With Katy’s arms wrapped around me tightly we wordlessly hugged. I knew she was silently offering me all her strength. I felt as though I had never been more in need.

‘What the hell did I walk into?’ She asked the question as she began to break away.

I pondered her words.

‘Me, giving Jack a few home truths.’

‘Right, and it went as well as it looked, then?’

I contemplated the unravelling pain I could now feel inside of me. ‘Probably worse.’

I hadn’t been awake for long, but could already feel the waves of tiredness washing over me and getting ready to pull me under. To be honest I needed to sleep, but I needed to shut down the pain more. ‘I’m sorry, Katy… It’s great to see you, but I’m so tired.’

‘You will be, Lils. It’s only to be expected. Get back under the covers and go back to sleep. I’ll still be here when you wake up again. I’m doing the day shift today.’

Like a small child, I did as I was told and lifting the sheets up, I wiggled my body forward and back down into comfort. ‘Day shift?’

‘Yes. I share the day shifts with Lynn. My face quizzically asked her the question. ‘Lynn is Jack’s mum, and the Dr that’s been gradually bringing you around from your drugged-up sedation is…’

‘Jack’s dad.’ I filled in the blanks. ‘Jack is taking care of me?’ It wasn’t so much a question but a statement of fact from the small bits of information she had just offered me. I needed to know much more but my eyelids had started to bob up and down in front of my view and I allowed sleep to engulf me.

‘Hello, my dear, how are you today?’

I blinked a few times as I took in the bright light the room was now bathed in. It was wonderful to wake up without the shakes and palpitations the drugs normally gave me. A man was stood at the end of my bed and although I thought I had heard the gentle tone of his voice before, I couldn’t place it. Fear and acceptance of the possible situation I was now in, filled me. So, for the second time they had loaned me out to some other depraved bastard.

I must have dreamed about Jack and Katy.

My mind could be so cruel to me at times.

On instinct, I grabbed the covers closer to me, but made sure my gaze never left his. Whatever he wanted from me, whatever vile act he wanted me to participate in, he would never reach or have the real me. Lily would be put aside until I was back with the one person who loved me.

‘Don’t be afraid… Katy will be back in very soon, she’s just gone to the bathroom.’ He held up his palm at me as he watched my initial reaction to waking up in a room with him in it. ‘I’m Dr. Carpenter, I’m Jack’s dad. I was on my rounds and decided to pop in to see how you were feeling. Jack phoned to say you woke up early this morning.’

I still hadn’t answered him, it took me longer these days to mull over my thoughts and memories and sort them into any order. The door pushed open and Katy appeared, in a hurry it seemed at hearing our voices. She was rubbing her wet hands down the front of her shorts, to dry them.

‘This is Dr. Carpenter, Lily.’

As I took in the welcome sight of Katy, I started to calm down. I hadn’t dreamt about her and Jack then, that was a relief. She came and took a seat on the chair next to my bed, inching her hand over the bed covers until she found one of mine and she gave it a reassuring squeeze.

‘Sorry, I was just a little taken a back at waking and finding a stranger here.’ I swallowed down my fear. Eager to find out any information I could from the two of them.

‘No problem, young lady, no problem at all. Now tell me how are you feeling today?’

‘Tired, on and off… and I’m having a few nightmares.’ I wrapped my arms around myself and held on tightly. ‘But generally, I’m alright, thanks.’ My stomach growled at me. ‘In fact, I feel hungry.’ My stomach sounded again. ‘Scratch that… I’m starving.’ I smiled at him.

‘I’m afraid those things are to be expected with what you have been through. It’s your brain’s way of sorting through what’s in your head. Hopefully they will recede with time…’ He offered me his best conciliatory tone of voice. ‘The hunger though, that’s good news. Jack’s freezer is bursting with all the food Katy’s been making when she hasn’t been watching over you.’ He laughed and made his way to the side of the bed. ‘But, before you eat, I need to examine you and make sure everything is as it should be.’ He paused and took my wrist into his warm hand.

I looked over at Katy to find her grinning broadly at his words. I had seen that beautiful face in my dreams. It had smiled and laughed with me and at me, as we shared banter and girlie chats in university. I couldn’t believe that I was witnessing it again in real life.

He continued, ‘You’re very lucky indeed, that Jack and Charlie found you when they did. I’m not sure your body could have coped with much more of their sedation techniques.’ My eyes found his kind blue ones as he checked me out.

‘You say that Jack found me?’ I questioned, feeling my forehead pull tight into a frown. ‘Is that true?’

His eyes looked up from the watch he had been keeping time with as he checked my pulse.

‘The way he tells it… maybe it’s more like you found him.’ He gave me a smile and all I could see was Jack smiling back at me. It was very evident that they were related by the way his mouth lifted as he smiled. It showed off his deep cleft chin, another thing Jack had inherited. ‘At his last fight, he watched you being hurt by one of the men, and I use the term “men” very loosely.’ His eyes found mine to make sure I had grasped his meaning and then he carried on. ‘Jack saw it, and it hurt him to see a woman being treated that way. When they couldn’t pay what they owed him, he accepted you as part payment for the debt. After what had happened to one of his sisters, I know he’d have been only too pleased to rescue you over accepting any payment at all.’

I couldn’t answer. I was too busy trying to make sense of what he was saying. I thought back to a previous conversation Jack and I had years ago about his sister and his subsequent issues. My mind wouldn’t allow me to bring up the details of the conversation.

‘So, he brought me here and all of you are ok with what he does? You’re quite happy to help him?’

A deep laugh came from his belly as he folded up his stethoscope and placed it into his leather bag.

‘Well, to be honest until you arrived here with him that night, we still thought he held his job in the city.’

‘His job in the city?’ I could imagine the gormless expression on my face as I repeated his words back to him.

‘Investment banking?’ He nodded at me, thinking it would help with my understanding. ‘You know, using his economics degree?”

I was beginning to think that I was in a parallel universe. Jack was what my father had said he would be, wasn’t he? He was involved in bare-knuckle fighting, drugs, money laundering and human trafficking. Wasn’t he? Dr. Carpenter’s voice cut through my thoughts. My head hurt as I forced it to think, to answer my questions.

‘Yes, once he got his degree that’s where he went to work, of that I’m sure. When he arrived back with you ten days ago, he contacted me for help in looking after you… He had to tell me then that he was now fighting for a living.’

I nodded my head at him wanting him to continue.

‘It’s hardly a parent’s dream, knowing that it’s the way he makes his living. But I trust him, he has assured Lynn and I that it’s a means to an end… It’s how he bought this house.’

‘So, him bringing women here is not a normal occurrence?’

A deep laugh left him again as he clicked his case shut. ‘No, my dear, the only other woman we have ever seen here is Laura, she’s a stable girl.’

‘Laura, oh ok.’ I was nodding but not really managing to get to grips with all the information he was now giving me.

‘Jack cares very deeply about you, Lily. He hasn’t really let us in for years. But when you needed help he told us everything, to ensure you had the help you needed.’ He stopped and shook his head. ‘Listen to me, I’m sorry, I’m doing exactly what I have advised everyone else not to do. I’m filling your head with information you don’t need and getting you to ask questions that your slowly awakening memory could definitely do without. Don’t think on it, my dear, not now. Allow yourself time to rest. Time to sort through your thoughts, memories and feelings.’

I sat dumbstruck, just churning everything around in my head. However hard it was to sort through all the information, it seemed to only point to one thing. It appeared the cards had been played, and my father had played his hand extremely well indeed. I felt sick to my stomach. How could I have been so stupid as to have believed him? But I knew how. Pain of a memory gripped my heart and stuck its sharp claws into the tender flesh. I could still see the broken and beaten frame of my poor mum. Why was it I could always remember what I would prefer to forget and vice versa?

‘I will leave your dose of medication for the day with Jack, he’ll administer it this evening. Things are looking very good from my end. But, we must still be cautious. You will need bed rest for a further few days. Build up your strength and eat well and hopefully by next week you can convalesce in the garden, instead of being cooped up in here.’

‘Thank you, Dr. Carpenter. Thank you for everything.’

‘Like I said before, it’s no problem, and you really must call me Will. I’ll tell Lynn you could do with a bite to eat and she’ll be up shortly.’

He pulled the door to behind him and left me with my thoughts and the throbbing pain in my head as I tried to unravel everything.

What had I done?

‘Lily, stop it. Stop overthinking. For now, just concentrate on getting better. You’re safe here and you’ll have the time to work it all out, I promise.’

I looked over to the very welcome sight of my best friend holding my hand and rubbing her thumb over my fingers as she tried to offer me her reassurance.

‘I may have the time to work it all out, but I think it’s too late to make it better.’