Save Her by Abigail Osborne (i can read books .txt) 📕

to make you scared enough that you would leave with me. It was for your own good. Surely you can see that?’ She looked at Flora imploringly.

Flora could only stare back. Her mind reeling.

‘Only I can keep you safe. I promised your mother. She charged me with your protection. No one else can do it. Especially not this weak, pathetic mother’s boy.’ She spat the words, looking at Sam with utter disgust. ‘He thought you were crazy, you know. Didn’t believe you when you told him all the things that were happening to you. Stood back and let you be tormented. He’s not worthy to even lick your shoes.’ She prodded Sam with the barrel of the gun.

‘That’s not true. I am the one that worked out it was you.’

Flora said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me this? If you suspected it was Sophie, why wouldn’t you tell me? You let me think you didn’t believe me.’

Sam looked down and gently stroked her face. ‘If I told you that I thought your best friend in the whole world, someone you loved possibly more than me was tormenting you, would you honestly have believed me? I know how you feel about Sophie. You are like me when it comes to my mother.’ He gave her a gentle smile.

Flora bowed her head. He was right. She had not once considered it was Sophie. Which is crazy considering she had suspected her husband but not Sophie. Flora felt ashamed. But mostly she felt pain. Sophie’s betrayal was cutting her apart inside, tearing her heart to pieces. Destroying the happiest memories of her life with each revelation. The depth of her betrayal was crushing her, physically and emotionally. A thought occurred to her. She looked at Sophie and then at Greg. Before she could voice it, Sam addressed Sophie once more and what he said next almost made her faint.

‘I also know what you’ve been doing to Greg.’

Sophie flinched. Greg shifted from foot to foot and looked down, unwilling to meet anyone’s eye.

Flora had forgotten about Greg. The whole reason they were here was because Sophie was being abused by Greg. ‘Greg?’ Flora questioned, her voice croaky and weak. She didn’t know how much more she could take.

Sophie stamped her foot, frustrated. ‘I didn’t do anything to him that he didn’t deserve.’ She looked around at Alistair. ‘It was actually you that gave me the idea in the first place. I read all the things that you had done to Cecelia over the years. Flora still wouldn’t leave, even after everything I’d done to scare her. I needed something stronger, something that would give her no choice but to leave.’ Again, Sophie tried to pin Flora with her gaze. ‘You don’t understand. I had to make you leave. The worms and the drowning weren’t doing it, so I had to do whatever it took. I didn’t enjoy lying to you. Making up these things. But doesn’t it just show how desperate I was to help you? To keep you safe. I was willing to burn myself, to turn a weapon on myself, to take all of that pain, just in the name of your safety.’

Flora was aghast. ‘How could you do that? How could you burn yourself with cigarettes? You made me think Greg was hurting you. It was all lies.’

‘Flora. Please try and understand. He deserved it. He killed my baby!’

Flora stopped breathing. Greg’s head shot up and Sam looked at Greg, nervously.

‘He did what?’ asked Flora.

‘That is not true, Sophie,’ said Greg forcefully.

Sophie swung around to him, pointing the gun in his face. ‘Yes it is!’ she shrieked at him. ‘You forced me to get an abortion.’

Flora looked at Greg in horror. This wasn’t making sense. If Greg wasn’t a violent bully, why would he do something that atrocious?

Sophie turned to look at her, snot and tears were dribbling down her face. She wiped at them angrily. ‘Do you remember, Flora, when you got engaged and I fell ill? It was complications from the termination that he made me have.’

Sam looked over at Greg, startled by this revelation.

‘I am now infertile thanks to him. He killed my baby!’ screamed Sophie. She was screaming into Greg’s face.

Greg stepped closer to Sophie. ‘I’m sorry that happened to you, but you have to stop blaming me. We both agreed to that abortion. Neither of us could have predicted that it was going to go wrong. Ever since that day, you’ve made my life hell. Stealing money, ruining business deals, starting fights. It’s not fair.’

‘Not fair! Not fair?’ Sophie was spitting with rage. Her usual mask had been demolished and all composure had fled the building. ‘I can’t have children because you said that you would leave me if I didn’t get an abortion. That’s not fair.’

Greg looked shamefaced. ‘I know I said that. But you always knew that I didn’t want a baby. I made that very clear. But that didn’t mean you couldn’t have had it yourself if you really wanted it.’

‘Of course I wanted it. I just couldn’t do it alone. Who would have looked after Flora if I went off and raised a baby?’ Sophie said this as if it was a matter of fact and she was unable to see the lunacy of her words. Flora felt faint when it dawned on her that Sophie had terminated her pregnancy in order to stay close to her. To ‘look after her’. The true extent of Sophie’s madness was disturbing. She let out a gasp and it drew Sophie’s attention back to her.

‘You see it now, Flora. Don’t you? You see it was his fault. You understand that I couldn’t leave him as it meant leaving you. He gave me no choice. I promised your mother I’d always protect you.’

Sophie didn’t wait for an answer. Apparently convinced that Flora now understood, Sophie took a deep steadying breath. She put her hand out to Flora and kept the gun pointed at Greg. ‘Come on, Flora.