“Hurry up, for fuck’s sake, Jay,” Tanya called, getting seriously impatient.

              “I’m here, babe,” he said; returning to her side and then picking up his keys, he put his arm around her shoulder.

              “You can’t stay here, Tan, it ain’t right. I’m going to book you into a hotel.” He decided that her staying here with Emma would be more hassle than it was worth.

              “Thank fucking God for that,” Tanya almost smiled, “for a moment there, I thought you were going to make me stay here with the vomit stains and the cockroaches.”

Picking up her bag from the hallway, he trudged behind her out to the car.

              “There’s a little hotel on the edge of town; a right little posh place it is; I’ll stay there,’ she said. “Think they have a spa, too, and I could do with a nice massage, my neck’s frigging killing me.”

Jay wasn’t really listening; he was too worried about what to do next. Best thing to do was act normal, he thought; Billy might not know that it was him screwing around with Tanya. For all he knew he was worrying about nothing. He decided that as soon as he had dropped Tanya off at the hotel he would go home, and see what the situation was: surely if Billy was onto him, Jay would have been the first to know. Tanya had said that Billy had brought that bird from the club home, so that had to be it, as simple as that: Billy had traded Tanya in for a younger model. Chucking Tanya’s case in the boot he felt calmer: yeah, things would be fine, he was sure. Opening the passenger door of his beamer for Tanya he grinned and winked.

              “Your chariot awaits, madam.”

33

Emma was a ghost of the girl she had been, seriously underweight, her once full chest now shrunken to nothing and her ribs visible through her nightshirt. She had endured so much for the past ten days and felt exhausted. The hospital had kept her in and helped to wean her off her drug addiction, she had been hallucinating badly for the first few days, and at times she had felt so disorientated she had imagined she was back in the flat with Jay. Thankfully the side effects were dying down, but she felt drained and tired all the time. The doctors had recommended medication to ease the symptoms of going ‘cold turkey’, but she had refused; she was determined to beat this herself.

The last six months of her life had become a blur and the bits she could remember were so horrible and dirty she didn’t even want to remember them. She felt so ashamed by what she had become. Emma understood that Jay had done a lot of it, but she also understood how she had caused it to happen too. She had let him worm his way in, behind her friend’s back, and she had put him above Kate, her best friend, and she had got what she deserved and more in the process.

Emma had never felt as happy as she had when she had seen Kate come into her hospital room that morning. She knew that she didn’t deserve her friend’s kindness after betraying her. She had been stupid. They had spent the last hour talking, crying and apologising. Kate had hugged Emma and promised her that from now on she would be looking after her. Emma had been worried about what Jay would say when he found out that she was in hospital and that Billy had helped her, but Billy was adamant that she shouldn’t worry and that he was sorting him out, and even though she was frightened she hoped he was right.

Kate had had no idea of what had been going on; even Billy’s words before he had brought her here were hard to take in. It was like he had been talking about a complete stranger, as if he had made an awful mistake. Seeing Emma was the only thing that had helped the reality to sink in.

Jay had done this: to Emma? He was an animal. Kate couldn’t understand how he could do this to somebody; obviously his motive was money but surely there were other ways to earn it? She was in shock and felt as if she were going to pass out all the time, but looking at her brave friend in front of her, she knew that if Emma could come out of this the other end then she could. She would be strong, for Emma; she owed her that.

Emma had been kept in for ten days, apparently that period was the worst for coming off drugs and she had been given round-the-clock care and regular counselling. After speaking to Billy and Kate, and advising them on the tough few weeks ahead of them, the doctors agreed that Emma could be discharged as an outpatient, but that she was to keep up with her counselling on a regular basis.

Leaving Emma to finish sorting out the paperwork with her case worker, Kate went out into the corridor, where Billy was waiting.

              “You okay, babe?” Billy’s concern was clear in his voice.

              “Yeah, thanks, I guess I’m just in a bit of shock, that’s all.” Kate didn’t know what to make of the whole thing. Jay was a monster. How could she have thought she loved him? How could she have let herself get pregnant by him? Her poor friend had been subjected to the sickest acts imaginable and would probably never get over them; Emma had been brought so low by Jay that she had tried to kill herself. Kate’s guilt of not being there for her was overwhelming; a whole six months of being angry with Emma and cutting her off because of her weird behaviour, and her friend had needed her. Kate was determined not to cry, though: not here, not yet. “I don’t know what to do, Billy, I can’t go back to Jay’s, I know Sonia said she wouldn’t be letting him back in, but it just doesn’t feel right going back there.”

              “Don’t go worrying about Sonia. Ryan’s going to be staying there for a bit, so she’ll be looked after. Why don’t you stay at my house; Tanya’s gone, so why don’t you and Emma have it?”

Kate knew that Sonia would be safe from Jay’s torment with Ryan there; he was not a nice piece of work, and she knew that if he was on your side then you were safe as houses. As much as Kate loved Sonia, she knew she couldn’t go back there, it had been her and Jay’s place too and with the memories and all his stuff everywhere, it would just be too hard. Besides from now on she was going to be taking care of Emma, being the friend that she should have been all along. Moving into a place where Jay could turn up at any minute wouldn’t be wise. Billy’s flat would be perfect; she and Emma could move in and start again. Emma would need as much support as possible; everyone, including the doctors, couldn’t believe how strongly she was fighting her addiction, they had never seen such determination; yet they had warned Kate that she could relapse, so she was going to keep a close eye on her. The flat would be perfect.

Thanking Billy and giving him a hug she looked up at him tenderly.               “You’re a great brother, Billy. I’m sorry I let him get in between us, between all of us, I truly am.”

Billy shushed her, not wanting to hear another word; he was just glad she had finally seen what Jay was capable of and hoped that she would now move on and be free of him once and for all.

              “Let’s go back in and let Emma know the good news, bet she’ll be over the moon at having you as a flatmate,” he smiled.

Back in the room Emma was delighted, she had been so worried at the thought of having to go back and live with her parents, but this would be perfect. She knew that she would have to tell her parents the truth at some point but she decided that she wanted to be a little stronger in her head when she did. Billy had lied to the staff at the hospital when he had bought her in, he had told them that he was her brother, her next of kin. She was thankful for that, as she couldn’t bear the thought of her parents seeing her here like this. She was so glad that Kate was here, she really needed her friend more than anything or anyone else at the moment. She just wanted to get her life back again: be normal and do normal things. Right now the thought of a hot bath and dinner in front of the telly with her mate seemed like absolute heaven.