‘Police are on their way. It’ll go better at the trial if you tell the truth for once in your lives,’ he said. ‘Naomi’s going home now, but tomorrow, she’ll be going public. One hell of a story. I advise you to make sure your side of it matches hers.’
They were yelling by now, both of them. Dan turned away and took Naomi to his car and placed her in the passenger seat like she was made of china, and closed the door. Two minutes later down a lonely country lane, a police car passed them, acting on a tipoff.
It was way past one in the morning when they got to Alderley Edge and turned into the Hamiltons’ driveway. Dan switched the headlights off and rolled to the front of the house as quietly as possible and cut the engine. Nothing moved downstairs. A light was on upstairs. Annabel’s room.
‘We don’t want to shock them,’ he told Naomi.
‘It’s inevitable.’
Dan took his phone out of his pocket and asked for the number. Naomi sat, thinking her heart might explode, trying to draw it to mind. She gave him the digits. He pressed them with his forefinger and held the phone to his ear.
It rang six times. Naomi could hear it clearly from Dan’s left side. Annabel picked up. Her voice was low and lifeless.
‘Hello?’
‘Annabel?’
‘Yes. Who is this?’
‘Sorry for ringing at this hour, but I have something important to tell you.’
A pause. ‘Who is this?’
‘It’s Dan Stone. I’m Nathan’s brother and I’ve come with some very good news for you. I’m sitting outside the house right now. Please don’t be startled.’
Naomi looked up and saw the curtain twitch upstairs.
‘OK. What news?’ Annabel said, without enthusiasm.
‘Are you sitting down?’
Another short wait. ‘I am now.’
‘I have someone with me who wants to talk to you.’
Dan leant over the gearstick and soundlessly kissed Naomi’s cheek. There were tears in his eyes when he straightened up. He handed her the phone and Naomi held it to her ear and found it hard to speak. Her throat ached.
‘Hello?’ Annabel said, dazed.
Dan nodded once, encouraging Naomi to find her voice.
She did, with tears rolling down her face. ‘Annie?’ she said in a gush, clutching Dan’s fingers for support. ‘Annie, it’s me. I’m home.’
The end.
A message from the author. I wanted to personally thank you for
reading Either Side of Midnight. I wrote this book during a time of waiting. A different book of mine was being read in full by two separate literary agencies in London. The total waiting time was eight months. It was a time of suspense with my future in someone else’s hands. I felt powerless and uptight. My subconscious mind threw up this plot during that time. I’ve come to realise that I wrote this book as an outlet for my feelings. I loved doing it. It was escapism for me! I grew up a few miles from Manchester. My son is studying piano at the Royal Northern College of Music right now. His study of the piano started at home, with me. I taught him until he was too good for me – no kidding! He’s the only person over a 25 year career of teaching piano, whose playing standard surpassed mine – when he was just 13! My passion for reading and then writing started to possess me about five years ago. I began to slot writing between the day job. A substantial portion of my heart remains in the north west of England, even though I now live in the north east. I hope you enjoyed reading Either Side of Midnight. Writing is like music-making. Something is artistically created and then given away, with the purpose of bringing pleasure to others. Both literary agencies said no to my work. Tired of gathering rejection letters (I had enough to decorate one wall of my bedroom) I self-published. The only way I can spread the word about my book is through you, the reader. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review on the Amazon website, and tweet away about it and gossip over the garden fence. I will be starting work on a sequel to this book in October. There is unfinished business. Watch this space………..
This is where you can find me:
[email protected]
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7184950.Tori_de_Clare
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tori-de-Clare/185620708284147
https://twitter.com/toride_de
Either Side of Midnight Page 40