“Hello, Elsie.” Tears fell down my mother’s cheeks. Her smile was huge with joy as she knelt on the floor in front of me and framed each side of my face with her hands. “You’re so very beautiful. Like your grandma.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know,” she whispered, regret pushing aside the happiness on her face. “And I’m not even sure I can explain it. However, I think this might help.”

She turned around and pulled up her t-shirt – revealing her scar-ridden back. A Weapon’s back.

“What the fuck?”

Sally stared at us both, and needing her; I reached out to her. She grabbed my hand, squeezing my fingers tightly in hers. Already, there was so much love reflected in her eyes.

“But…” I stuttered. “That makes all this even harder to understand.”

“I knew your mother from a very young age,” Frank started. “I was best friends with her father, your grandfather.”

I stared at him with wide eyes, disbelief making my heartbeat falter.

“However, she found something of Peter’s.”

My mother’s face paled, and she looked down, as if ashamed.

“What did you find?” I asked her.

“A contract between himself and the prime minister’s husband.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What sort of contract?”

She twisted her lips and swallowed. “A lease would, perhaps, be a better term.”

“For what?”

“For a fourteen-year-old sex slave.”

My blood ran cold, and I shuddered. “What the fuck!”

“I didn’t know what to do, Elsie? So, I ran.”

I nodded. “I think most would.”

“Anyway, long story short. I changed my identity, and a couple of years later I met your father. We had you, and I was so happy. Then when you were four, Frank came to me. My dad had found out my location. And the only safe place was Three Blades. I couldn’t risk you or your dad, so it was the only choice I had.”

Tears scurried down her face, the pain in her eyes breaking my heart. “I wouldn’t ever risk you, Elsie, ever. I had to leave you; I had no choice!”

I nodded quickly, grabbing her hand to reassure her. “I know. I understand.” And I did. Love made us do brave things, over and over, and she had been brave. So very brave.

“Frank kept an eye on you and your father.” She gulped, the pain on her face plainly visible. “Unfortunately, Brian didn’t cope very well after I left.”

“But, where were you? When I came to Three Blades, you weren’t there.”

“It wasn’t safe for you and Rose to be so close,” Frank cut in. “By then your mother had fallen in love with another man. So, we both decided that the best for everyone was that I kept you safe, and made you into a Weapon to protect yourself.”

My mother fetched us all whisky refills and settled on a chair. “Everything was going well. I had a life, a reason for living again. Then a few years ago…” She broke off, biting her lip as anger trickled into her eyes. “He found me again. The man was relentless. Frank faked my death and, again, I ran. He placed Sally with a family.” She looked towards her other daughter and smiled softly. “You’re not cut out for this life, Sally. Your gentleness is your asset. Both Frank and I never wanted to take that from you.”

Looking back to me, she sighed. “But then Frank found out my father had put a guy on you and Sally.”

Euan.

“Why didn’t you just take Peter out?” I realised the foolishness of my question as soon as I’d asked it.

“To take out someone as big as Peter O’Keefe would come with so many consequences, Elsie,” Frank explained. “The amount of covering up that would take would be astronomical. Plus, the threat of exposure to Three Blades wasn’t worth the risk. We’ve been trying to take him down in other ways. Get that document your mother saw, proof of all his shady deals, but so far, nothing.”

“Frank did everything he could,” Mum defended. “Even putting a hit on Euan. But that went sour too.”

“If you’d have just taken Euan out that night,” Frank said. “Instead, he managed to turn it around, and he was about to take you to Peter. So, I had to take you both down.”

“But why me?” I asked, the whole thing beginning to send my mind wild. “Why take me down with Euan, and then hold us both?”

“Because you already doubted my intentions, Elsie. You found out about Sally, and instead of coming directly to me, you lost all trust in me and Three Blades. All you could focus on was getting her out of Three Blades,” he argued. “I held you for your own benefit, while I got Sally to a secure location. Once it was safe, I sanctioned your release.”

“Ebony.” I sighed. “She told you everything I confided in her.”

“And she did the right thing, Elsie. If she hadn’t come to me with your thoughts, right now, you’d be in Peter’s hands. Both you and Sally.”

“And do you know what she told Euan about you?” I asked, still hurt by what my best friend had done.

He smirked. “Yes, because I told her to.”

That was an unexpected shock. “Why the hell would you do that?”

He downed his whisky and walked across the room to replenish his glass. “I needed him to back off.”

I lowered my eyes, the twist in my gut making it difficult to breathe.

“You know how it works, Elsie,” he continued. “Weapons are pure to only Three Blades. It is either him or us. You know that. Love comes with so many distractions no Weapon needs. The chemistry between you two was evident from day one. I needed him to back off, and if concocting a story would make him hesitate about seducing you, and give me a bit of extra time with you, then that’s how it goes.”

“We haven’t…” I shook my head, but he could still see the dilemma written in the depths of my eyes.

He swallowed, saddened by what he knew was inevitable. “But you will. He’s unleashed something inside you, and now you have no choice but to feel.”

“I don’t know what it is…” I was struggling to keep up with the rampant beat of my crazy heart. “It’s… It’s like his touch warms my cold soul. I don’t know…”

“It’s okay, Elsie.” The tender smile on my mother’s lips released it all. The mere sight of her love freed the tears that had been locked away for so long. They came in rivers, in liberated rivulets of pain and hope.

But they came with the most agonising pain. And I couldn’t allow that.

Buried in my mother’s embrace, once again, for the first time in so very long, I knew I had a choice to make.

Hope or purpose.

Constancy or unpredictability.

Coldness or warmth.