Save Her, Abigail Osborne [ebook reader for surface pro txt] 📗

was next door, having my chest strapped up by a private family doctor.’ She emphasised the word family in air quotes. ‘She saw all the bruises on my body and wouldn’t even look me in the eye.’

Sophie knelt in front of Flora, she took her hands, gripping them hard. Flora saw fear in her friend’s eyes. Normally, her face was expressionless and controlled. But today her emotions were unbridled. Flora had seen more emotions on Sophie’s face today than she had in the entire friendship. It was heartbreaking that Greg had literally beaten her friend’s emotions out of her.

‘The whole family are in on it, Flo. Alistair told me in no uncertain terms that were I to do anything foolish such as leaving the family and causing a scandal, then I would reap what I sow. Those were his exact words.’

Flora’s mind was reeling. She could just about get her head around Greg being a vile bully but the whole family knowing about it and letting it happen… Her hesitance must have shown on her face.

‘Flora, after the way Cecelia has treated us, the things she has said to us… Look at what she did on your wedding day. Is it really so hard to believe that she could know that her son was an abusive bully and not do anything about it? Reputation is everything to Cecelia. Look at all these ridiculous parties she throws and insists we wear designer dresses to protect the family name. Reputation is everything to all of them. If I leave Greg it will cause rumours and if the truth were to come out, it could ruin everything for them. Who would want to invest with a company that employs a wife-beater? They can’t risk it.’

‘But Sam isn’t like that.’

Sophie looked away, as if choosing her next words carefully. ‘I know you love Sam. I know you think he is a good man. But he isn’t.’ Flora opened her mouth to deny it. But Sophie waved her words away. ‘Let me finish. Sam seems like he has a moral compass. Like he’s different from the rest of them. But he is worse as he lets them get away with it. He turns a blind eye to the bad things they do. I’ve been in meetings where they have coerced honest, hard-working people into signing their businesses, their life’s work, over to the Cavendish Group. Threatening their families if they don’t. Sam was in those meetings. Staring resolutely at the wall. Doing nothing to stop it.’

Flora shook her head. Sam wouldn’t do that.

‘You don’t believe me.’

‘Sam isn’t like that. He would probably do something behind the scenes. He wouldn’t let that happen.’

Sophie smiled at her, but it was a joyless smile. ‘Just think about all the awful things that Cecelia has done and said to you. Think about how resolutely Sam has either denied it or explained them away. He has never accepted that his mother doesn’t like you. If he doesn’t believe what you say when you tell him what his mother has done, do you think he would believe you if you told him what his brother has done? You, his wife, have told him on multiple occasions about the way you have been treated. He always has an explanation. An excuse. He makes it your fault or makes you think you are too sensitive.’

What could Flora say to that? There was no denying the truth. ‘I guess. But there is a difference between not wanting to see the worst in your mother and knowing that your brother was knocking ten bells out of his wife.’ Sam wouldn’t stand for that. It wasn’t as if Cecelia had been physically violent. Not that her cutting remarks about Flora’s parents weren’t wounding in themselves.

Sophie’s head slumped onto Flora’s lap. Flora stroked her blonde hair, the colour of champagne. ‘Listen, Soph, the main thing is, there is no way you can carry on living like this. We have to get you away from Greg. There must be something we can do.’

Sophie looked up at Flora, her eyes desolate. ‘Haven’t you listened to anything I’ve said?’

‘What if we go to the police?’

Sophie let out a growl of frustration. ‘Do you remember that dinner we had a couple of years ago. The one where Alistair invited a friend to Friday Night Dinner, Thomas Doyle?’

Flora thought back. Friday Night Dinner was strictly a family affair. Which is why it had shocked everyone to find a portly gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair and a wide smile, sat in Alistair’s place at the table. Even Cecelia had looked momentarily perturbed.

‘Er… yes. I remember.’

‘Alistair introduced him as a family friend. He has known the family for years.’

‘So?’

‘You didn’t let me finish. He’s also the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police. Who do you think sorted out their speeding tickets, parking tickets, basically anything they want?’

‘But surely he can’t interfere in something so serious.’

‘Are you willing to take the risk?’ Sophie’s eyes filled with horror at whatever she was thinking. ‘I’m certainly not. I don’t know what Greg would do to me if I tried to leave again.’

They sat in silence for a while, Sophie’s head resting on Flora’s lap. Sophie appeared lost in thought. Flora just didn’t know what to say. She had been transported into a different universe where nothing made sense anymore.

‘This is ridiculous. You can’t stay with a man who does this.’ Flora gestured to Sophie’s body. Her mind was still imprinted with the image of the watercolour of bruises across her body. ‘There has to be something we can do.’

‘There is one way out for me. But I don’t think I can do it.’

‘What is it?’

‘There is only one way for me to escape and that is to squirrel away enough money and then leave. Vanish this time. I can’t stay in Manchester. I’d have to go somewhere else. No hotels. Completely off the grid. If I could get enough money together, I could be smarter this time. Run