned into restrictive, cutting off friendships and acquaintances. And then, when there was no one left to witness it, restrictive turned into abusive.

I don't want him to turn into Cameron.

"And if Jensen is exaggerating about Quinn, that means he's trying to turn me against a friend I've had since I was at Columbia." Just like Cameron would. "But if he's not exaggerating, then what was Quinn doing that was so terrible? Why isn't he safe to be around?"

The look Mia gave her wasn't unsympathetic. "All of your questions could be answered by calling them both, you know that, right?"

Talia chewed on her lip. "But what if I don't like the answers?"

Thankfully, Mia changed the subject, pulling out a notebook and asking Talia to help sort out her birth plan. It was something she excelled at—dealing with pregnancy, and she was only too happy to let Mia use her knowledge of the birthing process.

Because it made her feel like she'd accomplished something for the day; her drive had been quenched, albeit only briefly.

By the time they left the soft play, Talia felt happy with the progress they'd made, waving goodbye to Mia and Reggie as they left to visit one of Cameron's relatives.

Talia wondered if they knew what kind of person Cameron was.

Jealous. Controlling. Manipulative.

Everything she hoped Jensen wasn't.

The walk back to her flat wasn't a short one, but Warren wasn't going to be dropping Felix off for another hour. She took a route that would allow her to walk along the Embankment—beside the Thames. It felt strange to be without a pushchair for once, as though she'd left her flat half-dressed. Not that it would have been much of a problem; the temperatures were warming up after the winter, and the clear blue sky above lifted her spirits. All around, greenery bloomed into life, with the first flowers already unfurling.

Having lived in London all her life, Talia couldn't imagine living without the convenience of everything at her fingertips. And if the convenience wasn't enough, then there was the history offered by the city.

Talia stopped, leaning on the wall guarding the river. Even the history offered by the Thames was never-ending. Anyone could go down to the mudbanks and find old pottery or coins or pipes. If they were lucky, they could find something truly spectacular. If they weren't, they could return the next time the tide went out, ready to see what else had washed up on London's shores.

She loved it. The hustle and the bustle, the heaving crowds on the tube, the constant sound of buses and cabs, the parks, the river, the shops, the museums, the galleries. Sweltering summer days sunbathing in Hyde Park and the freezing wind whipping her cheeks pink in the run up to Christmas.

How could she have ever wanted to leave?

Talia sighed, smiling out across the Thames. London was home, and it always would be.

Keeping an eye on the time, she dipped into the bakery near her flat for lunch, her stomach grumbling. Calm down, she told it, paying for her usual sausage roll and donut combo.

She was scanning her key card at the mansion block's front entrance when she heard a familiar voice.

"Talia!" Quinn called, jogging up the dark grey pavement, his black hair jostling with the movement.

On any other day, she'd have joked about him jogging—one of the few forms of exercise that he completely eschewed, deeming it not masculine enough. Today, though, her stomach dropped at the sight of him.

She'd been hoping to put the conversation off for a few hours, at the very least.

"Hi," she offered.

"I've been calling you for hours," he stressed, running his hand through his hair. "What happened with Jensen? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she assured him, moving to the side to allow another resident to get out of the door.

Quinn engulfed her in a hug, squishing her lunch between them. "Did he touch you?"

The other resident side-eyed her way past them.

For god's sake.She'd rather not air her business out in public. "Keep your voice down," she hissed, ushering Quinn inside. "And no, he didn't."

"Well you didn't respond to my calls or messages, what was I supposed to think?"

"I don't know," Talia stabbed at the lift button, their voices bounding across the cool marble foyer. "Maybe that I've been out and haven't looked at my phone yet."

Quinn followed her into the lift, the doors slowly closing behind them. "Or any number of awful possibilities," he countered, brows pinched together.

Silence fell as the lift stopped on the third floor to let another resident on, and neither of them broke it until she unlocked the door to her empty flat. A quick look at her phone told her that Warren and Felix weren't due to arrive for another fifteen minutes.

Good. Fifteen minutes was more than enough time to get the mystery of last night's events untangled.

Talia wondered how to approach this. Either Jensen was a controlling stalker, or Quinn was, in Jensen's words, unsafe to be around when she was drunk.

But Talia had one advantage: Quinn didn't know that she didn't remember what happened.

"Sit," she said, putting her lunch on the coffee table and folding her arms. "We need to talk about last night."

"What about it?"

Dammit. She'd been hoping he wouldn't just throw it back to her.

Talia lifted her eyebrow, looking down at him sprawled across the couch. "About everything that happened with Jensen," she snorted, keeping things vague. Please make sense.

Clearly something had happened with Jensen if he ended up, firstly, at Celestial and, secondly, taking her home.

Quinn huffed, shaking his head. "I don't know, Talia. I have some questions for you too. Why were you throwing yourself at me one minute and asking him to take you home the next? Why did you just leave me there after I looked out for you all night?"

So she had asked Jensen to take her home. And Jensen was telling the truth—she had kissed Quinn. Her suspicions of Jensen receded, but she wasn't sure what was left behind. "Are you mad at me for kissing you?"

Quinn got to his feet, approaching her with slow, steady steps. "No," he murmured, taking her hand. "I'm mad because… because the moment he turns up again, you roll out the red carpet for him. He abandoned you, Talia." His touch was a whisper against her cheek. "But you can't see what's right in front of you."

Oh."Quinn…" Her heart sank. He was wrong; she could see very well what was right in front of her.

She just didn't want it.

"I was there right from the start. Do you remember who was there for you at Lux before you went out on stage? Who was there when you woke up? Who was there when you found out you were pregnant? Do you know why I accepted the scholarship to study in London?"

Talia shook her head, but she could sense where this was going.

"It's because from the moment we met…" Quinn cut himself off, his throat jumping in his indecision. Wait, is that a bruise? "I have wanted you with every bone in my body. I've been patient. So why did you abandon me for that asshole?"

"He's not an arsehole for wanting to be part of mine and Felix's lives, Quinn," Talia said earnestly. "He is Felix's father."

"Because he's done such a great job of that so far, hasn't he? Knocking you up and then leaving you to raise his kid? I just didn't think you'd be shallow enough to spread your fucking legs for him again."

Taken aback, Talia blinked. "I haven't done that."

"Haven't you?" he asked, eyes narrowing.

"No!"

Quinn snorted in disbelief. "Do you think I haven't seen this exact pattern with my mom? He's just going to break your heart—again. Except it'll be worse this time, because you're going to let him break his son's heart too."

"Whatever you think, Quinn, I genuinely believe that Jensen cares for Felix." And for me.

"I genuinely can't believe you'd be so stupid, quite frankly. If he wanted you that much he would have left you more than a fucking business card behind."

The insult struck her hard, taking the wind out of her. Talia glared up at him, her eyes brimming with reproach. "You don't have to be cruel," she whispered.

The buzzer rang, stealing both of their attentions. Sighing, she walked over to the speaker, hoping her voice wasn't going to betray her emotions. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Warren."

"Come up," she told him, holding the button down to give him access. She stayed facing the wall longer than necessary, surreptitiously wiping at her eyes.

Quinn's voice echoed in her mind, the lump in her throat growing with every repetition. If he wanted you that much he would have left you more than a fucking business card behind.

Was he wrong?

Talia thumbed another tear away, trying to get a hold of herself before Warren appeared. She didn't want Felix to see her crying. Somewhere in the midst of a deep breath, something occurred to her.

"I don't…" she blinked, turning round to face Quinn. "I don't think I ever said anything about Jensen leaving a business card."

It hadn't been that long since they'd had the discussion, after all. She could remember Quinn's reply as clear as day.

A note? Well how fuckin' convenient he's only bringing that up now.

In front of her, Quinn frowned. "What?"

Her voice strengthened, her confidence in her accusation growing. "I only told you he left a note. Jensen and I are the only ones who know about the business card."

"Obviously you mentioned it at some point," he spat, rolling his eyes and letting out a derisive chuff. That is definitely a bruise around his throat. "Because how else would I have known?"

How else?

"You were the one to wake me up that morning," she hissed. "You said it yourself a moment ago. Jensen left the note on the bedside table. But then you come in and the note is nowhere to be seen."

Quinn stayed silent for a moment, his dark eyes flicking between hers. "One of the cleaners must have—"

"Nope," she cut him off, whisking her hand through the air. "You woke me up because the cleaners needed to get in there."

His throat bobbed again, and Talia barely managed to stop herself from wrapping her hands around it.

Seems like there's a lot of that going around.

Her entire pregnancy had been haunted by the fact that Jay had supposedly abandoned her. She'd given birth without him, thinking he didn't give two fucks about her… about them.

What was it Jensen had said, when she discovered he'd broken in?

I would have been there every step of the way, Talia. From the morning sickness and stretchmarks and swollen feet to caring for you during the birth. I would have been there for every sleepless night, every nappy change, every tantrum, everything." Pain threaded every word, but he didn't stop. "I would have loved him from the beginning, as he deserved.

It was time they'd never get back.

"You robbed us of everything," Talia snarled, hating that tears fell from her eyes. "You heard me sobbing about being abandoned, about having to raise my child alone, about Felix growing up without a father, when it was you who took it all from me."

Quinn didn't even bother to defend himself this time, taking a step forward, his eyes dark with possession. "I had you first," he snarled through gritted teeth.

"Get out," Talia hissed, shaking with anger. "Get out, you two-faced fucking coward."

A crisp knock on the door interrupted whatever Quinn had been about to say. Talia wiped her face, removing the tears on her cheeks. She took a deep breath and unlocked the door.

Warren stood there, holding Felix in one hand and the three overnight bags in the other.

"Hiiii baby," Talia said, her voice much too high. Felix lunged for her happily, and she swooped in to take him, twisting him in her arms and peppering his head with kisses. "Come in, come in, come in. How were you for Warren and Kate?"

"Much better behaved than Lucie was," Warren smiled, an uncertain curl in his tone. He looked between her and Quinn with a frown, his eyes lingering on the tears in her own. "Everything okay?"

Talia nodded. "Quinn was just about to give me my spare key back and leave."

Jensen was right. She didn't remember what had happened last night, but after Quinn's behaviour today, she believed Jensen. If Quinn wasn't safe to be around when she was drunk, he wasn't safe to be around when she was sober. And he certainly wasn't safe enough to have a key to her flat.

"I actually think it would be bet—"

Warren bulldozed straight over him. "Shut the fuck up and take out your keys."

Quinn looked at Talia, clearly hoping for a reprieve. It hadn't been that long ago that Talia had mentioned Warren had spent a decade in prison for murder.

Warren gave Quinn a patronising smile as he took out his keys. "Good boy. Now give them here."

"It's this one," Talia interrupted, tapping the relevant key.

Quickly detaching it, Warren handed it to her before holding the keys out to Quinn.

Quinn reached for them—but Warren let them fall to the floor with a metallic thunk.

Snatching them up, Quinn gave them a filthy look before Warren clapped him on the shoulder and steered him out of the flat, closing the door behind him.

The tears returned with a vengeance then, and Talia hugged Felix to her breast, not wanting him to see her cry.

Warren's face fell. He came closer, pulling her into his embrace. "It's okay," he whispered. "You're safe. You're alright."

A sob escaped her then.

She was safe, true, but the damage was already done.