Unperfect

by Susie Tate

  “There in’t a burns dressing in ’ere,” he muttered.

  “Then go and get one from your medical bag in the car,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Now, Heath, you’re the most qualified for this,” she continued to boss. “You sort out Mia’s dressing and I’ll sort the pies.” Heath nodded and moved to the kit on the granite. Anyone would agree with Fern when she was using that voice. “Now, pet,” she said, looking at me and using that softer tone again. “You let Heath sort you out.” I nodded and felt my eyes sting at this formidable lady’s unexpected kindness. A tear fell and she reached up to wipe it away. “Those pies look right lovely. All they need is a bit of a trim. You’ve owt to worry about.” Her voice sounded a little shaky at the end and to my shock I could see her eyes were just a little wet. She blinked and cleared her throat, squeezed my hand again and then let me go to let Heath take her place. “Don’t just stand there, boys,” she snapped as she bustled to the counter. “Aubrey – where is that dressing? Max? Get me a sharp knife. Teddy? Get the kettle on for the veg and, Yaz – go and hold Mia’s hand.”

  After a few more minutes under the tap I was moved to the kitchen table. Yaz settled in the chair next to mine and took my hand as Heath started to clean the burn. I was too shocked by Fern to feel any pain as he doused it with antiseptic. When I glanced at Yaz she gave me an encouraging smile. My gaze moved to Heath and I could see a muscle working in his jaw. When he looked up his eyes were burning.

  “If I ever get my hands on that bastard he’ll have more than a fracture dislocation of his shoulder and a few broken ribs to worry about,” he said, his voice vibrating with anger.

  “I-I’m fine now, Heath,” I told him.

  “No, you are not,” he said, looking back down at my arm. “But you will be.”

  “Mia?” Teddy had made his way out from behind the kitchen island and was standing in front of the table across from us. He looked pale and a little shaken but he managed a small smile. “We’ll work on your elbow strike, okay?”

  It was slow and it was wobbly, but I managed to give him one in return.

  *****

  Max

  “Mr Clifton?” I muttered into the phone as I pushed up from the bed. Mia was sleeping now. Her arm bandaged and her face still tear streaked, but she was finally peaceful. I pushed out the memory of the tortured look on her face as she told me how she was used up, damaged, unclean, and tamped down the rage I felt in response.

  “What time do you call this?” Sam’s voice rumbled down the line. “You nearly woke up my wife.” For some reason I couldn’t picture the big ex-special forces man with a wife, but I shrugged off my surprise.

  “Look, I’m sorry,” I said as I moved to the ensuite bathroom and closed the door behind me. Mia was too worked up earlier to realise what she’d let slip. I didn’t want to risk her overhearing me now. “But it can’t wait. I have a surname.”

  Chapter 32

  She’s been through enough

  Mia

  “I’ll go, Verity,” I said, pushing the stubborn women back down into her seat. “It’s raining and you’ll ruin your make-up.”

  “What about your make-up?” she asked and I raised my eyebrows.

  “Stupid-naturally-thick-eyelashed bitch,” she muttered and I smiled at her. It was pouring outside and I was the one with unstyled hair, no make-up and a waterproof coat. Verity’s hair was straightened into sleek chestnut sheets, her eye makeup was flawless and she had on the highest, thinnest heels I’d ever seen in my life. Her coat may have been Dior, white and fabulous, but it was not exactly weatherproof.

  “Anyone want anything from the café?” I didn’t need to ask Max. He always had the same – I’d long since learnt Max was a creature of habit.

  “I am happy to go you know,” Yaz told me from her downward dog position in the middle of the office – it was Yoga Madness Monday – much to Max’s exasperation.

  “The café is 200 yards down the street. I think I can make it that far without falling in a pothole.” After taking another order from Abdul, one of the junior architects, I headed out.

  The problem was that in the last few weeks I’d started to forget.

  Spending time with Max and allowing myself to fall into a safe cocoon of happiness and normality, I’d let all my fear slip into the background. I’d forgotten that there was a reason to be afraid. That life, at least my life, wasn’t all about good men who were patient and kind, and all kinds of hot in the bedroom. About friends who valued you and supported you. About teenagers who slowly lowered their defences around you. About watching telly curled up to a beautiful man, arguing good-naturedly with his beautiful stepson about whether or not he could tolerate another weird Netflix documentary.

  No.

  Life was dangerous. It was precarious. I should not have forgotten that. Maybe then I wouldn’t have been caught with my defences down.

  “You look like shit.”

  I flinched and whirled around on the pavement at the sound of his voice and there he was: tall and imposing in his tailored suit and Italian leather shoes, his hair styled to perfection, his stubble artfully sculpted rather than the messy, unkempt look I had grown to prefer. He looked at me with that familiar disgusted expression on his face, as if I was an insect beneath his notice.

  “What the fuck happened to your hair?”

  I froze for a moment, stumbling to a full stop in my tracks. It was as if the fear just completely shut down my synapses and I was unable to move. All those months of fear and dread and now here he was, feet away from me. Coming out of my frozen stance I glanced around. The street was bustling with people who were now skirting around Nate and me on the pavement. I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. He couldn’t very well snatch me away in broad daylight. I had to show strength. Nate would pounce on any weakness and use it to destroy me.

  “It’s none of your business what I do with my hair or anything else now.” I tried to keep my voice strong, hating the thread of fear I could hear in it.

  “You’re always going to be my business, Amelia.” He was smiling at me, but his low voice was laced with menace. “You’re my goddamn wife.” I glanced around at the busy street again before turning away from him and walking as fast as I could. He easily fell into step with me. When his arm brushed mine and I scuttled to the side he reached for my elbow and held it in that punishing grip. A man coming in the opposite direction frowned as he saw me give my arm a violent shake to try and dislodge Nate’s hand.

  “Make a fuss and your northern bit of rough’s business sinks like a stone,” he hissed at me, his smile still in place. I stopped struggling and my heart skipped a couple of beats.

  “W-what are you talking about?” I said as we drew to a stop outside the café I’d been heading for. It was obvious Nate had known where I was going and what time I’d be going there. I always suspected he would have me watched, but the realisation that it was true made my skin crawl.

  He dropped my arm and stepped back, a smug expression on his face, which made the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach intensify.

  “I’ve been branching out a bit, investment-wise. Found this great new architecture firm to work with - few hotels here. Eco village or retreat there. Museum or two. Eco project visitors’ centre. It’s a growth area all this tree-hugging hippy shit. Really great way to make my money work for me.”

  No. I screamed in my head, trying to keep from my face the despair I was feeling. I had known that Nate was involved with the eco village project, but had been reassured by Verity that they weren’t moving forward with Nate as an investor. I didn’t know that there were other projects involving Nate’s company. No, no, no.

  “But …but it was only the eco village and that –”

  “I don’t always advertise my investments as you well know, Amelia,” he said with a smug smile. “Once I found out that you were working at Hardcastle and Markham I managed to insinuate myself in all sorts of their projects. Then I bided my time. Yo
u know how I like to come at things from a position of power. And you should know, I am the one in a position of power here, Amelia. It’s such a shame when one of the investors in these big projects loses faith in the architect that’s been commissioned. One loss would be difficult for a fledging firm to take, even if they do have that ‘hot architect off Dream Homes’. Three losses would put them in real financial difficulty. Enough that they wouldn’t be able to pay their staff. Companies like that live month to month with their outgoings.”

  “What do you want?” I said through gritted teeth, and his smile grew even wider before he stepped into my space and leaned down until his face was an inch away from mine.

  “You thought you could just waltz away from me? Did you forget who you are? Did you forget who I am? Nobody walks away from me. Not until I say. You walk away from me now and I go straight to the police – something the hospital said I should have done at the time. They were quite insistent actually. I might have refused, but that didn’t mean I declined having it all documented in case I were to change my mind. It would be a shame if you went to jail and your boyfriend went out of business.”

  That’s when I felt myself shut down. All my emotions simply evaporated, leaving a shell of a human behind.

  “Just tell me what you want,” I said. The lack of fear in my voice made his eyes flash and a muscle tick in his jaw. I could see his hand twitch and I thought for a moment he was going to hit me, right out here in public. I almost wanted him to. But after a few seconds he was back to wearing a cool expression, his eyes only communicating indifference again.

  “I knew you’d see reason,” he told me and then he smiled.

  *****

  Max

  “Where is she?”

  “Max, for the millionth time I don’t know, alright?” Yaz said on an eye roll.

  “She must have said something about where she was going?”

  “I’ve told you already. She decided to visit her family. Apparently she hasn’t seen them for a few years and it’s a tricky situation. That’s probably why she didn’t want to involve you. Cool your jets will you? She’ll only be gone a couple of days.”

  I huffed out an aggravated breath and crossed my arms over my chest. Mia had been acting right weird since she’d come back with my bacon roll yesterday. The lack of eye contact was the first thing I noticed. She’d gone back to her desk and focused on her screen like her life depended on it. At the end of the day when she was due to come back to mine so we could finish watching Stranger Things with Teddy, she’d told me she had a headache and needed to go home.

  Looking back on it now, I can remember her hands were shaking. I’d assumed that it was something to do with her head – but what kind of headache made your hands shake? And she hadn’t looked into my eyes once. When I gave her a hug she was stiff in my arms, only briefly squeezing me back, which just wasn’t Mia. Maybe it was the stress of anticipating seeing her family? I knew how she believed she’d let them down and how worried she was about their reaction to her now. But I couldn’t shake this bad feeling. Deep in my gut something didn’t sit right.

  “And you have no idea where her parents live?” I asked. Yaz sighed.

  “She didn’t say. Listen, I’m sorry Max, but I wasn’t supposed to even be telling you this much. Let her sort out things with her family by herself. There’s nothing that any … hey! Max!”

  I had walked away without looking back and fished my mobile out of my back pocket. Interrogating Yaz was getting me nowhere.

  “Clifton.”

  “Tell me you have something.”

  “Amelia Banks,” Sam said and I closed my eyes in relief. “Wife of Nathanial Banks.” My eyes snapped open and I pulled in a shocked breath.

  “The Nathanial Banks?”

  “Property developer, CEO of the biggest online estate agent in the country? That’s the one.”

  I stopped walking and stared into the middle distance, taking this new information in.

  “Jesus Christ,” I breathed. Mia’s violent ex-husband part-owned three of my biggest projects. The bastard practically owned me.

  “I have his address.”

  “Uh … yeah, great,” I muttered.

  I blinked as I forced my feet to keep moving then sat down heavily in my office chair.

  “Do you have the contact details of her family?” I asked, trying to focus on the immediate problem and not how I was going to beat the shit out of a man that held my future in his abusive hands.

  “Right, so I … yes, but …” Sam never seemed unsure about anything. I frowned.

  “What’s the matter?’

  “Well, it’s just that you might not need their address.”

  “Sam, I do need their address. She’s gone to them. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

  “Listen, the thing is, I might have sent a more junior member of my team to see them and he might have fucked up. Just a bit.”

  Just then the doorbell went, followed by a long banging on the door.

  “What do you mean?” I asked as I pushed up from the office chair and made my way into the hallway.

  “He was a bit obvious. Seems that Mia’s sister doesn’t miss much. She made him almost instantly. He ended up giving her your address. Apparently the sister was quite … insistent.”

  Before I could say anything Yaz had opened the front door. Teddy poked his head out of his bedroom and caught my eye.

  A blonde woman with a striking resemblance to Mia stood on the threshold to my house, flanked by an older couple. The blonde woman looked furious, the older couple nervous.

  “Where is my sister?” the woman shouted at me as Yaz stepped back to let her through. “I can’t believe another one of you wankers sent people to spy on my family. How does Mimi find these dickheads?” She strode up to me and poked me in the chest, hard. “I’m not afraid of you, mate. Now, go and get my sister. I’m taking her home.”

  “Er, yeah,” Sam muttered through the phone that was pressed to my ear. “Sorry about that. Look I’ll send over the file on Amelia Banks. Everything’s there.”

  “Okay, great,” I said, my gaze fixed on the small blonde in front of me with the all-too-familiar dark brown eyes.

  “A warning though, Max,” Sam said, his voice having dropped in pitch. “It doesn’t make for easy reading. Understand what I mean?”

  My chest clenched. “I understand,” I said, my voice wooden with shock. “You’ll get the rest of what I owe you tomorrow.”

  “No further charge,” Sam said, his voice firm.

  “But – “

  “No,” he snapped. “No charge. And if Mia needs our help going forward they’ll be no charge for that too.” I closed my eyes slowly. Bloody hell, what was in that file?

  “Thanks, man,” I said to my feet before I disconnected the call and let the phone drop to my side. When I looked up the small blonde was right in front of me with her arms crossed over her chest. The older couple were hovering a few feet away, looking very uncomfortable and staring around at the vast hallway and glass roof in awe.

  “Mum, Dad,” the blonde woman snapped. “Stop standing there like a pair of scared mice and looking around as if we’re in Buckingham Palace. Any monkey with a few bob can buy a house like this. He –”

  “He designed it actually,” Teddy chipped in, having come out into the corridor. “Built it from the ground up.”

  Her eyes flashed but stayed focused on me. “Oh fancy, Mr Dream Homes. Well I don’t give two shits what you designed. All I want to know is where my bloody sister is, you arse. And if you’ve hurt her – ”

  “I would never hurt her.”

  “The last time I spoke to my sister she could barely talk and she sounded like absolute crap,” the blonde snapped back at me.

  “When was that?” I asked.

  “Four months ago.”

  “Oh, well that was when she was in the hospital so – ”

  I didn’t get the chance to complete my sentence.
At the mention of hospital, all hell broke loose in the corridor. The older gentleman who had seemed fairly mild mannered, suddenly launched himself at me and shoved me hard in the centre of my chest. I had a good few kilos on him, but the surprise of it did cause me to stumble back a couple of steps.

  “What the–?”

  “How dare you hurt my daughter!” the man shouted, his face twisted with rage. “She’s been through enough!” He made another lunge towards me, but the blonde girl and the older woman both moved to hold him back, and Teddy moved to block his path, flanked by Rodger who was growling. The older man struggled for a moment then seemed to come back to himself. The anger drained out of his expression leaving deep sadness. “She’s been through enough,” he repeated on a broken whisper as his body sagged forward.

  “Dad, calm down,” the blonde said in a worried tone. “You know your heart isn’t up to this kind of upset.”

  “My dad would never hurt anyone,” Teddy told them, bristling with indignation. I blinked. Teddy hadn’t called me Dad in over a year. “He looks after people. It’s just what he does. He looked after Mum when she let him, he looks after me, he took in Rodger and now he looks after Mia as well. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “Mia?” The blonde frowned as she took in the massive, ugly, scarred dog and scruffy teenager.

  “I think maybe we should all calm down,” the older woman said, her soft voice a sharp contrast to the animosity in the atmosphere. She turned to Yaz, who she must have thought looked the most reasonable human at that moment (which was saying something as Yaz had her most slouchy surfer chick outfit on – a distressed peace sign t-shirt paired with frayed cut offs, flip flops, multiple shell necklaces and her hair was piled up on top of her head complete with a couple of braids threaded with bright colours). “Do you have any tea, dear?”

  Chapter 33

  Nobody is going to hurt her

  Max

  A couple of character references later (to be honest the one that seemed to hold the most weight was from Roger, who, since the perceived threat to my person had not left my side), and the Suttons had calmed down enough to sit around the kitchen table with a cup of tea. Stiff, awkward introductions were made, and Marnie (Mia’s sister), Sid (her dad) and Ann (her mum) started to explain why they’d barged into my house.