Save Her by Abigail Osborne (novel books to read .txt) 📗

that because my parents are dead, I don’t have a clue what it means to be part of a family.’

‘Flo, calm down.’ He pulled her to a stop, gently placing his hands on her shoulders. ‘I’m not justifying what she said but she was just lashing out. We both know she is taking our move badly. I’ll talk to her again.’

It was Flora’s turn to groan. ‘Uggh. Why can’t you see the way she treats me? She is always criticising me, throwing subtle insults at me. She hates me, Sam. Not once has she ever said something nice or kind to me. She belittles me at the slightest chance. You have to see that.’

‘I know that you and my mother aren’t close, but she does not hate you, I promise. She just isn’t good at showing her emotions. It probably feels like she is cold towards you but that is just the way she is. She shows she cares through actions not through words. She invites you to every Friday Night Dinner. If she hated you, she wouldn’t do that, would she?’

Flora’s frustration gave way to sadness as once again she acknowledged the futility of trying to get Sam to open his eyes and see his mother for who she was. She stepped away and Sam’s arms fell to his side. Flora took a seat at the breakfast bar, leaning over she rested her head in her hands.

Sam continued in a softer voice. ‘My mother would never hide your bank cards and replace them. That is a childish prank, I don’t know anyone that would do that. It doesn’t even make sense to do that. What would someone accomplish? It’s much more likely you just had the wrong purse, or the cards fell out.’

‘That is not what happened, Sam,’ she said in a flat voice. ‘Sophie believes me, why can’t you?’

‘Sophie would say the sky was purple and that pigs can fly if you told her to.’ Sam had raised his voice and Flora looked up in surprise.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ she replied, narrowing her eyes at him.

‘Just…’ Sam couldn’t meet her gaze. He picked up an orange from the fruit bowl and began to toss it from hand to hand, studiously concentrating on the trajectory of the orange. ‘Just that she tends to agree with whatever you say.’

‘Well that just shows how much you know about Sophie. If you actually bothered to get to know her, you’d know that she always tells me the truth. Whether I want to hear it or not. She’s the only person I can rely on.’ Flora got off her chair and went to leave the room, fed up with the conversation.

Sam swept her into his arms before she could reach the door. He held her tightly, kissing the top of her head. ‘I’m sorry, Flo. I don’t think you are crazy. I don’t know what happened to your cards. But I promise you, it wasn’t my mother. She would never hurt you. I swear it. Let’s just put this whole thing behind us. Remember I’ll always protect you.’ He took her face in her hands and kissed her on the nose. ‘Whether that’s from flying cows.’ He kissed her nose again. ‘Meteors.’ Another kiss. ‘And anything else.’

She looked up into his sea blue eyes and chuckled despite herself. He always said the strangest things to make her laugh. He was right. She was overreacting. She needed to let it go and stop seeing danger in the shadows.

11

From the very first day that Sophie started at Cavendish & Sons, she had realised that she was going to have to battle for her right to stay. Greg may have given her a job, but it would be up to her to keep it. Most would have turned tail and run when they realised just how unevenly matched the sides were. It was Sophie versus Cecelia and Alistair.

But Sophie relished the challenge. She had been brought up by and survived Lily Moore, after all. Outwitting an alcoholic and social services and the teachers at school had been a full-time job. It had taught her how to manipulate and stay one step ahead of the game. Having to hide and endure her mother’s neglect and her drinking problem was actually a blessing as it taught Sophie to overcome emotion. She had learnt to weaponise her emotions. Sophie knew when to cry and when to mask her feelings and become unreadable.

Sophie also knew how to make money. Her mother would drink all the child support and jobseeker’s allowance money before she even got home on payment day. When Sophie’s school uniform no longer fit and she could no longer cope with the comments from teachers about her inappropriately short and shabby skirt, Sophie had started her first business. Flora had offered to help her, but she didn’t accept handouts unless she had to. Plus, she didn’t want Flora’s parents getting involved. Although there was every chance Flora’s mum, Rebecca, already knew. Each sleepover, she’d find something of Flora’s that was too big for her or the hole in her skirt she thought she’d hidden so well had been miraculously sewn up overnight.

With a little help from fate, something she firmly believed in, she had found a ten-pound note blowing across the pavement as she walked home from school. It was creased and dirty, obviously having fallen from someone’s pocket and been trampled. Her mind raced with the possibilities. All she wanted to do was go and buy all the things that had been denied to her due to her mother’s self-inflicted poverty. She wanted the fancy pencil case and the new trainers to show off in the classroom, instead of having to pretend that she didn’t care. But she had to think clearly.

A plan soon formulated in her mind and that morning, she visited the off-licence. Ayaz, thinking she had been sent once more for some alcohol for her mother, went towards the shelf that held