The Royal Heir - Dancing with my eyes closed

A step up from the fingerguns

"I'm here," I hear Tommy say. "I've got you."

I lean against him, and I'm sobbing, I'm sobbing like a child. I don't know what I'd do without him. I really don't. I...

All I know is I really need him right now.

Eventually I pull away, looking up at my everything through my persistent tears. "My dad extorted millions from me. For what?"

Tommy sheepishly shows me the back page of the contract. "To bribe Adelaide."

Of course. It all fits into place. He knew money was the only thing that would work with Adelaide, lots of it. And he knew I had lots of it. That's why he knew Anna's surname, even though I didn't. He tracked her down. He made her an offer she couldn't refuse.

"Wait," I say, flicking to the front of the contract. "This is dated... no! Look at the date!"

Tommy does, and does a double take. "12 January 2020... but that was a couple of weeks before I first met you..."

I have no idea of the exact date we met last year, although I suspect Tommy does. But I know it was late January, early February. So this agreement was signed before I even found myself back at Ramsford. Before I even came across Anna in that bar.

I nod, and watch as pain penetrates Tommy's brown eyes.

"Fuck." He puts his hands to his head. "This is so fucked up." He sits down, and covers his face with his hands.

I've never seen him cry before. But he's crying. Really softly, like he doesn't want me to know. But I know. Of course I know.

Now it's my turn to hold him tightly, trying not to think too hard about what all this means. Because I need to be strong for him right now, for a change.

"God, that man's sick," he eventually mutters. "And I thought my dad was bad."

"I still haven't met your dad," I point out.

"I know, and there's a good reason for that."

"I want to meet him, Tommy," I tell him. "I want to stand up for you. I want him to know how awesome I think you are."

"I'll think about it," he sighs. "I don't really want to see him at the moment."

I laugh. "You think I want to see mine, after just finding out he put me through all that to secure a pathway to power?"

There would always have been something. If it hadn't been my balcony meltdown, it would have been something else. He would have convinced me to come back with him to Ramsford, riled me up to the point I needed to escape, and then Anna was there, the whole time, waiting in that wine bar to pounce on me and ply me with drugs until I forgot my own name.

I hear Mal's voice from somewhere in my murky memories. He's no good to us dead, is he?

I close my eyes, and there's Jen, on the dance floor at Valtoria. "Don't worry about Anna. She's not your real problem."

Oh, my little blossom. I wish you were here. None of this would have happened if you were still here.

I shudder, and open my eyes. I have to pull myself together. Because someone is here, and he's in pieces because he's watched me go through so much pain, and he now knows a lot of it could have been prevented.

"Hey, I'm okay," I reassure Tommy. "I've got you now. If none of that terrible stuff had happened to me... we might never have met."

He exhales shakily, wipes his eyes, then looks at me again. "There is that, blue eyes. But I like to think I'd still have found my way to you somehow."