Freedom.

“Home sweet home, baby,” Missy says in a cheerful voice as she pulls into the drive of my new little brick home on the hill.

My eyes cloud with tears. Happy tears. My heart is full of appreciation for my best and only friend, Missy, who has gone above and beyond to help create my new reality.

I feel alive for the first time in my life. I’m exhausted from driving for the better part of three days, but the excitement of finally arriving far outweighs the aches in my legs.

Missy squeezes my knee and jerks on the hand brake as we pull into the double garage. “Well, what are you waiting for?” she shrieks, pushing her sunnies high onto her head.

I take a deep breath and unclip my seat belt. “Let’s do this! Show me my new home.” I awkwardly step from my brand-new Honda that we picked up on our way through Sydney. My legs feel cramped, a reminder we skipped a break or two in our eagerness to get to our destination.

Missy opens the garage door into the house as I round the car. “Wait.” I stop as she scurries toward me and scoops me off my feet, both of us almost falling to the ground, weak with laughter.

“Shit, what the hell are you doing, Missy?” I cry out between chuckles.

“Carrying you over the threshold, baby,” she answers as she manoeuvres my legs through the doorway a little too sharply, whacking my head on the frame.

“Ouch.”

“Oops, sorry.” I feel her shrug beneath my hands, which are wrapped securely around her neck in a death grip.

Thankful when my feet are planted firmly on the ground again, I throw my hands over my mouth in awe at the view through the back sliding glass doors. My tiny little back patio looks out over a sea of cute little homes of all shapes and sizes. Rooftops tiled with a myriad of colours swim beneath me as I race to the back fence. Only Missy could know how much I needed some colour in my life.

A cool breeze sweeps up the hill from the valley below us, bringing with it a sense of calm I haven’t felt before. I am free.

“Isn’t it beautiful, Cindy?”

Internally, I cringe at my name. For our entire drive we’d been practicing using only my new, soon-to-be legally-changed name, Callie.

“Oh, Missy.” I turn to my friend and throw my arms around her in the tightest hug I can manage. “I love you. I can’t thank you enough for renting this place for me.”

Missy rubs my back in a motherly way that has always comforted me. Apart from Randall, she has been the only person in my life since my parents passed twelve years ago. I missed her dearly when she moved interstate to settle down with Jed and started living the high life. We both knew our secret weekly phone calls kept me sane. There was no way, if she lived in the same town, that Randall would have let us see each other, it would have been impossible.

Missy grabs my hand and drags me across the small slice of rich green grass and back into the house. I marvel at the coolness of the grass beneath my feet. It was so plush.  Looking across the empty living area toward the kitchen, I stop.

“You bought me a fridge?” I ask.

“Don’t freak out,” she says, squeezing my hand and dragging me toward the kitchen. “I was lucky enough to get this place partially furnished. The owners are friends of my parents remember, and let’s just say they were sympathetic to your, um, situation.”

I nod, unsure how to respond.

“Besides, I needed a way to keep the bubbly cold,” Missy chuckles as she pulls back the fridge door to retrieve the bottle of celebratory bubbles.

“I also managed to get a few necessary kitchen appliances to get you started and a washing machine.”

She reaches for two glasses from the top cupboard and pops the cork, bubbles flow over the side of the bottle.

“Oh! Wait until you see your bedroom,” she adds excitedly, filling both glasses while bouncing on her tiptoes like a child.

I laugh at her, absolutely astounded at what she’s managed to pull together in as little as a few days. When I learned Randall was going out of town on an unexpected work trip, I used the opportunity to plan my escape. Missy was all over it from the moment I called her.

I take the glass offered to me and raise it as Missy makes a toast. “To the first of many days as a free woman, baby. Fuck knows you deserve it more than any woman I know.”

Bubbles pop in the back of my throat as I chug it down—a complete novice. I think the last time I had champagne was on my wedding night, almost twelve years ago. Missy laughs at the face I pull as I gulp and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.

“Leave that here,” she says, taking the glass from my hand. “Follow me.”

I follow her to the left, just off the dining area. Missy pushes open the door to a massive room. Light floods it through the floor-to-ceiling windows either side of the large timber bed frame. I stand in the doorway and cry. I am literally weeping. The bed is made up with a gorgeous teal satin doona and covered with too many throw pillows to count.

“It’s just like—” I choke on my words and Missy pulls me into a hug.

“I know, honey. It’s just like your parents’ bed. The bed came with the house and I wanted to have it all ready for your arrival. When I went shopping, I saw this set up in the shop window and knew I had to get it. It’s a gift from me and Jed.”

Jed was a high-profile property developer, and thankfully, money was no issue for them. I would, of course, pay them back every cent once I turned thirty in a few weeks and received my inheritance.

“How will I ever thank you, Missy?” As a paediatric nurse in a relatively small hospital, it wasn’t easy for her to take time off at such short notice, but like everything else, she managed to do what was needed. My heart was imploding with gratitude.

I wipe the tears from my eyes and dive onto the bed. I lie there, imagining my mum and dad looking down on me, knowing they would be proud I had finally escaped my marriage. Through my tears, I manage to take in the rest of the room. The ensuite is huge, all laid out with matching towels and a massive walk-in robe.

The back of the Honda was only half filled with all my personal belongings and clothes that had served me well for many years. Randall’s budget of a few hundred dollars a week for groceries—which included his booze, fuel, and anything I wanted for myself—hadn’t allowed for much.

I run my hands through my rich ginger curls as I sit up on the edge of the bed. I finger the dead ends that fall six inches below my shoulders and I’m unable to remember the last time I’d had a haircut. Usually, I hacked at it myself as a hairdresser was a luxury I wasn’t entitled to, but it had been a while.

As if she knew my exact thoughts, Missy knelt down in front of me. Sympathy, a look I would accept from nobody other than her, laced her features as she reached up and tucked my damaged locks behind my ears.

“We’ll do a girls’ day out before I head home. Shopping, nails, hair, maybe even a facial and a massage. How does that sound?”

I nod, too overwhelmed to push out a verbal response.

“We’ll apply for a change of name so that bastard can’t track you down. As soon as that is approved, you can open a new bank account and have your parents’ attorney release your inheritance into your account. He’ll never be able to trace it.”

“I’m so glad you’re here to help me deal with all of this, Missy. I couldn’t do it alone.”

“Stop thanking me, Cin—Callie.” She smiles softly at her slip up. “You’re the closest thing to a sister I’ve ever had. I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I’m so proud of you.” Tears fall as she kisses my cheek and comes to sit beside me.

“When it’s all sorted, I’ll come back down here and take your arse on a serious shopping adventure so we can fill that walk-in with some outrageous fashion that only Callie Harper could look good in.”

We both laugh and fall back onto the bed. “Deal.”

“Oh, and we’ll need to get the car transferred over to you when you get your new name too.”

To avoid Randall putting a trace on my vehicle, we’d sold it in Sydney. Missy had a new one lined up ready to go. She was a machine. I couldn’t think straight enough to lock the front door on my past, yet she had every detail planned out. God knows we’d spent enough years dreaming of this moment.