Beyond the Family Ties

Part 31

Two weeks passed by without a word from Freen, and Becky had to admit that she was relieved. Not because she didn't miss Freen - she did, more than she could stand to bear - but because it was safer for Freen. She hadn't told her about her visit to see Sunny, or that by marrying Mike, Freen would've been out of the picture for him, and by not marrying him, she might've just made herself a very easy target for Sunny. If he was keeping tabs on Becky, then the best she could hope for was that his thugs were also reporting that Freen was nowhere to be seen. Becky had never been so grateful for space between the two of them. It made her think that perhaps things would be okay.

She didn't believe the lies she told herself though. Becky wasn't naive enough to believe that her brother would magically disappear and leave her alone. He'd expected her to be heartbroken, lost, all alone. He'd be expecting her to go home at any moment, to settle for having familiar faces around her, even if she hated every moment that she was back in that house, with all those people she'd grown up watching beat people to a pulp. Instead, she was biding her time, trying to fix a mess that she'd helped cause, so that her and Freen would be able to move on, together. After everything they'd been through, their slow progress to friends, to something more, to a complicated mess of misunderstandings and dating other people, and to finally admitting how they felt about each other, the fact that there could be something more was enough for Becky. Of course she felt guilty about ruining Freen's potential happiness with Mike, but everyone had known that they weren't right for each other.

Still, things were quiet for two weeks, until Imra called her late Wednesday night with the news that she'd arrested Mercy Graves and Ben Lockwood. Bleary-eyed, Becky had sat up in bed, the lamplight washing the room yellow as she cleared her fuzzy mind, and listened to her friend gently tell her that she'd caught the people that had been complicit in Jack's murder. It didn't instil any sense of comfort in her though; it was quite the opposite. Slipping out of bed, Becky had spent the rest of the night, and the early hours of the morning, wandering around the dark apartment, a feeling of wrongness settling in her stomach.

As the sky grew gradually lighter, the pinks and oranges of dawn changing to the cloudless blue of a clear spring day, she found herself restless, ironing a load of laundry, scrubbing the bathroom until it sparkled, watering the plants that Freen had planted so long ago, and were still miraculously clinging to life. She roused Laurel at seven, and got her ready for kindergarten, filling up two bowls with cereal and eating breakfast with her daughter, before she packed her lunch and made her put on her coat.

Becky walked her to the private primary school, nodding to the security guards at the front gates, and the ones at the front doors of the blocky red-bricked building, walking down the tiled hallway, passing colourful classrooms with arts and crafts projects taped to the walls and windows, the sounds of laughter and excited chatter spilling out into the hallway as everyone made their way to class. Dropping her daughter off at her classroom, waving and smiling at the young teacher, Becky made her way back out into the city and found herself walking towards the hotel her mother was being kept at. She wasn't sure why she was going there, only that she had to see her.

Taking the elevator up to the penthouse, she was admitted to her mother's suite without question, and found Lillian standing near one of the wide windows, curtains parted as she stared out at the city. Despite the fact that it was barely nine o'clock, Lillian was already sipping at a gin and tonic, wearing one of her tailored suits and looking as at ease as ever. She turned at Becky's entrance, giving her an appraising look as a smirk curled one side of her mouth.

"I didn't think you were coming back. It's been a few weeks."

"I haven't had much to say," Becky said with a shrug, feeling no guilt or remorse for leaving her mom locked up in her hotel room with only guards to talk to. Becky doubted they had been very forthcoming with news or general conversation.