Abbi... Read online

  “You know, I half wish that it was me in hospital rather than her because I hate seeing her suffer,” he continued. “It’s worse seeing her deal with the pain than it would be to feel the aches and pains myself.”

  Julia put her arm around Mark and took a deep breath. “I didn’t realise you felt like that about her.”

  “That’s because you couldn’t see past the fact that she was “inappropriate” for me. You weren’t listening when I said this was more than a summer fling. You didn’t think I was being serious. We were being serious I should say.”

  “Do you think this will last after September?” Julia asked plainly hoping for an honest answer. Mark took some time to think before answering.

  “Yes. It will be incredibly hard with me up in London and her here but I think it will last. More importantly it can last. It’s not impossible.”

  Julia nodded. “Okay. I won’t say any more about her not being right for you. Even if I occasionally think it I will promise to keep my opinions to myself.”

  Mark looked at his mother. “Thank you.” As she left him to it he felt a weight being lifted. To have one person who would support him even if she didn’t agree with his relationship felt very good. In a minute his mother was back and she gave him something. He looked at it. It was a small box. Inside there was a plain silver ring. There was nothing on it at all. He looked back at his mother questioningly.

  “This was given to me by an ex-boyfriend a long time ago,” she said looking at it. “You can give it to Abbi. If you want.”

  “Thanks mum,” he said quietly and sincerely as he snapped the box shut. He put it in the top draw by his bed. He would give it to her. He just had to decide when.

  “You idiot!” George was shouting to his acquaintance. “You were meant to disfigure her not nearly kill her! Mark will never leave her now!” George gave the man a push. George was so angry. The culprit looked him straight into the face angrily.

  “She did not come easy. I did what you ordered and I cut her face. I called an ambulance as soon as I left her on her own.”

  “I am many things but I am not a cold faced killer. I only wanted her to lose her looks not her life!” George said. “You can forget about the rest of your money mate.”

  “Now wait a minute…” the man tailed off as George was holding a dagger to his throat.

  “You should think yourself extraordinary lucky that I’m not asking for my five grand back as well,” George whispered to him. The man was holding his hands up in the air. With one quick manoeuvre the man knocked the knife out of George’s hand and had his pistol pressed against George’s forehead.

  “You can pull a move like that but can’t slash a teenage girls face in without almost killing her?” George said incredulously.

  “You know what they say,” the man started menacingly. “Practice makes perfect. Now I want my money or your brains will be splattering this wall behind you.”

  “You wouldn’t shoot me,” George said surely. “I don’t mean anything to you if I’m dead.”

  “Try me,” the man said forebodingly.

  After a pause George said, “Alright. I’ll pay you.” When the man didn’t move the gun away from George’s head he added, “Can you get that gun away from my head please.” Slowly the man lowered the gun. He, just as slowly, put it away.

  “You’ll get your money,” George said. He turned and walked away. It came down the same in everything in his life. You want a job doing properly, you had to do it yourself. Ten grand down the drain for nothing but a backfired plan.

  The next day she had a visit from Jessica. “Hi,” Abbi said quietly. “You have the opportune moment to make a move on Mark,” she added sarcastically.

  “Ha ha,” Jess smiled. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like hell.” Both women smiled at each other.

  “I’ve bought you some chocolates,” Jess said. “Nothing like chocolate to make you feel better.”

  “Thanks,” Abbi said. After a long moment she added, “Would you do me a favour?”

  “Of course I will,” Jess said. “If it weren’t for you I would be homeless. Whatever I can do.”

  “Will you talk to Mark. He feels awful about what’s happened to me. I can see it when he looks at me. I think he just needs someone to talk to.”

  “You would trust me to do that?” Jess asked surprised.

  “I’m not sure that I trust you but I do trust him. I’m just being honest.” Jess nodded. She could understand that.

  “Okay. Sure, I’ll do that.”

  “Thank you.” A little while after that Abbi fell asleep. Silently Jess left her to it.

  True to her word Jess found an opportunity to speak to Mark later that day. Mark had come around Abbi’s house out of habit. As soon as the door opened he realised that she wasn’t there. However Jess took this opportunity to do what Abbi had asked.

  “Come in,” she said. They both went through to the living room and sat down next to each other.

  “How are you?” she asked. Mark shook his head.

  “It doesn’t matter how I am,” he said. “All that matters is that Abbi gets better.” Jess could now see what Abbi meant. He was concentrating so much on Abbi that he had forgotten himself.

  “Abbi’s worried about you,” she said.

  “That’s stupid,” Mark said instantly. “She worries too much.”

  “A bit like you then.” Mark smiled. “She will heal you know. It will get better.”

  “I know,” he replied sighing. He relaxed back on to the sofa and closed his eyes. “I miss her being her. I love her so much that I think this hurts me more than it would to actually attack me.”

  “Hey, listen to me,” Jess said quickly and grabbed his hand. She will be fine. She’s talking now and she is actually conscious. That is a massive improvement on what she was. You know that.” Mark didn’t say anything. He had opened his eyes and Jess realised that she was still holding his hand. She quickly dropped it. There was quite a tense atmosphere around them. Jess tried to keep the conversation going but she suddenly had nothing to say.

  Mark grabbed her hand looked at her. Before he could think he leaned into her and kissed her. Gently at first and then with more insistence. He couldn’t stop. Jessica knew that it was only for comfort, nothing more than that. Mark put his hand up to her face to run through her hair. Jessica backed off.

  “You don’t want to do that,” she told him, barely an inch away from his face. It took perhaps five seconds before he realised what he was doing. Immediately Mark backed away from her, horrified by what he had been doing.

  “I’m sorry,” he said when he had walked several paces away from her.

  “Mark, don’t be so hard on yourself.”

  “Abbi must never find out about this,” Mark said breathing heavily. “Ever.”

  “Okay,” Jess agreed quietly. Mark left as soon as was physically possible and raced away from her house. When he stopped he tried to catch his breath. He was finding it very difficult to breathe evenly. Never could he imagine ever kissing another woman who wasn’t Abbi. He knew that it wasn’t desire, it was only as a relief for the pain. Abbi’s pain. He felt that he must never tell Abbi. It would hurt her far too much. It was already hurting him.

  Four days later Abbi was told that she could go home as long as she took it easy. Abbi had been constantly asking the doctor when she could go home and he had finally caved in, saying that she was much better anyway. Mark came to pick her up. Her mother had strangely been keeping her distance since Abbi had woke up. She didn’t like being left alone with her. Today she said she was delivering clients ironing back which apparently jut couldn’t wait an extra day. Abbi was much better than what she was. The scars on her face had faded slightly and they would continue to do so. She was eating properly again as well. However she was still quite weak.

  When they got to her house Jess was there. She let them in and asked how Abbi was. After that she went for a drive and left Ab
bi and Mark alone. Mark supported Abbi until she laid down on her bed.

  “Thank you,” she said. Mark looked at her sadly.

  “Do you want me to do anything? Get anything?” he asked her. She thought for a moment and nodded.

  “Will you lie next to me?” she asked. He didn’t say anything, just laid down behind her so they were curled up together like spoons. He put his arms around her, careful of her stomach so he didn’t hurt her. She sighed.

  “Thank you for being there for me this past week,” she said gently.

  “Ssh,” he said giving her a gentle squeeze. “I wouldn’t have been anywhere else in the world.” He kissed her cheek.

  “I haven’t worked up the courage to look in a mirror yet,” she said slowly. I’ve seen the damage on my shoulder and my stomach. I haven’t seen my face yet.” Mark didn’t know what to say to that so he said nothing. They both sat up facing each other. “Do you think I should?”

  “Yes,” he said instantly. “The longer you wait to look at yourself, you will be imagining it much worse than what it actually is.” She considered this.

  “Can you get me a mirror?” she asked quietly. “There should be a hand mirror in the bathroom.” Pretty quickly he was back with one.

  She picked it up and closed her eyes. She finally looked in the mirror. It was quite a shock to her. It could have been worse was her first thought. Half of her face was absolutely fine. The other looked awful. Her mouth on that side had been split all the way to her chin. She moved her fingers over the red line. It was very delicate over her mouth. Even that small touch had hurt her. The other scar was a crooked line down her cheek. That hurt as well. Both of her scars together made her face look quite different to the face she remembered. She put the mirror down. Her eyes clouded over for a few seconds. She seemed so far away.

  Mark had been sitting watching her study herself. He saw that her mouth was sore. She winced slightly as she touched it. It was much worse watching her look at the damage than to look at it himself. She finally put the mirror down and looked at him, her eyes filled with tears. “It’s bad,” she summed up. He lent across the bed to kiss her. She whimpered softly as she felt the pain from her lips.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I’ll stop if you want.” She replied by kissing him back through the pain of her mouth. She smiled softly at him. He kissed her again. She moaned quietly through the pain but kissed him back so that he didn’t stop. He ran his fingers through her hair while kissing her injury free cheek. She wrapped her arms around him and felt him do the same. As he hugged her, her shoulder throbbed painfully. She cried out and then bit her lip.

  “I’m hurting you,” he said and let go quickly.

  “Only a little,” she said. “It hurts all the time anyway,” she said in a matter of fact tone.

  “You are very brave,” he said softly.

  “I’ve no choice,” she said. “It’s happened. Moaning about it won’t make the pain go away or the wounds heal any faster. I’m sorry for crying out. Ignore it.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” he said quickly. “I can’t ignore your pain either,” he said. He gently kissed her again. She moaned quietly once more. He let go.

  “Don’t stop,” she said smiling slightly. He returned to kiss her. She didn’t make a noise. By this time Abbi was laying down and Mark was leaning over her. He deepened their kiss. A strangled cry came from her. Before he could do anything else he heard her bedroom door slam. There were two police officers in her room.

  “Sorry,” said the first one. “The front door was left open.” Abbi noticed that they were both women and looking very worried.

  “What do you want?” Mark said clearly irritated.

  “We would like to have a word with Miss Wilkins with regards to the attack on her. About a week ago,” they replied.

  “How come it has taken so long for you to talk to her?” Mark asked.

  The officers were looking at him with dislike all over their faces. “We were told by her doctors that she was far too weak to talk with in hospital and we have to respect those opinions,” the first officer said.

  Abbi said, “fine,” and sat up in bed, cringing slightly as her stomach moved. Mark stayed put and they clearly expected him to leave the room. Mark kissed Abbi on the top of her head and slowly walked out.

  The officers sat down on the bottom of her bed. Abbi realised at this time that she had at some point started to cry through the pain. She rubbed the tears away quickly.

  “I’m Claire from victim support and this is Karen. Was that guy troubling you?” the second one said kindly.

  “No!” Abbi said angrily. “Nothing like that!”

  “You’ve been crying and we heard you try to shout out earlier,” Karen said.

  “In case you haven’t noticed my mouth has been split open by a knife,” Abbi said angrily. “It hurts when I move it, even just talking.” They let it go for the time being.

  “What happened on the night of the attack?” Karen asked.

  “I didn’t see a lot before I was knocked out,” Abbi said. “I was walking home from work late on Saturday. I was halfway home when I saw someone in front of me. I turned around to run but he caught up with me in a split second. I was knocked onto the floor, stabbed and I passed out.”

  The officers looked at each other. “You are sure there was only one?” Claire asked gently.

  “Of course I’m sure,” Abbi said quickly. “I think I would remember how many people were sticking knives into me.”

  “We believe it might have been a personal attack rather than just a mugging to get hold of your bag,” Karen said.

  Abbi was more than surprised to be told that. “Why?”

  “You were attacked on a footpath,” Claire said. “Your bag had practically nothing in it according to your mother whom we spoke with a while ago. You were also slashed on your face. It implies malicious intent.”

  “I have five aching wounds from a knife. I would definitely define that as “malicious intent,” Abbi said fiercely. “It still doesn’t help me recognise him though. He was wearing black. I probably wouldn’t be able to identify him if he was right in front of me. That is the sad truth.”

  “Well if you do remember anything else call this number”, Karen said giving her a card. Abbi barely even looked at it. She knew there was nothing else to remember.

  “Are you sure that that guy was not attacking you,” Claire asked gently. “Telling us won’t hurt you, you know.”

  It took Abbi a moment to realise what they were talking about. “Oh don’t talk rubbish”, she said. “There is nothing inappropriate going on between Mark and myself,” she said clearly and firmly.

  “Okay then,” Claire said clearly unconvinced. “At any time of day or night you can call this number to get through to me. Victim support workers are very sympathetic.”

  Abbi knew what they were trying to imply. “Mark, can you come in here,” she raised her voice. In the next instant the door opened. Abbi realised that he must have been listening outside her door. He sat next to her immediately, holding her hand. She smiled and leaned towards him to kiss him. After the initial surprise he closed his eyes and kissed her back intensely. She moaned slightly but this time with pleasure rather than pain. She drew away from him slowly.

  Abbi turned to the officers and calmly said, “anything else?” The look on their faces was quite shocked.

  “No,” Claire said. “Remember to get in touch if you remember anything or need any support. Or just anyone to chat to.” They got up and left the room.

  Abbi said to Mark, “I have all the support I need,” and kissed him again. She kissed him so passionately that when they stopped he could taste her blood on his lips. The wound had slightly opened up. It must have been really hurting her but she didn’t say anything. She hadn’t even cried out during their kiss.

  “Your lip is bleeding,” he murmured to her while holding her face. She nodded while tears went down her cheeks. “Why a
re you crying?”

  “Because it hurts,” she said closing her eyes as if in defeat. “It all really hurts.” On an impulse Mark gently kissed her closed eyelids. Her face broke out into a smile. She held him close to her.

  “You haven’t seen the other injuries have you?” she whispered to him. He looked at her intensely and shook his head. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to see them or not. Abbi slowly lifted the bottom of her top up so her stomach was showing. Mark braced himself and he had a look at the damage. It wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. There were two scars. One was almost directly above the other one. They looked quite neat actually he thought. Around both of them was raised skin like a bruise and they were inflamed .

  He was starting to get angry looking at them. Not because they were ugly but because seeing her wounds like that really made it hit home. Someone hadn’t cared if they had killed her or not. They were perfectly prepared to murder her. The woman he loved. That was clear because he was looking at the evidence. He kissed each of her scars very gently. He felt her stiffen. She hadn’t been expecting him to do that. She sighed softly in pain as he touched them as lightly as he could.

  “It will be fine,” he said looking her in the eyes again. “Once it heals and doesn’t cause you any more pain it will be fine,” he said.

  “You are perfect,” she said quietly to herself. “I half expected you to leave when you saw the extent of the damage.” She was blushing slightly.

  “I am not perfect,” he said. “Plus I wouldn’t leave you just because you had suffered a knife attack.” They spent the next hour lying on her bed while they held each other.

  Chapter 11

  Leaving

  Claire and Karen walked out of Abbi’s house. When they were in their car they had a discussion.

  “What do you think of that?” Karen asked Claire. She didn’t answer straight away.

  “It was either just as she said or she is petrified of him,” Claire said. “I hope it’s the first. She doesn’t need anyone else trying to hurt her.”