Page 36 of The Happy Family

I try to do that, forcing myself towards Gemma in the hopes that I can get close enough to plunge the needle into a part of her body that will cause her the most problems, but all that happens is that she hits me again, this time in the stomach.

That punch takes all the air from my lungs, and I have no choice but to go down on bended knee as I try to gulp in any oxygen I can get. But in that vulnerable position, Gemma takes advantage by kicking the bended leg I rest on, causing me to fall fully to the floor.

Now I really am lying in a perilous position, unlike the one I was in when I coaxed Gemma and that woman in here in the first place, and to make matters worse, I have dropped the needle. I can see it lying on the floor, but it’s just out of my reach, and while I try to grab it, Gemma takes decisive action to stop me from doing that.

I let out a howl of pain as she places her foot onto my outstretched hand and pushes down on it, the heel of her shoe digging deeply into my trapped limb. She’s going to break my fingers if she keeps on applying pressure, so I force myself to wriggle free, feeling my hand aching as I do. It could be broken, but now is not the time to inspect my injuries. I need to make sure Gemma can’t hurt me anymore and the best way to do that is to hurt her.

I grab her legs and aim to knock her off her feet so she is on the floor with me, a situation that will give me a far better chance of making this a fairer fight. But Gemma reaches out for the shelves and that helps her stay upright, keeping her balance and leaving me pathetically pulling on her from my prone position.

Then I see Gemma doing the exact thing I just did.

She picks up a needle and takes it out of the packet so that it is ready to be used.

She’s going to stab me with it and it feels like I’m in no position to stop her.

I decide to let go of her legs then because that tactic isn’t working for me, and instead, focus all my energy on trying to reach the needle that I dropped a few moments ago.

As I scramble towards it, I am aware that Gemma will be raising her own needle up before attempting to plunge it down into me. I can’t turn back and look at her because that would only waste time that I do not have, so I keep crawling until I reach the needle. Only then do I attempt to turn back and look at my enemy, but as I do, I see the needle coming towards me and there is no time to stop it.

I let out another cry of pain as the needle enters my skin, stabbing me in the left side of my torso, and while it’s not a place that should prove as fatal as being stabbed in the neck, I know I cannot afford for Gemma to get many more goes at hurting me.

So I use my needle to strike back at her, jabbing it into her lower leg and giving her a reason to experience pain now.

Such was the force of the blow I just gave her, the needle actually snaps, possibly because it hit a bone in her leg, and I see her stagger backwards as she deals with the shock of that on her body.

I feel the pain in my left-hand side where she hit me, but push up to my feet, and while Gemma slashes her needle at the air in between us, I decide to take a chance that she isn’t going to be able to stab me anywhere vital in the time it will take me to close the gap between us.

So I rush forward, giving Gemma no time to prepare her next attack, and while the needle hits my shoulder and I feel more pain, she hasn’t dealt me a damaging blow. Now I am pushing her back into the wall, and as her body hits it from behind, my body hits her from the front, crushing her.

As she tries to free herself from where she is wedged between my body and the wall, I reach up and grab a handful of her hair before slamming her head back against the hard wall. I hear a loud crack and Gemma groans, but I don’t stop, and while she keeps trying to stab me with the needle, I keep hitting her head until she suddenly goes limp.

The needle falls to the floor first.

As I step backwards, Gemma then falls to the floor after it.

When I crouch down to feel for a pulse, I get no sign of one.

Only then do I drop to the floor too, breathing hard, surrounded on both sides by a dead body, and aware that I am going to be the only person to leave this storeroom alive.

I did it.

I killed Gemma.

Now, as it usually is, my next goal is clear.

I need to get away with it.

TWENTY-FIVE

REID

Being around an ex can always be awkward. But being around an ex with memory loss? Even more so. I’m not sure what to say or how to behave. I feel I have to tiptoe through whatever conversation I start with Sadie since the doctor told us she is suffering from amnesia surrounding the events that led to her being in this hospital. I also know that I am going to have to talk to her about it soon. That’s because the fact that she broke into my house and attacked my partner cannot go unanswered.

For now, I am patiently waiting as I watch my children enjoy having their mother back with them. Arthur and Ruby are perched on Sadie’s bed, the pair of them sitting as close as they can to the patient and chattering away to her as if she hasn’t just woken up from a coma and needs some quiet and peace to come around. But try telling two excitable children to be quiet and see how far it gets you. That’s why I haven’t bothered and Sadie’s parents haven’t bothered either. They are sitting in the chairs by the bed, smiling at their grandchildren interacting with their daughter, and for one brief moment, it’s nice to see all the family looking happy. But it really is a brief moment when I remember that I am standing on the periphery of this scene, and that’s because I brought Luna into the family and she is currently elsewhere in this hospital.

I’m holding Jude and have been ever since I came in here. Not for the first time, I notice Sadie looking at the little boy in my arms, and even though I have already told her who he is, she still seems unsure. Sadie went into her coma before Jude was born, so this has been the first time she has seen or met my son, the step-sibling to the two children we share together. That’s why I can forgive her being a little hesitant or just plain awkward around him. I don’t want the awkwardness to last, though, as neither Luna nor I should feel uneasy about having brought this beautiful little boy into the world. We haven’t done anything wrong, unlike the woman lying in the bed looking over at me and my son.

I really want to talk to Sadie about what happened between her and Luna and I know I’m not the only one. The police will want to talk to her too, now that she is awake. But thanks to the doctors and nurses caring for Sadie, I will get the first chance to discuss the topic with her. The police are being kept away until she has had more time to recover.