Page 103 of Silver Tears

“Damon, that’s enough!” Dad warns him. “We’re in a hospital. Do you want Charlie to hear all this after everything he’s been through?”

Damon glares at Seb. “This isn’t over!” He shrugs out of dad’s hold and strides away to where there is an empty row of seats and sits down.

“Seb, I—”

Seb shakes his head at me. “Don’t Mills. Don’t defend me. I don’t deserve it.”

I want to go to him, to put my arms around him and tell him he’s not a bad person. Yes, blackmailing me was wrong, but I couldn’t have got through all this without him. He has more than made up for his wrongs.

Seb smiles, but it doesn’t meet his eyes. “I’m so glad you’re all safe. You have your family now to help you.” He clears his throat and looks conflicted as he walks over to me. As he nears, Luca steps up beside me, but I urge him back with my hand. Seb stops in front of me, and he leans in and kisses my forehead. “Take care, precious,” he says, before he turns and walks down the corridor, away from me.

I stand there watching him leave, and my heart shatters with every step he takes away from me. It’s all over. Us, whatever we were, is finished. I want to run after him and beg him to stay. I want to tell him I need him. Because whatever this was at the start, I think I’m in love with him now. No, I know I’m in love with him. I think I have been for a while now.

Archer whispers something to Eliza and with an apologetic look my way, he announces he and Rafe are going to go after Seb. Eliza embraces me in a hug. “Are you okay?”

I nod my head, still staring down the corridor. I’m not okay though. I’m heartbroken.

Dad, surprisingly, has said little. I thought he would have hit the roof when Seb confessed to the blackmail, but he didn’t seem angry. We have to wait for a doctor to give Charlie the all clear before we can leave with him. Mum will stay in the hospital. They have her on a drip to help get her rehydrated.

I say goodbye to Eliza and Vee in the hospital car park where we all part ways. Vee apologises profusely on behalf of her brother, and I tell her to stop, that Seb has nothing to apologise for. Charlie and I make the drive home with Damon and dad in his car. Emma and Luca follow behind us in her car.

Charlie’s face is a picture when we pull up outside our house. “This is your house?” He stares, mouth open, as we climb out of the car. “It’s big!”

I can’t help but smile at his reaction. “It is bigger than mums, isn’t it. You can sleep in a big bed again tonight.”

Charlie moves closer to me and slips his hand in mine. “Can I sleep with you tonight?”

I swallow back my emotions and glance at Dad. Chops has been through so much in these last twenty-four hours. He’s had to meet a lot of new people and now he’s come to a strange house. It must all be so overwhelming for him.

“Of course you can, Chops,” I assure him, picking him up and kissing his forehead. We head inside, and Damon and I give Charlie a tour of the house. He meets Dana, who fusses over him and makes him a glass of milk with some biscuits. He clings tightly to his elephant that Seb got him.

Once he’s had the tour, I take him to my room, and he climbs into my bed. I snuggle up beside him and tell him everything’s going to be okay. He asks me if mum will come to live here as well, and I explain that mum needs to go to special hospital for a while to get better. A half hour later, he’s snoring away. He’s safe now. He’s here—surrounded by family. It’s over. The lies, the double life, everything. I feel such a sense of relief. I should be happy, and in some ways I am. There is one thing missing that would make this perfect though, and that’s Seb. He walked away. Did he feel anything for me other than regret over blackmailing me? Did I imagine that we had begun to grow close?

MILLY

The next few days are hard and non-stop. The police talk to Charlie and get his version of what happened. They also interview me about the attempted rape. Talking about that night is hard for me. I’d pushed it to the back of my mind. Dad sat with me through the whole interview, and he rubbed my back when I cried. Detective Boyd assured us that Lenny will go away for a long time. They’d had an anonymous tip-off that he was dealing drugs and raided his flat and found a large quantity of class A drugs.

They also interviewed mum at the hospital. Dad was there with her for that interview, too. He hasn’t said much about how he feels about mum being back in our lives, but I know it must be hard for him. Charlie has settled in well at the house. We drove over to Droyton a few days ago and packed up his belongings and brought them here. Mum has given notice on the house. We all agreed that none of us wanted to return there. Too many bad memories.

Saying farewell to mum before she left for rehab was emotional. Charlie hugged her tightly and told her he loved her. Mum promised him she would get better and be a good mum again. She’s going to a rehab place thirty miles from here. Dad assures me it’s one of the best and she’ll get all the support she needs to get clean and stay clean.

Charlie has all the family wrapped around his little finger. He loves spending time with Damon and Luca. My heart melted the other day when I walked in the living room to find dad sitting on the floor at the coffee table with Chops, playing a game of snakes and ladders. Charlie was laughing at my dad when he had to go down a snake to the start of the board.

As for me, well, I’m doing okay. I’m healing. Both Charlie and I are seeing a counsellor once a week. We’ve both been through something traumatic that we need to work through. We are all settling in to our new normal. I’ve given notice on my job at the country club now. Dad insisted. I’m still going to work at the café, but dad said I needed to give myself time to enjoy being a teenager. It feels strange having so much time on my hands now. I hadn’t realised just how much I was constantly on edge and worried.

No one has mentioned Seb since his confession up at the hospital. No one except Chops, that is. Chops is constantly asking when he can see Seb. He misses him and it breaks my heart. I’ve tried to explain that Seb isn’t my boyfriend anymore, so we aren’t spending time together. Charlie frowned at my explanation and said that Seb was still his friend. He isn’t the only one that misses him. I do too. I miss his infectious smile and the way he can pull me from a bad day with one of his smiles or jokes. I’m going back to school tomorrow and the thought of seeing him fills me with a mix of dread and excitement. Will he acknowledge me or ignore me?

* * *

“Are you okay?” my brother asks me. We’re sitting in his car at the school car park. I stare out of the window, watching my fellow students arriving and heading for the entrance.

I nod my head. “Promise me you won’t cause any trouble?”

The last thing I need is an altercation between Damon and Seb.

Damon sighs, his jaw tense. “I won’t start anything because you’ve asked me not to. But Milly, if he says one wrong word to you, I won’t be able to hold back.”

“He won’t,” I say. I know he won’t.