Page 140 of Ace My Heart

“Alright, I think Melanie has had enough excitement to last her a little while,” she said, coming to the bedside and checking the IV line connected to my right arm. My good arm. My tennis arm.

“Time for you to shoo!”

With a look of apology, Brad gathered Amanda under his arm and drew her, weeping, from the room.

I ate a little after the nurse checked me over and then I slept again. I’d never felt so exhausted in my life.

I woke to the door opening. Groggily I peered over.

Mum took a shuddering breath and came right up to the bed, wrapping her arms around me gently. The way she had when I was little and I’d woken up from a nightmare.

“Mel, oh my beautiful girl,” she whispered against the side of my face. “I’m so sorry.”

I cleared my throat. “Water,” I rasped and she sat up, pouring me some from the jug at my bedside. I drank to give me time to process her being here.

“What are you sorry for?” I asked.

“I’m sorry that I treated you like a disappointment. You never were. When your father died, I … my faith became so much more important to me. And I’m afraid that … I think I let my beliefs tarnish the way I saw you. And then I … I almost lost you too!”

“Mum … I …” I began, but had no idea what I wanted to say.

“I know our relationship is … strained, but sweetie, I’m so proud of you. You’ve grown up to be a strong, capable young woman and you’ve done that without any help from me.”

She smoothed hair off my forehead and gazed down at me, with eyes that were just like my own.

There was a knock on the door. We both looked over, to see my two favourite detectives letting themselves into the room.

“We need a few moments of your time, Miss Black,” Taylor said, looking from me to Mum and back.

I sighed. “I’d better get this over and done with,” I muttered to Mum, who leaned down and kissed my forehead before vacating the room.

I took a deep breath, enduring Taylor’s questions and Coughlin’s concerned looks, for over an hour. I relived every minute of that dreadful day.

I was exhausted by the time the conversation was over and my shoulder was throbbing with pain. A nurse came in and checked on the machines strapped to my arm and injected something into my IV. I started to feel sleepy almost immediately.

“We’re not going to get much more out of her now,” Taylor grunted to Coughlin. I watched them through half-closed lids.

There was another knock at the door and a uniformed police officer poked her head in.

“He’s awake, Detective Taylor.”

That was all it took to clear the room of police, and I was able to close my eyes and let sleep claim me.

I woke up drenched in sweat and gasping for breath, my shoulder screaming in pain.

The nightmare had been so real.I could smell his cologne as he held my throat. I could feel his sweat dripping on me as he struggled me onto the floor. The agony of the knife was so real as it sunk into my chest. I looked up in shock into Thomas’s smiling face.

It took three days for me to recover enough to be discharged. Three days of pain meds, and sleep, and sporadic visitors. Brad, Mum, Sandra.

Amanda avoided me.

So did Joel.

Brad came to collect me and while we waited for my discharge papers, he told me that Detective Taylor had managed to extract a full confession from Thomas. The murders of Steve and Ben. The attempted murder of Grant. The attack on Sandra, Joel and me, with intent to kill.

“We knew Thomas was at the Australian Open. He heard you and Steve fighting, the morning before Steve was … and something just snapped. He was already targeting Amanda, even before … Steve … because he knew she was close to you.”

“Well, that worked out perfectly for him, then, didn’t it? He found out about Ben and Grant, because he was there with us all, when I was pouring my heart out about them. But I still don’t understand. Why?” I asked in frustration. Brad turned my hand over in his and traced the lines on my palm with his fingers. It felt nice.

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