Page 91 of From Now On

‘How on earth—’

‘She was searching for footage of Colesby Bay. She’s probably gone to find him.’

‘What?’ Charlie can’t take it in. He feels the world slipping away from him. He drops his head into his hands. The mattress beside him dips as Maeve sits; she places her arm around him and he lets her head rest against his shoulder.

Nina thinks she’s seen Bo.

Why would she even think that?

Because Nina believes Bo is alive.

It is then the door bursts open. Maeve jumps to her feet as Sean storms into the room.

‘What the actual fuck?’ His eyes are stone. He grasps Charlie’s arm and wrenches him to his feet.

At first Charlie can’t comprehend what’s going on, his mind in Colesby Bay picturing Nina lost and scared, but then he realizes he is a grown man alone in a teenage girl’s bedroom and he sees the inappropriateness in this and why her father is concerned, in the way that he has been concerned over Nina’s crush on Sean.Before he can set Sean’s mind at rest he has been dragged down the stairs.

‘Wait!’ Charlie digs his heels in but he is sliding down the hallway, being manhandled out into the front garden.

‘You are never to set foot inside of my house again.’ Sean roughly shoves Charlie so he tumbles to the floor.

‘You’ve got it wrong.’ Charlie staggers to his feet. ‘I’ve no interest in Maeve. Please believe me. I know it’s easy to jump to the wrong conclusion. I thought you were interested in Nina once—’

‘You thoughtIwas interested inher?’ Sean releases a laugh that is edged with cruelty. He leans forward and growls, low and quiet, inaudible to anyone but Charlie, ‘Tell your sister to stay away from us. She’s not fucking welcome around here anymore.’

Then it happens in a split second. Charlie reacts to hearing his sister dismissed as though she’s nothing. Cast aside from what she regards as her second family. Sean’s hands connect with his chest. Charlie’s fingers automatically curl into his palms. He draws back his elbow and propels his fist into Sean’s face. Hears the crunch of knuckle on bone. Feels the warmth of Sean’s blood splattering onto his wrist.

His pulse pounds in his ears; he is horrified. Sean may have been furious at catching Charlie in Maeve’s room, Charlie angry with hearing his sister cast aside, but it should never have come to this. He catches sight of Maeve, her hands clasped over her mouth in shock.

He turns and stalks away.

Nina isn’t here.

She’s run away.

Charlie is going to find her.

Chapter Forty-Three

Duke

‘Are you okay? I wish you hadn’t seen that,’ Charlie says as they are screeching away from Maeve’s house. ‘Violence is never the answer, Duke.’

Duke twists around in his seat. Maeve is helping Sean to his feet. They grow smaller and smaller, until they could be Lego figures standing on the lawn of a Lego house. None of this quite seems real. Duke rubs his eyes. An hour ago he was fast asleep and now… this.

Duke steals a glance at Charlie, seeing his brother in a whole different light.

‘Duke?’ Charlie asks again. ‘Are you all right?’

‘That was… that was bloody epic.’ Duke forms fists and air punches – ‘Pow. Pow. Pow. Can you teach me how to fight, Charlie? I never knew you could?’ He had prayed every morning before school for an end to Jayden’s bullying, never realizing that the answer was living in his house. Cooking his dinner. ‘Charlie, that was totally amazing.’

‘Duke. It really wasn’t and I can’t teach you to fight because that was the first time I’ve ever hit someone and…’ Charlie releases his right hand from the steering wheel and shakes it.‘It hurts.’

‘Not as much as you hurt his face.’ Duke keeps his fists close to his face like a boxer and jigs up and down on his seat. ‘I wish I’d recorded it.’

‘It isn’t something to be proud of,’ Charlie says.

But imagine if Duke had captured it on film. Showed it to Jayden. Just the threat of Charlie might be enough to keep him at bay.

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