“We can talk. I know that it isn’t really the money you want, so we can talk about that.”
“You had the chance to talk when I didn’t have the upper hand. The time for talking is done.”
“But I am willing to give you what you want.” Dad shrugs. “At last, you are going to win.”
“I don’t need you to give it to me.” His mouth twists up in to a sinister looking smile. “I can just take it.”
The gun goes off, the sound is so loud it makes my eardrums burst, Mom screams even louder than before. It’s absolute chaos and I don’t know what’s happening. All I know for sure is that somehow, my world is about to come to an end. I’m going to lose someone that I love, and I can’t think who.
My hands cover my ears, vomit threatens to spill free, and I feel a body beside me slump to the ground. Words cannot express the devastation that rockets through me.
Chapter Twenty-One – Tia
It’s the first day in a very long time that I wake up to silence. In fact, it’s so quiet outside that I actually managed to sleep in until almost eleven AM which isn’t like me at all. As I stir from my bed and I creep over to the window, an ice cold feeling floods me. I don’t like having the press outside my home just waiting for me to slip up, locking me inside like I am a prisoner, it’s even weirder having them gone.
“What happened?” I ask myself. I have started talking to myself a lot recently. I guess it’s to fill the all-encompassing silence that constantly fills my home. I have had the odd phone conversation with my mother, but I always cut them short because I don’t like the judgment I can hear in her tone. “Something has changed.”
Fear trickles like egg yolk down my spine as I reach for the TV remote. I’m scared to unleash the truth, but I need to know at the same time. Mostly just to prepare myself for what’s to come. I perch on the edge of the couch and press the on button, anxiety zigzagging through me as I wait for the picture to appear.
“Oh my God!” No wonder they have left me alone. Something far more interesting has happened. Every news station will be filming this, the outside of a house which according to the caption underneath has Lady Saffron Jones inside. I drop the remote and lean in closer. “Oh, my holy fuck.”
Shane pops up into view making my heart stop dead in my chest. He’s there at the scene, just like I suppose he should be, but he doesn’t look happy. His expression is one of sheer torture.
“A man has seemingly been shot at the scene,” the voice of a news reporter comes over the top. “But we do not have any confirmation of this yet. Or of his identity. More on this soon…”
At least it isn’t Shane. I know that’s a terrible thing to think, but I’m just so grateful that he’s okay. He might not ever want anything to do with me ever again, but I still want him to be safe and fine.
The camera angles upwards and I see the shadow of a woman in the window. My fingers automatically reach up and I brush the screen, just knowing that this is Lady Saffron Jones. A woman who has nothing to do with me but that I feel intrinsically linked with. I pray that she’s okay, that she hasn’t been too hurt.
“The police are now negotiating with the criminals, trying to secure the release of Lady Saffron Jones.”
A posh looking man comes into view, and judging by the terror on his face, he must be related to the woman. I would guess her father. He must be having a terrible time of all of this as well.
“Give them the money,” he screams out desperately. “Just get my baby girl free.”
I settle in more comfortably, entrapped by this as it unravels on the screen. It’s like what I said before, this is the scene from a movie, or that’s how it feels more than real life. Only these aren’t actors on the screen, these are real people with their own feelings and emotions, their own lives, which makes it even more tense.
I suck in a breath and I hold it while I wait for what’s to come next.
The camera spins around, leaving the image of Shane and Saffron’s father behind. It shows the police, but I don’t want to see them. I want to see the family some more, to confirm that Shane is okay. I also want to see if his father is there, I can only assume that he might be… unless…
Was he the person who got shot? Panic encompasses me. Maybe he’s dying.