I have spent the past two hours pacing back and forth in Mark’s home.  Thank goodness he has not left my side. 

“How do you know PC Carter?” I ask Mark. I need to know.

He moves himself away from me.  “Steven and I used to work together,” he says, turning his face away from me.

Why has he moved away from me?  Is it something bad?  What happened?  There can’t be any secrets between us now.  “What, you used to be in the police or something? One of those community ones?” I continue pushing for answers.

“Megan, please. Leave it,” he begs, tilting his head towards the floor.

“If you can’t trust me with this, then how can I trust you to keep Lucy and me safe? Look what happened,” I say, standing up and storming away from him.  He is supposed to trust me.  What the hell can be that bad?  I head straight out the front door, slamming it behind me.  I don’t want him near me. If he can’t trust me, then I can’t trust him.

“Megan!” I hear Mark yell, just as I run off the path.  The sound of his feet shuffling behind me lets me know he’s running after me. I don’t care; I just keep running. “Where are you going?”

I find myself sitting on the grass behind one of Mark’s rose bushes that Annabella had planted a few years ago, and I believe she said it was a Red Knockout. At some point, it blooms red flowers. I remember her telling me about it.  She said something about red roses being the most powerful roses around, because of their special meaning.  I haven’t seen any flowers on it yet. I hope that Annabella will pass on some of her gardening tips to Lucy. My granddad taught me how to care for plants when I was a child. I used to love spending hours with him, trying to water all the plants. He passed away when I was eleven, so I am grateful for the amazing memories I have. I miss him like crazy.

“Megan, come here!”Mark shouts.
I hear heavy footsteps hurling towards me.  I glance down to the ground, pulling my knees up to my chest and covering my arms over my head, forming a tight ball.  I just want to be alone.  Please don’t notice me, Mark. 

“There you are. What are you doing out here? You’re going to catch pneumonia,” he says, kneeling down beside me and throwing his black jacket around my shoulders.  Why is he being so thoughtful?  He doesn’t trust me.

I lift my head just a little to see Connor standing at the top end of the garden watching me. He waves one of the security guards away with the back of his hand.

“Talk to me, Megan,” Mark says, rubbing my shoulders to relax me.

“About what?” I ask, remaining stationary.

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? That’s a stupid question!” I scream, raising my head and turning to face him.

“I know. Lucy will be home soon.”

“Why are you hiding things about your past?” I ask calmly, looking up at him and directly into his eyes.

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” he says, barely audible.

“Hurt by what?” I ask.  Nothing can be that bad. Can it?

He lets out a breath. “Steven and I met years ago when I was fourteen. We took a mini police course together at school. They taught us all sorts of beneficial things. They had us complete small tasks exactly like real police officers.  It was amazing, a total eye opener to things none of us had thought about doing as a career.  We had attended the same school for years; we were even in a couple of classes together, but we never spoke. We were partnered together during the course, and it brought us together as friends. Steven was the bad boy, and I was the really good ’do as you’re told’ boy. From then on, we were inseparable.” He pauses.

“Go on,” I state, giving him a crooked smile.

“Steven went off and became a policeman and lived the dream. We lost contact after a few years until…” He pauses again, taking a deep breath.

I place my hand on his shoulder. “Just tell me.”

“Until I was dating a lady named Anna. She and I had been fine for months, ticking along. One day she was different with me. She was annoyed with everything I did. Later that night when I was asleep, she stabbed me. Steven was the man that was involved in my case.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”  I wish I hadn’t pushed for the answer now.  I feel bad, but I needed to know. 

“Her brother Damon was there, too. They had been planning to kill me and extort money from my family. They had done it in the past to someone else, but were never found because they had been using aliases.”

“Oh, baby.” I wrap my arms around him, giving him a hug.   

“Miss Madden?” I hear a voice shout. I suddenly stand up.

“Yes.”  I start walking in the direction of the voice.

“Can you take a look at this? Is it Lucy’s?” Natasha asks.

I run over to her with Mark not far behind me. She stands there holding her mobile in her hand. “Just let me know if Lucy has one. It might not be hers, but we need to know.”

She shows me a picture of a pink cardigan with white spots all over it and a hood that’s shaped like a cat’s face. “That’s Lucy’s. Well, she has one like it. Hers has an ‘L’ written on the label.”

“Did you bring it with you?” she enquires. 

“I don’t have a picture of the label, though, but I can get one if I need to.”

“Yes, please.”

I run past Natasha, straight to the house and up into Lucy’s room. “It’s gone,” I say as Mark comes up behind me, placing his hand on my lower back. I had laid out the hoodie last night for Annabella to put on Lucy after her bath to keep her warm.  I had left it beside the cot.