Poison

“I love Anna,” I told her. “I’ve always loved Anna. I’ll be giving her everything I can. I’d do anything to make up for what I did to her.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said and her hand gave me the chatter gesture. “Like I said, no point in trying to convince anyone. It’ll never happen. You’re just a fucking prick.”

It struck me right there in that moment, looking over at her and the way she despised me, just how far people’s opinion of me was well beyond repair. There was no way Vicky Mason would ever look at me with anything other than a hiss of fuck you, and she was right – she really would be the easiest person in the crowd to seek forgiveness from. I didn’t stand the slightest hope with anyone else.

I’d been planning to be a lot further along in the Vicky interaction by the time Anna came out of her bedroom, but no. She was at my side and wide-eyed before I’d even registered she was awake, staring from me to her friend across the kitchen then back again.

Vicky pointed at me as she first addressed Anna. “What the hell is he doing here? Nicola would’ve gone ballistic if she’d stayed over. And she nearly did. She was talking about watching the latest Apprentice episode and ordering pizza last night!”

The way Anna’s mouth dropped open said it all. The very prospect of Nicola Henshaw being face to face with me in this place was enough that she paled.

“Seriously,” Vicky continued. “Have you both gone crazy or something? Aren’t you even giving a toss for the utter shit fest that’s occurring right now? I thought you’d be at least trying to stop it, Lucas. You must be an even bigger prick than everyone thinks. Congratulations, that’s quite an achievement.”

I narrowed my eyes, having no idea what she was talking about, and seemingly neither did Anna. She piped up before I did.

“What do you mean, utter shit fest that’s occurring now? We went out to Oscars last night, no biggie.”

“You are joking, right?” Vicky asked.

Anna shook her head. “Uh, no. I’ve been pretty much avoiding everyone since girls’ night. What are you on about?”

Vicky cursed under her breath before she answered. “Dawn was saying that Maya really does know you’re back together now and is planning to run from all of it. She wants to move the fuck away from the mess and take his daughter with her.”

The words were out of my mouth in a flash. “She wants to take Millie? What the fuck are you talking about? Dawn Richards was saying that?”

Vicky nodded. “Yeah. Dawn was telling everyone about just how much of a prick you were to Maya when we were all at girls’ night on Friday, I mean she’s her bestie, right? But then when Anna didn’t answer the what’s going on between you and Lucas question and downed that stupid bloody glass of wine it was obvious that things were a whole load more serious than some weekend fucking. Because that’s what people were hoping it was… just some weekend fucking… and even that was bad enough…”

“But what the hell?” Anna said. “What’s that got to do with anything today?”

Vicky actually looked uncomfortable, even though she hated my guts. “Dawn was pinging us all yesterday saying that Maya was upset. She said Maya wasn’t going to have Millie seeing any of this shit, or seeing her daddy fucking some other woman, and she’d rather it was just them setting up together on new turf than having to talk Millie through this bullshit.” She paused. “She’s already been looking at properties over in Hampshire by her parents, or so Dawn says. Hannah says so too. They were pinging about it yesterday.”

That was too specific to be made up, and I felt myself paling too.

“Let me get this straight,” I said. “Dawn Richards was saying that Maya is upset I’m back with Anna and is looking at properties in Hampshire?”

“Yeah,” Vicky said, as though it was obvious. “She said Maya’s already planning an extended stay down there from this afternoon. She was helping her pack yesterday. She sent the group chat some photos of them in the garden over there… I mean, I guessed you knew…”

Holy fucking shit, I had no idea. I didn’t even know where to start with the thoughts that tumbled.

Anna was staring up at me with a horrified expression to match mine, and my heart pounded as the full implication hit me.

If Maya was taking Millie down to Hampshire there was nothing I could do to hold her back. Not in the short term. She could drive on down and stay with her parents for as long as it suited her, and I could picture it being a damn long time. However long it took to get what she wanted from me.