His Silence - Chapter 64

I can’t get the image of Abraham making his way out of the complex on his own, without anything, out of my mind. He won’t have any money on him. How on earth will he even be able to find a place to stay? I shake the thought out of my head. He tried to kill me. He deserves this. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been forced out. At least he’s out of the way now. That’s one good thing. I wipe my eyes. He’s gone. He won’t be coming back.

No one put any effort into making a meal this evening. We all helped ourselves to whatever was in the cupboards and the fridge.

The grassy scent of my celery sticks waft up from my plate. I glance across at Oliver. He’s moving his salad about on his plate with his fork, the metal scraping against the plate. He’s barely eaten anything. He can’t be feeling guilty about what he did, can he? ‘Oliver, are you OK?’ I ask my heart racing.

The fork collapses to the plate and he sits up a little straighter. ‘Yes of course, just feeling a little tired.’

I nod. My eyes drift over towards Callum. He’s sitting a couple of spaces away beside Eve. My skin bristles. Don’t look at them. He’s definitely a lot more comfortable talking to Eve now than he was a few days ago.

‘Are you doing OK, Grace?’ Luke asks. ‘You must’ve been terrified.’

I stare into his eyes. Does someone else here want me dead? ‘Yep, I think I’m OK,’ I say, shifting in my seat.

‘Look, I don’t think you should sleep on your own tonight,’ Oliver says, placing his hands together, like he’s about to say a prayer. ‘I’m worried that you . . .’

‘What are you suggesting?’ I ask my heart rate increasing.

‘Perhaps you should sleep in Eve’s room tonight. She has a single bed in there.’

I resist the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. For a second I thought he was going to ask me to share a room with him. ‘Um, OK, sure.’

Oliver gets up from his seat and walks over to Eve. He leans in to, I presume, tell her what he just told me. Bloody hell, hasn’t he already cleared it with her yet? She smiles and looks towards me, still smiling. It would’ve been better if he said I could share a room with Callum. I look back at my plate, biting my lip.

An hour later I place my glass down on the table and heave a sigh. Oliver’s still sitting in his seat. He’s barely spoken since he spoke to me about sharing a room with Eve. Further down the table, Abigail picks up her plate and takes it through into the kitchen. Callum’s already gone upstairs. Even Mary’s left us. I turn to Oliver. ‘Are you sure you’re alright?’ I ask.

He shakes his head. ‘I promised you peace, love and family here, Grace,’ he says. ‘I failed you.’

I don’t know what to say. I decide to go along with it. ‘You haven’t failed me, Oliver, what happened today was terrifying, but it wasn’t your fault.’

‘I thought we’d managed to help Abraham overcome his anger,’ he says, wiping his eyes and sitting back in his seat. His jaw tightens. ‘Something like this wasn’t meant to happen.’

I bite my lip. Control his anger, what does that mean? ‘Abraham made his own choices today. You saved me,’ I say.

He picks up his glass of water and takes a sip. His eyes seem to shimmer. ‘A few days ago you asked me what he’d been in prison for. He’d been in prison for abusing a former partner of his.’ Oliver lets out a cough. ‘It had been going on for several months before her family finally realised what was going on and called the police. I found Abraham looking for work one day, not long after his release from prison and brought him back here, thinking we could save him. Now I’ve let him down.’ He bangs his water back on the table and gets up from his seat, rubbing his forehead. ‘I’m sorry, Grace, I’m tired. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ I watch him cross the room towards the kitchen, and he slips through the door and disappears from view.