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

Eventually, a large, dark-skinned lady with an unpleasant expression, dressed in a blue security guard uniform ambled over to Flora, dragging her feet. ‘Come with me, please.’ She sounded exhausted by life.

Flora was searched and her bag was sent through a scanner. The security guard watched the screen that showed an X-ray of the contents of her bag. Flora was captivated, this was a fancy scanner and all the colours were inverted, she couldn’t recognise a single item in her bag in the patterns of bright reds, blues and yellows. Before she could ask any questions, the lady turned and shoved a clipboard into her hands. ‘Sign here.’

Flora barely had time to finish her signature before the clipboard was snatched from her hands and a visitor’s badge replaced it. Flora smiled brightly at the woman and thanked her, but the woman simply turned and trudged back to her seat in the corner.

Flora paused outside Sam’s office. The door was slightly ajar, and she could hear voices inside. Taking advantage of this she took several deep breaths, trying to hold her nerve. She felt wretched, knowing she was betraying Sophie’s trust. But she had made up her mind: she could not carry on like this anymore. She couldn’t sleep. She was cancelling classes. Her whole life was turned upside down.

It was too much to bear and she needed the support of her husband, someone she trusted to help her. Sam was her husband. She had to trust in that. Look at the way he had supported her since the note in her bag. He had come home early as soon as she had told him about the brick through the window. And there was his anger on her behalf and how protective he had been. He’d even told his mother to leave when she’d turned up unannounced to see him. Yes, this was more serious, but she loved him, and she knew that he loved her. It was time to put that love to the test, even if it might ruin her best friend’s life. She loved Sam with her whole heart, and she owed it to their marriage to give him the opportunity to be the man she knew he was. Sophie did not know him the way that she did. Her instinct told her that she could trust him and that he would help them.

Flora raised her hand to the door, intending to knock before she talked herself out of it. But stopped when she heard her name. The door was ajar. Turning her head, she moved closer to the gap.

‘Flora is my wife. She deserves the truth. How can you expect me to keep this a secret much longer? This has been going on for too long.’

Flora’s palms began to sweat. What was he talking about?

She was surprised to hear Greg’s burly voice answer him. Sophie had told her Greg was away. ‘And I am your brother. Where does your loyalty lie? I’m asking you to keep this a secret.’

‘But it’s not right. Those bruises.’ A banging made her jump. It sounded like Sam had hit the table or thrown something. She had never heard him sound so angry. ‘You can’t treat people that way and get away with it.’

‘Sam, you don’t know the whole story. Look, I’m begging you. Don’t tell Flora. Please. Just stay quiet and stay out of it.’

‘But Flora will never forgive me if she finds out I knew all along. Even worse, that I didn’t do anything about it.’

‘Please. Just let me handle this my way.’

Sam released a heavy sigh. ‘Fine. I’m not condoning anything. But fine.’

Flora turned and ran down the corridor, stopping at a huge terracotta plant pot. She threw up, vomit splattering the roots of the tree and the wall behind it. A bespectacled man in a pin-stripe suit threw her a disgusted look as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She wanted to scream at him. You’d be sick too if you realised your entire marriage was a sham.

Sam knows. She ran down the stairs trying to escape the knowledge. Sam knows. The words echoed in her mind. Her heart ached. The man she thought she knew had never really existed. He was a figment of her imagination. It was like she had been told he had died. He may as well have. Just minutes ago, she had been reminding herself that at his core, Sam was a decent human being. But she was a fool. Sophie had seen him for what he was. He’ll never choose you, Flora. In the end, his family will always come first. From what she had heard, Sam had seen Sophie’s bruises. How could he see that and stand idly by?

She walked through the foyer in a daze, unable to see the world around her, lost in her grief that the marriage she had been desperate to save was not actually worth saving. She felt a flicker of guilt as she realised that they could have left and escaped by now, but her reluctance to leave Sam, to find a way out that did not ruin her marriage had prolonged Sophie’s suffering. She shuddered to think what Greg had been doing to Sophie over the last few days. How could I have been so selfish? she wondered. In a way, she was just as bad as Sam. She knew Sophie was being harmed, physically and mentally and she had done nothing about it. Nothing apart from consider how it was going to impact her life and how she could salvage her marriage.

Flora was at her car before she even realised that she had left the building. Her mind was flooded with images of Sophie’s bruises interspersed with images of Sam and Greg laughing together, all the Cavendishes together, laughing at Sophie lying broken on the floor. She wiped furiously at the tears streaming down her face. I need to stop being so weak. Now it’s time for action. Sophie