29. Talia

In Talia's opinion, London was best experienced on a late summer's afternoon, or not experienced at all.

There was no substitute, no surrogate. The sun may have scorched the grass a dull yellowish brown, but there was a magic to this late afternoon, early evening lull. People were home from work, but there were plenty of daylight hours left. Temperatures that had sent people darting for cover during the day were now dipping into a pleasant warmth.

No doubt parks throughout the city were packed with people like herself; in a good mood, making the most of the summer. The air was thick with the scent of barbecues, and the outdoor seating for every café and ice cream shop was full to the brim—second only to the number of people swarming the beer gardens.

Her hands guiding Felix's pushchair, she strolled through the gardens beside Victoria Embankment, amongst the Londoners basking on the parched grass, feeling lighter than she had in months. Aldous's visit had left her horrified, but now she understood Jensen's situation. The position she'd put him in.

And the more she thought about it, the more she understood Jensen's character.

That night at Lux, the first time they'd met, what had Jensen done?

He'd seen her on stage, doing her best to be brave. He could have done nothing—it wasn't like he owed her anything. They were strangers.

Instead, he ensured he won the auction, even when the price became outrageous. Then he paid it, met her to verify that she was okay, and went to leave.

At the wedding, when Dad had given him a black eye, he didn't fight back.

At the nightclub, when Quinn had her cornered, Jensen took command of the situation without question, delivering her safely to her bed. And then he'd watched a tutorial about how to do my hair.

The memory walked through the park with her, making her smile.

Jensen was a protector—he always had been. There was no one better to have at her side, and certainly no better man to father her children.

Felix reached out to a large rose as they passed, and Talia came to a standstill to let his fingers graze along the blushing petals. She positioned the pushchair on the edge of the path before coming to kneel in front of him.

He'd taken up a new habit recently; if he could pick something up, it was going in his mouth.

The laces of Talia's trainers? In his mouth. The plastic googly eye she'd put on her robot hoover? In his mouth. The book she'd been reading? In his mouth.

According to Kate, Lucie had gone through this as she approached the teething stage, and Talia was glad Felix grew out of breastfeeding when he did. The little bugger had been downright savage during feeds sometimes, and that was without teeth.

Not that her milk supply had dried up entirely. She could still produce a few drops here and there… as Jensen had discovered.

Talia held the wheels of the pushchair down as someone jostled it walking past. Hmm. Maybe stopping in a busy path wasn't the best idea. "Do you like the rose, cyw?"

Felix nodded enthusiastically, patting it like a dog. "Ba!"

She grinned, getting back up to continue their wander through the park. Perhaps they could get a potted one for the flat. Were thornless roses a thing?

On the other hand, roses were delicate. And one-year-olds were not known for their finesse. Maybe an artificial rose would be better.

Talia had a smile on her face the entire way home. The sun was shining, Jensen would be home in an hour or two, and the pho she'd made him would be simmering away in the slow cooker.

Had she ever been happier? She doubted it.

Arriving at the mansion block's front door, Talia rummaged around in the changing bag swinging from the pushchair's handles. She usually kept her phone in a small, purpose-built slot near the zipper, but it wasn't there.

She pressed her lips together in a flat, unamused line, hoping it hadn't fallen in with the dirty nappies again. For god's sake, it's probably still on the counter like last time, she thought, scanning her little key card instead.

Talia scanned her key card again at her front door, navigating through with the pushchair and parking it in its usual position. A quick look at the counter told her that her phone wasn't on there, annoyingly. Definitely in with the dirty nappies. Thankfully, the slow cooker was in its expected position. The smell of the pho drifted through the flat, teasing her hungry stomach. Jensen can't get here quick enough.

If he didn't, he might come home to an empty slow cooker and a Talia that needed to be rolled to bed.

And speaking of sleep…

Talia's lips curved as she unclipped her sleeping son from his pushchair, carefully gathering him in her arms and putting him down for his nap. Leaning on the side of the cot, a sigh glided through her lungs. With every day that passed he looked less like a baby and more like a child, and she loved it and hated it in equal measure.

She loved getting to know who Felix was—who he was going to be, but it meant that the tiny baby he'd once been was getting further and further away. That was what motherhood seemed to be, she'd learnt. A helpless struggle to treasure every moment, and then just as she found her footing in one stage it all changed again.

Just as she'd mastered crawling, he started walking.

Just as she'd got a nighttime routine underway, it was time to drop one of his naps.

Just as she mastered breastfeeding, it was time to wean.

Motherhood was chaos, and it was wonderful.

Talia closed Felix's bedroom door behind her, but when she turned back to face the living room, her blood turned to ice.

There her phone was, innocently sitting on the kitchen counter.

And next to it stood Quinn, but there was no innocence there. His face was a mask of cold determination, the set of his broad shoulders firm. And was that a half-healed black eye? "Talia."

Every instinct cried out for her to retreat, to go back into Felix's bedroom and shield him. Memories assailed her, every heartbeat driving them deeper into her psyche. Flashes of whatever had happened at Celestial that night. The chill of the evening biting into her upper thigh. Her skull cracking against the brick. The relief that Jensen's voice had brought.

He stole my phone and used it to get into the flat.

Had he shadowed her tracks as she entered the building? Or had he already been lying in wait for her?

The first step forward was the hardest, breaking through the fear freezing her in place.

"Did you get my letter?" he asked, those empty black eyes tracking her every move—as they always did.

And he sent that letter. Because of course he did. She'd been so caught up in what Jensen had done that she didn't spare a thought for how the knowledge made its way to her. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

A smile of disbelief stretched the bottom of his face as he shook his head. He snatched up her phone, tapping in the code she didn't know he knew and holding it up for her to see. "Then why the fuck did you send him a message this afternoon telling him you loved him?"

Talia watched as her plan to avoid antagonising him slipped through her fingers. She pointed at her front door, trying to hide how much she was shaking. "What I do is no concern of yours. Leave. Or I'll call the police."

"Will you?" Quinn's head tilted to the side, one eyebrow lifting. He reached over to the window next to him, wrenching the handle upright to unlock it.

And then she realised what he intended to do. "No," she whispered, the ramifications of that action thundering through her veins. Because without her phone, she was cut off from the outside world, and if she was cut off from the outside world…

Then Quinn could do what he wanted to her.

Adrenaline overtook fear for the first time as she ran forward, watching him dangle her phone out of the window—

Before he let it go and slammed the window shut, right before her momentum threw her against him.

Quinn was ready for it, wrenching her around like a ragdoll. She'd known he worked out. She'd known he was strong. But having his strength used against her was something she was wholly unprepared for.

She didn't stand a chance.

Talia tried to detach herself from his grip, but he brushed off her attempts with terrifying ease. His arm locked around her waist, tugging her back to his front and pinning her arms to her sides, until all she could do was madly kick out.

"You're just like my mom," he snarled. "A fucking idiot."

Talia shrieked as his free hand found purchase in her hair. He kicked her legs out from under her, but the aching pain in her shin was nothing compared to the teeth-rattling agony of her forehead bouncing off the floor.

Felix.

His distant cries in her ears were the only thing that kept her clinging to the edge of consciousness. Stars burst in her vision, but when they cleared Talia realised Quinn had rolled her onto her back, and his hands…

"Stop," she pleaded, locking her knees together as he attempted to shove them apart. Her light summer skirt had been turned up. Why couldn't she have worn jeans today? "Please stop, please."

She had a feeling it wouldn't have mattered either way. Pain gouged into her as Quinn's fingers dug into the soft skin above her knee, until she was crying out in anguish.

"You let a murderer fuck you." Talia gave a choked gasp as his hands cut off her airway. She tried to shove Quinn away, but her arms fell woefully short of reaching him. "Why is this any different? I helped you for months. I cared for you for months. And I get nothing. You had your chance, and you chose to be a worthless fucking whore. And if you choose to act like a whore, then I'll treat you like one."

The mention of Jensen was a vice around her heart. When they'd said goodbye earlier, it hadn't been for the last time, had it? There was so much more she wanted to say. She needed to see him again, to tell him how much she loved him. Her lungs were on fire with the need to inhale, but there was nothing she could do. The pressure in her head began to build, until it was splintering out in all directions. It pounded in her ears, drowning out Quinn's voice and Felix's cries both. In the crushing silence that remained, Talia accepted that this was it.

This was how she was going to die. Darkness and terror warred at the edge of her vision, and she fought with every ounce of strength remaining to her.

It wasn't enough.

As the shadows rushed her, Talia's last thought was of Felix. How his face had lit up at seeing the rose earlier. How much he looked like Jensen. How she was going to miss him growing up. How he was so young he wouldn't even remember her.

How this would be the last day he'd have his mother. How he was going to be locked in here with her corpse. How he would be at Quinn's mercy after she was gone.

And how there was nothing she could do to stop it.

I'm sorry, cyw.