Poison

And how easy it had been to assemble and report anonymously.

“It’s just time,” he said. “I can assure you, his career days are reaching their end, and he’ll be suffering the consequences of the life choices he’s made for his own gains.”

“But you shouldn’t have done that, right?” I asked him. “That’s abusing your position, isn’t it? What if they come after you, too?”

“I hope I’m a little more careful than he is,” he said. “But yes, I’ve abused my position. It’s a rarity, but I’ve abused my position, there’s no denying that.” He shrugged. “I think it’s worth it, though. I wouldn’t have been able to use anything he hadn’t done himself. One day someone would have found him out for it, I’ve just sped up that process.”

I reached out across the table to take his hand. “You didn’t have to do that. You didn’t have to make Sebastian pay for what he did.”

“I didn’t have to do that,” he said, and took both of mine. “I wanted to.”

We stared at each other in silence for long seconds, both of us lost in that moment.

“Please don’t do that again,” I said. “You aren’t some super moral hero behind the scenes, trying to make the world a better place. You’re Lucas Pierce, here with me, having chickens and ponies and walking the dogs. I love you that way, please don’t change it.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” he replied, and kissed my hand. “I’m very, very happy to be Lucas Pierce, here with you, having chickens and ponies and walking the dogs. I’m not intending to change that. We’ve got more than enough time to make up for.” He paused. “I just wanted Sebastian Maitland to get what’s due. I could have dug a lot deeper and done a lot worse to him, I assure you.”

I let it settle at that. I took a deep breath and we cleared the plates and my heart was thumping with a nice wave of comfort that I was really here, out the other side of the battle.

Because love is a battlefield. It really is.

We’d taken our blows, and we’d hidden in the trenches, and luckily, finally, we’d won the war.

Or so we thought.

It was just a shame the enemy didn’t want to surrender.

Even now, there was one final wave of attack still to come.Chapter Forty-TwoLucasWithin a few days we were living in bliss, waking up in the mornings and being so happy to be there. We’d eat breakfast in dressing gowns and shower together, then take Bill and Ted out before work.

I’d drop her outside her office, and we’d ping each other through the day, and I’d be there every evening to pick her up for home. Sometimes we’d grab the rackets and hit the tennis court, and some games she’d get so close to winning that she’d dance along the net, blowing me raspberries. Fuck me, I loved her for it.

Sometimes we’d be too desperate for flesh on flesh to do anything other than rip each other’s clothes off the moment we were back in through the door.

We’d talk. We’d laugh. We’d hold each other tight. Just like we should have been doing the past decade through.

She’d talk to her parents, and Vicky, and Nicola, and message the girls from work. I’d be on video chat to Millie every evening, talking about her school day without so much as a peep from Maya in the background.

My mother was silent. Just like she should have always been when it was none of her pissing business.

We were happy.

Really happy.

It was that first Friday in our new life that I took Anna out into the city to celebrate. We ate pizza, and laughed as we tore into garlic bread, and toasted our happiness with a prosecco at the table.

But she wasn’t smoking, not anymore, and neither was I.

She hadn’t had any seizures either. Not in days.

“Maybe we could do a pizza night again when I meet Millie,” she suggested, and I smiled over at her.

“Millie does like a good slice of pizza,” I told her. “Maybe we could do an ice cream sundae to follow.”

I had a strange tingle of excitement every time I pictured Anna meeting my little girl. I loved the thought of them laughing together in our kitchen, and eating popcorn on the sofa and watching old kid’s films, and Millie’s explosion of absolute joy if we really did go through with our potential plans to get her a pony in the paddock.

Yet still, I was nervous.

I was so fucking nervous for the two most important parts of my life to combine and make a new one.

“You’re thinking,” Anna said across the table, and I jolted back to my senses. “What are you thinking about?”

I took another sip of prosecco.

“I’m thinking of you meeting the little princess.”