Huddled inside her coat at the bus stop ten minutes later, her phone buzzed. Pulling it out, her email alert flashed. One new message. Clicking her inbox, Genie's heart jumped involuntarily at the sight of his name. She'd longed so often to see it there, and now there it was.

The bus came, and people moved around her to board it while she stayed rooted to the spot, staring at the screen. She didn't notice the driver duck to try to catch her eye, or see him close the doors with a shrug before he pulled away.

She clicked on the message, desperate for news of him. There was just one line of text. Five words. No greeting, no sign off.

I'm on the next plane.

Chapter Eighteen.

'You sure you don't want me to come in with you?' Deanna asked, protectively.

Genie shook her head, glancing into the window of the cafe a few doors down from the theatre. It was quiet in there, too late for breakfast, too early for lunch.

'I need to do this on my own, Dee.'

Deanna nodded. 'I'm a call away if you need me,' she said, leaning in and hugging her friend. 'Be careful around him, okay?'

Genie hugged Deanna to her carefully to avoid squashing the ever-present camera around her neck. 'I will.' They'd spent enough late nights talking over what went wrong, for Deanna to be more than aware of how much power Abel had over Genie right now.

'Go. You'll be late for cla.s.s.' She pushed her friend gently off down the road with a small, affectionate smile, then turned and headed into the warmth of the cafe.

She was early, deliberately so, to give herself chance to gather herself together. It had been two days since Abel's message. She knew from the second, equally scant email she'd received from him that he'd landed at Heathrow last night and checked into a hotel. He had made arrangements in the briefest of words to meet her here today at noon. Lizzie was going to join them half an hour later. She'd spent the afternoon at the theatre yesterday, and from the snippets she'd revealed of her home life, Genie was painfully aware of how difficult an existence she'd had up to now. Lizzie hadn't been able to hide her shock when Genie had told her that Abel was flying over. Any doubts about whether he'd known about her and disregarded her were chased away instantly as childish hope lit her face.

'Wow,' she'd said. 'That's fast.'

'He's kind of like that,' Genie had observed.

Lizzie had fallen silent for a while, chewing her lip. 'What if he doesn't like me?'

Genie had rolled her eyes and squeezed the younger girl impulsively around the shoulders. 'He will,' she'd said. 'Trust me. He will.'

Sitting in the cafe nursing a mug of coffee between her palms, Genie watched the windows for him. She was nervous, the kind of gut wrenching nervous that makes you breathless and on the edge of panic. She didn't doubt he'd come. He was coming for Lizzie's sake, but that made it even more difficult to read the situation. How would he be with Genie when he came in? Openly hostile? Distantly polite? She wouldn't know how to handle either. It would have to be enough just to see him, what came next was up to him.

Her throat constricted as she caught sight of the tall, familiar figure crossing the road between the traffic, and her hands trembled a little around the mug. He was here.

She watched as he scanned the cafe, and held her breath when his eyes met hers. He didn't smile, just studied her for a long second before threading his way through the tables to get to her. Relief overwhelmed her at the sight of him; it was almost painfully good to look at him again. He pulled the chair opposite hers out and sat down.

They faced each other wordlessly across the table, and tears rushed into her eyes. She just loved him so d.a.m.n much.

'You look well,' she managed, nodding towards his unstrapped shoulder.

He nodded. 'I am.'

She looked down when he spoke, letting the sound of his voice soak into her bones. She wanted to remember the sound of him forever. When she looked up again he was studying her.

'How've you been?' he asked.

She half smiled, half shrugged. 'All right. You know.'

He looked up at the waitress as she hovered nearby and asked for a couple of fresh coffees.

'And the theatre?' he said. He must have seen the state of it as he'd walked past.

'Gone. Or else it will have in a few days.' She sighed heavily. 'Probably for the best.'

If he was surprised, he didn't show it. They fell into silence as the waitress placed two steaming mugs in front of them and whisked Genie's old one away.

'How is she?' he asked. 'How's Lizzie?' There was already affection and anxiety in the way he said her name.

Genie smiled at the thought of Lizzie. 'She's a sweet kid.'

His expression darkened. 'I should have been here.'

It was so like him to take the guilt onto his own shoulders. 'How could you have been? You didn't even know she existed.'

His mouth thinned into a line. 'I was so intent on getting away. Always running. If I'd known...' he huffed out and dragged his mug towards him.

'You didn't know, Abel. Don't blame yourself. This wasn't your mistake, and you're here now. That's what matters.'

He didn't look convinced. 'Fourteen f.u.c.king years. Why didn't my mother ever tell me? I came back once in that time and she never said a word. I would have stayed if I'd known. Knowing that she... what she...' He looked down, unable to finish his sentence.

'Don't do this. Don't go over and over what might have been. It won't help either of you.'

Genie spoke from experience, but wasn't great at taking her own advice. From the day Abel had left she'd gone over and over what she could have said or done to make him stay. She'd become an expert at wishful thinking, hurting herself with perfect daydreams of what might have been if only she'd played things differently.

She raised her gaze and held his.

'We should talk,' he said, quietly. 'Not right now, but I won't leave without coming to find you first.'

Genie nodded, tears tightening her throat again until she didn't trust herself to speak. Just knowing that he wasn't going to run out of her life again without a chance at least to talk was enough to overwhelm her.

'Don't,' he said, reaching across the table and covering her hands with his around her mug. 'I can't watch you cry again.'

She couldn't help herself. She couldn't look at him; he stole her breath. Beneath the table his knee brushed her leg, and his hands were warm and strong over hers. She wanted to stop the world turning and stay there forever with him in that small, steamy cafe.

'Genie?' An uncertain voice spoke her name, and when she looked up, Lizzie was hovering behind Abel, looking smaller than ever in the shadow of her brother's powerful frame. Abel pulled his arms sharply back across the table and Genie jumped to her feet, dashing the backs of her hands over her eyes.

'Lizzie, you're here!' she said, hugging her quickly as Abel stood and turned around.

Lizzie kept hold of Genie's hand as she looked up at her big brother for the first time. 'Abel?' she said, tentative and awkward.

He nodded, silently taking her in.

'Lizzie was our nanna's name,' he said gently, and then he pulled his little sister into a hug and held her to him tightly.

Genie stepped back, choked with emotion for them and for herself. She reached for her jacket and walked out of the cafe, knowing that Abel and Lizzie could take it from here.

Genie sat on the foyer floor with her back resting against the theatre's welcome desk, her fingers tracing the intricate pattern of the floor tiles. It was so familiar to her that she could have drawn it with her eyes closed.

She watched people rush past the steps outside the gla.s.s doors in search of their lunch and wondered how things were going further on down the road in the cafe. She didn't doubt Abel; she knew that she'd pa.s.sed Lizzie into safe hands.

Wrapping her arms around her knees, she laid her head on them and closed her eyes, trying to commit every micro detail of him to her memory forever. The clean, warm scent of him, his rea.s.suringly powerful presence, the curve of his cheek. She'd wanted so much for him to walk in and pull her into those strong arms of his, to love her as much as she loved him, a scene from a cheesy Valentine movie come to life. She caught herself, gave herself a mental shake. When did she get so pathetic? He'd promised not to leave before they had the chance to talk. It was something. Maybe, just maybe, if she said the exact right things, she had a chance. She just wished she knew what the right things were.

A knock on the gla.s.s made her heart thump. Were they done already? She jumped to her feet, but it wasn't Abel and Lizzie outside. She frowned as she unlocked the door, not in the mood to deal with a stranger.

'Is she here?' the woman on the steps said without preamble or introduction.

'I'm sorry?' Genie said, folding her arms across her chest, her hackles up. She'd never seen this woman before, but she'd know those eyes anywhere.

'Don't give me that,' the woman said, rolling her eyes. 'Get her out here right now. She's skipping school.'

Genie hadn't given a thought to the fact that Lizzie was still of school age. 'She isn't here.'

'You're lying. Whoever you are.' The woman their mother, Genie supposed, though it didn't feel right even thinking of her that way - tried to look past Genie into the theatre. 'Elizabeth!' she called out in a harsh voice. 'Get your backside out here this minute!'

'I've told you once. She isn't here,' Genie sighed. She wanted rid of this woman and fast and gambled on the best way to do it. 'Check for yourself if you like.'

Abel and Lizzie's mother looked at Genie suspiciously and then stepped past her into the foyer. She was shorter by a head, a slight figure in a fake leather skirt. Genie watched as she stuck her head into the auditorium and then came back out and stood in the centre of the foyer.

'This place needs bulldozing,' she observed, curling her lip.

Genie ignored her, still standing by the door. 'Have you seen enough?'

The other woman narrowed her eyes, her face calculating. 'She's been here today, hasn't she?'

'No,' Genie said, glad that she didn't need to lie.

'I'm surprised he's living in such a dump,' Abel's mother said, and the careless way she referred to her son made Genie's hand itch to grab her and fling her out. 'If he's still here, that is. He doesn't stick around. He lives a charmed life these days. G.o.d only knows how.'

'I think you should leave now,' Genie said, keeping her voice indifferent.

'I bet you do.' The smaller woman's brittle smile didn't touch her eyes. 'I know she's meeting him, so don't even bother lying for them.'

Genie didn't. She just stood there with the door held open, waiting for her unwelcome visitor to give up and leave. She didn't.

'Maybe I'll just wait around here for them.' There was a sort of veiled threat in the words, making Genie dislike her all the more. The woman shoved her hand into her coat pocket and pulled out a box of cigarettes. 'Smoke?'

'No. You can't do that here, it's no smoking,' Genie said firmly, all the same aware that citing their smoking policy seemed rather a moot point given the state of the place. Abel's mother laughed and lit a cigarette anyway, a none too subtle challenge to Genie's authority. It was difficult to see how a woman with so few discernible redeeming qualities had managed to produce two decent human beings as offspring.

Behind her Genie heard voices, and turning, she saw Abel and Lizzie coming up the steps, laughing together. For a split second her heart leapt at the simple sight of his beautiful smile; and then panic set in right after.

'Abel, Lizzie,' she said, shaking her head and trying to alert them to oncoming trouble with her eyes.

Too late. The smiles slid abruptly from their faces as their mother stepped into the doorway behind Genie.

'What the f.u.c.k is she doing here?' he said, looking from Genie to his mother and back again.

Beside him, Lizzie gasped then turned to make a run for it. Abel shot his mother a murderous look and then cursed and followed his sister, catching up with her easily at the bottom of the steps.

'Lizzie, don't run,' he whispered, gathering her to him and speaking against the top of her head. 'It's the worst thing you can do. Trust me. It's taken me a lot of years to work that one out.' He set her away from him, his hands on her fragile shoulders as he looked down into her big, tearful eyes. He could feel her palpable anxiety, and he understood just how much she wanted to run and keep on running. 'You're not on your own now Lizzie, okay? Come on. We'll do it together.'

She nodded, and let him lead her back up the steps with his arm around her shoulders.

'How did you know where to find me?' Lizzie asked, staring baldly at her mother.

'Because I know you, Elizabeth. As soon as the school called to say you weren't there again I knew I'd find you sneaking around this place. I knew you wouldn't keep your nose out, despite what I said.' She dropped her cigarette onto the stone steps and ground it out with her shoe. 'You're a stupid, disobedient girl and you'll come to a bad end. Come on. We're leaving.'

Abel felt Lizzie stiffen beside him and held her closer against his side. 'She isn't coming with you.'

His mother's laughter was like nails down a blackboard. 'What's this, Abel? Big brother to the rescue?' She looked at Lizzie. 'He hasn't cared about you for the last fourteen years, Elizabeth. What do you think he's going to do?' Lizzie stiffened, and Abel hated his mother more than ever in that moment. 'I'll tell you, shall I?' his mother went on. 'He'll give you five minutes of his precious time and then disappear again.'

'That's not exactly what happened, is it?' he said. 'You never saw fit to even tell me I had a sister.'

'Half sister,' his mother corrected, ever spiteful.

'She's my f.u.c.king sister,' Abel said, stepping up so close to his mother that she stepped backwards inside the theatre.

He followed her in, Lizzie's small hand in his. He was aware of Genie on the edges of this circus and hated that she had to witness it.

Their mother looked them both over a.s.sessingly then lit up a fresh cigarette and blew the smoke slowly into the air.

'Do you want to know why I never told you about her?' she said, her tone conversational.

Pin drop silence echoed around the foyer. He watched her, hating that her explanation even mattered to him.

'Because you knew I'd take her from you?' he retorted, aware of the sound of Lizzie's soft gasp beside him.

Lazy amus.e.m.e.nt crossed his mother's face, as if she found the notion absurd.

'I did it to protect her from you, Abel.' The revelation winded him like a punch in the guts. 'I knew you'd turn on her like you turned on me. Because that's what you do, son. You abandon people.'

He opened his mouth but the words wouldn't come. She was wrong, the rational part of his adult brain knew it, but the emotional side of it pressed forward, greedy to agree with his mother. He had abandoned her. But worse than that, he'd let history repeat itself; he'd turned on then abandoned Genie. Would he abandon Lizzie in time too? Was he a terrible, unreliable man?

He could see the triumph slide into his mother's eyes. She'd got him and she knew it.

Except she hadn't counted on Genie.

Wow, their mother was a piece of work. Genie had forced herself to stand by and watch as she worked her children like puppets, but she couldn't let it go on any longer. Abel's faltering uncertainty filled her with rage on his behalf, and she found herself stepping forward to stand between them.

'Enough,' she said, staring his mother down, her voice low and deadly serious. 'This ends here. You don't get to come here and spout your c.r.a.p in my theatre. You don't get to come here and pa.s.s judgement on a man you neither know nor love. Do you hear me?'

His mother stared at her appraisingly, her hands on her hips. 'You'll see. He'll leave you soon enough,' she said, taking a long, slow drag on her cigarette.