Jizzie | Hand on Heart

Chapter 35 | Innocent Victims?

*back to present*

"We aren't missing anything are we?" I ask Sebastian as he munches on a cereal bar.

He scans the board, "I mean I wouldn't think so? There aren't any holes that I can see."

I heave a sigh, sliding into the chair.

We may have finally done it.

"Except for the obvious."

There's the catch.

Sebastian continues, "we still have yet to find out what your dads debt actually was. We have the backstory but that isn't much good in terms of the outcome."

"That's the part I was least looking forwards too. Not that I was for any of this."

"We have no leads."

I pickup a piece of paper, before throwing it down again, "no clues."

"No theories."

"No hope." I fall backwards so I'm lying back on the armchair.

"Money?"

"That was my first thought. But do we have anyway of proving it."

"Nope."

I sigh in even more defeat. "So close!"

"Yet so far." He finishes.

"Carlisle was useless."

"As was Marcus."

I huff, pulling a face, "maybe I need to call Thea."

Sebastian looks on for a moment before nodding his head.

I pick up my phone, scrolling slowly through the contacts to prolong the process.

When I finally reach her name, I tap it, the big call icon blaring up at me.

I don't let myself overthink it any longer, pressing call and holding the phone to my ear.

Sebastian takes my hand, smiling at me, and I'm too anxious to pull it away, as he looks at me reassuringly.

"Thea hi!" I immediately stand up when she answers, my reaction to stiffen up.

"Hi Lizzie." She says slowly.

"I think you know what I'm calling you about." I say slowly, gnawing on my thumbnail.

"Yeah I guess it's finally time to talk about it."

"What happened... that night." I say slowly.

She takes a deep breathe, "I was at the park with some friends. Everything seemed perfectly normal.

A few of my friends were fighting, I don't even remember what it was about, something silly. I didn't want to get involved so one of my other friends and I decided to go on a little walk, and leave them to sort it out.

Katia and I had never been to this park before, even though she lived in the US, as we were on holiday staying in one of our other friends villa's.

I'd met Katia on the beach the day we'd arrived, she lived not far and we'd become fast friends.

We were walking around, taking in the sights, but it was getting a bit dark, and at one point Katia tripped in a hole and sprained her ankle, so we took a second to catch our breath.

Katia's ankle was really hurting her, so we sat for longer than we meant to, just talking and waiting for it to calm down.

We kind of lost track of time playing eye spy, and realised that we should be getting back.

I helped her up, as she still couldn't walk very well, and ended up taking her boots off because they were rubbing.

We were travelling super slow, but it for to the point where it was too dark to see where we were going in this already unfamiliar place.

There was pretty much no one around, so we followed a sign that said 'exit'

It turns out this was no the way we had come, but there was a building near the exit, and we could see a light on so wanted to ask for help.

We got about three steps before Katia's ankle completely gave way and we had to stop.

I saw a group of men walking into the building, but they were too far away to hear me.

I left Katia to sit so I could go and ask for help.

My hand had just brushed the doorknob when I heard the sound of gunshot and sirens.

I tried to run back to Katia but the door slammed open and a hoard of people ran out, most with guns or some kind of weapon.

I was frozen in fear, and wasn't able to move in time, and I got trampled. They stood on my ribs and my leg.

The police arrived seconds after pretty much all of the men had gone, dragging out the rest and chasing after the others.

I don't remember much of what happened after that, and what I do remember is hazy up until Katia's ankle gave out, I can't remember why they were running out, whether anyone else was injured, or even recall any of their faces.

All I know is that I blacked out and was taken to hospital, woke up briefly, enough for the trip back to the UK so I could be with family and doctors that knew my history, before I fell into the coma."

I take a second to rewind through everything she said, "I'm so sorry Thea."

"It's fine, it's not your fault."

If only she knew.

Sebastian looks at me, my own thought reflected in his eyes, "tell her" he mouthes.

He's right, she deserves to know why all of that happened.

It takes all the strength I can muster to get through my entire backstory, and ten excruciating minutes and a newly forming headache later, and I've finally bore my past to someone other than Jessie and Sebastian.

"Does Joel know." Is the first thing she says after a bit of silence.

I bite my nail, "I'm not sure, I think he knows some of it? But I don't know how much he saw or how much he's pieced together and I still haven't had a chance to tell him the whole story from A to Z."

"You need to." She reasons.

"I know." I slump down, still reeling at our argument, "but he's left now. To go back to the UK."

"Well as soon as you come back. You need to sit him down, and tell him everything."

"I will. I promise."

We exchange a few more words, before hanging up the phone.

"That seemed like a bit of a dead end." Seb says disappointedly.

"That's what I thought to. But there's something that Thea never explained."

Sebastian raises an inquisitive eyebrow.

"She wasn't at that building alone."

His face perks up as he realises what he was hinting at.

"Now to just get in contact with Katia."