I'll keep you safe

Chapter 130

One week later...

Eddie's life was separated into two parts. Work life and home life.

It had been a week since the death of Maxine. The news of her brutal murder had sent a shockwave through the school. Waterloo Road had been quiet over the last week. The staff, including Eddie, had been working hard to keep everything in order. It was one of those times where he was grateful he had such brilliant colleagues working alongside him. Waterloo Road was staying afloat because of their hard work.

The students had also come together in their grief and had set up a memorial for Maxine, just outside the school gates. Over the week, it had expanded in size, laden with flowers, photos and goodbye messages. Eddie felt a sense of pride whenever he looked at it. Waterloo Road wasn't just a school, it was a family. Eddie was proud to be a part of it.

Despite the tragedy of losing Maxine, Waterloo Road, its staff and students, were stable. Eddie was relieved. He wished he could say the same for him, Rachel and their home life. That was a complete mess. And it didn't look like it was going to improve any time soon.

Rachel was quiet. She was distant, jumpy and tearful. She had completely shut down and had, in turn, shut Eddie out. She was still refusing to sleep in the bedroom they shared. Instead, she was sleeping in the spare room, or on the sofa. She flinched and often pulled away from Eddie when he reached out to touch or kiss her. Even when she did let him wrap his arms around her, or place a kiss in her hair, she tensed up, only relaxing when he let go.

Rachel thought Eddie couldn't hear her sobbing at night when they were both in bed. But he did, and it broke his heart knowing that she wouldn't let him comfort her.

And then there were the nightmares. They'd happened every night for the last week, and not just once a night either. Eddie had lost count of the times he and Philip had woken up to hear Rachel screaming and crying out. He'd lost count of the times he'd burst into the spare room to sit by Rachel's side as she calmed herself down. He'd lost count of the times she'd pushed him off her when he'd tried to comfort her.

No matter what Eddie tried, Rachel wouldn't talk to him. Not properly anyway. Despite the occasional small talk exchanged between them, they'd often spent the evenings of the last week sat in silence, Eddie marking whilst Rachel stared into space, slept or completed the paperwork Eddie had given her. There was no tension between them. There was no awkwardness or discomfort. It was just pure, deafening silence, which seemed to be worse than any tension or awkwardness.

Eddie had never seen her like this, not since the summer after Stuart had attacked her. Even then, she hadn't been as bad as she was right now. This time, somehow, she was worse. Worst to the point where Eddie couldn't read her at all. Usually, she only had to look at him and he'd know what she was thinking or feeling. Her silence was scaring him. She was drowning and Eddie didn't know how to save her when her mind had such a tight grip on her.

Eddie wasn't sure if the reason for her shutting down was because of what had happened to Maxine, or because she had found out that she was pregnant. There was a huge chance it could be a mixture of the two. Both were big enough bombshells that either aspect of Rachel's life could be the culprit.

The news of Maxine's death had spread across the whole of Rochdale and Manchester. It had, subsequently, reached the ears of the newspapers. And, as usual, they hadn't been kind and had blown things out of proportion.

Just two days after Maxine's death, Eddie had come home from work to find Rachel sat cross-legged on the sofa, staring at a newspaper in her hand. When Eddie had asked her what was wrong, she silently handed him the paper before running upstairs to the spare room. He had been confused at first, until he had read the front page, followed by the article.