Chapter 34

I can't open my mouth. I try to swallow but my throat feels like miniature razorblades are working their socks off in it. Every muscle in my body aches – limbs like lead. Am I paralysed? I wriggle my fingers and toes. They tingle. Not paralysed. My hand stings. Someone has nailed me down, impaled me to the floorboards, gagged me. Forcing my eyelids open again, I drink in a mist of white light. I'm not sure where I am but I'm not at home, of that I'm certain. The room is bright and stuffy. How did I get here? What happened to me?

Closing my eyes, I try to retrace my steps but my brain is exhausted. I'm about to drift off when Zelda and Linda's faces snap into my mind. I was with them but something happened to me, something bad. I was attacked. By a man. Was I mugged?

‘Where…where am I?' I manage, forcing my eyelids open. There's a blurry face hovering over me now in a pink top. A man. I inhale his scent. I know him.

‘Nurse.' The voice is full of alarm. ‘Nurse!'

I open my eyes and the pixilation slowly dissolves. ‘Tom?' I croak, ‘How?'

‘Don't get up,' Tom urges. ‘You're in AE, you had a fall.'

A fall? I wasn't attacked. Relief floods through my veins. ‘In hospital? Why? I…'

I flop back onto the hard pillow and as I shut my eyes, the last few hours slam into my head – Frank's body on the lawn, Zelda crying, hysterical. She's killed him. Linda wants to call the police – then the lawn again, Frank no longer on it - flashes of light, blue and white and yellow – sirens shrieking – Daisy and I driving around Southgate looking for Frank – Daisy's voice – there at the cash point – was it Frank? No, I don't think it was. It was a ginger-haired man. He was chasing me – he was going to hurt me. Did he push me? Where's Daisy? Why is Tom here instead of her? Did Ginger-Haired-Man hurt her? What have I done to that innocent girl?

‘Where's Daisy?' I mumble, throat dry. ‘Is she okay?'

‘Shh…Don't worry. Daisy's at home with Georgia,' Tom says. ‘She called me right after they contacted the emergency services. I met her outside the hospital and put her in a cab home. There was no point in both of us staying. The poor girl looked shattered.'

I sigh with relief. She's safe. ‘Why am I here? I'm fine. I want to go home.'

I go to whip back the covers, but Tom stops me. ‘You had a fall and might be concussed.'

‘Concussed?' I groan. ‘No. There's nothing wrong with me. I shouldn't be here, wasting NHS's valuable resources.'

‘Try not to upset yourself, Bella. Daisy told me everything.'

Bile rises in my chest. ‘What did she say?' Before I left the house, I slipped a note on Tom's bedside table, telling him Daisy and I had gone to Zelda's because she'd had a fight with Frank and wanted my support. Has Daisy grassed us up? Did she tell Tom that we went on a manhunt looking for Frank in the middle of the night in our nightwear?

‘I know about the cashpoint. So, don't even think about denying it,' he says firmly, and the room darkens. She did tell him everything. I can't be angry with her. Tom must've put the pressure on, had her against the ropes. He can be quite intimidating when he's upset. She was vulnerable, frightened.

‘Tom, I can explain.'

‘No need.'

‘But…'

‘Look, I know you were trying to help her. I get that, but…' Tom rubs a hand over his unshaven face. I can see that he's furious with me, but desperately trying to hold it together. ‘You just don't know when to stop, Bella, do you?'

My eyes slide to the window ledge where there is a vase of artificial flowers. ‘I didn't know what else to do,' I whisper. ‘She needed me.'

‘You can't save everyone.' Zelda isn't everyone. She's my sister. ‘Look, giving Daisy a temporary home and job is one thing, but risking your life to help her was…'

‘Daisy?' I interject.

‘Well, yes. You were on your way home and she asked you for a cash sub to pay back a loan to her auntie.' I look at Tom aghast. Daisy didn't grass us up. She cleverly devised a believable scenario and fed it to Tom, who lapped it up. ‘You stopped at a cash point in Southgate, remember,' he says, trying to jog my memory, ‘but then this guy, who was behind you at the machine, started chasing you and you thought he was going to mug you.'

‘Yes, that's right.' I nod, confirming Daisy's lies and hating myself for putting her in such a difficult position. ‘It's all coming back to me now. Daisy's bastard uncle said he wants the money first thing tomorrow morning, or else.' Tom smiles and shakes his head, glad that I'm remembering. ‘Was the man trying to rob me?'

‘No. He was returning something you dropped. Poor sod was mortified. Just recovered from an op. Gallbladder, the paramedic said – apparently, he could barely keep up with you.' Tom smiles. ‘He's the one who rang the emergency services.'

‘Dropped what?' I ask in a loud voice, causing a blue uniformed nurse to look round from the bed across from me.

‘Your debit card. It fell out of your robe pocket. Well, my dressing gown. Here.' Tom pours half a tumbler with water from the jug next to my bed and feeds me a few sips. The tepid liquid soothes the razorblade sensation in my throat. ‘They gave you a bag of saline.' My eyes dart to my right hand. It has plastic tube poking out of a white plaster. The needle is still in my skin, stinging. ‘You were very dehydrated.'

‘Debit card?' I repeat. That can't be right. I ran out of our house like a greyhound when Zelda called, grabbing my phone in my haste. In fact, I had nothing else on me apart from…. Dread rockets through my body as I feel the pockets of my dressing gown. The letter knife. It's gone.

‘Yes. Daisy recovered it for you. Don't look so worried. It's in her handbag, safe and sound.'

‘Did you take anything from my pocket?' I demand.

‘What?' Tom screws his face up. ‘No, I…'

There's a kerfuffle of voices, footsteps, the swish of fabric, and then a woman's voice says, ‘Ah, Mrs Harris. Nice to have you back with us. I'm Mrs Michaels, one of the consultants, and this is Dr Loizia – Valentina. You had quite a nasty fall, I hear. How're you feeling now?'