When Belle went to see how Milly was doing, she found that Milly wasn’t upstairs in the bedroom any more. She was sitting downstairs in the tiny lounge of the London house, and to Belle’s intense relief she looked better. Still skinny and listless, but her colour was improved and she wasn’t shaking or swearing or demanding a hit. She was sitting beside an electric fire, the bars glowing red, holding her hands out to its warmth. When she saw Belle come in with Stevie, she didn’t stand up. Belle went to the armchair opposite Milly’s own and sat down. Stevie stood at the door.
‘How are you?’ she asked cautiously.
‘I feel like shit,’ said Milly, with a thin smile.
‘You will do. For a while.’ For a long while, Belle thought; maybe always. Crack was vicious and wouldn’t loosen its grip once it had you.
‘Stevie said you wanted to talk.’
‘Yeah.’ Milly’s eyes went to Stevie. ‘If we can have a moment alone . . . ?’
Stevie looked at Belle. She nodded. He stepped outside the door, closed it behind him.
‘So?’ said Belle.
Milly was silent, staring at the glowing fake coal of the fire.
‘Mills?’ she prompted.
Milly stared at Belle’s face. ‘You know what? I thought I was having a bad trip last time I saw you. God, Belle, what happened to your face?’
Belle gave a thin smile, feeling the scar tissue on her left side pull as she did so. ‘Had a run-in with Harlan. And some caimans.’
‘Jesus!’ Milly’s eyes were wide and horrified. ‘Where is he? Do you know?’
Belle knew all right. Jack’s mates were watching Harlan every second now, recording his phone messages, overseeing every move he made.
‘He’s at the house.’ She thought that Milly was too fragile to take too much in right now. Later, maybe she would share the horror of all that she’d discovered in Nula’s journals. But not yet.
Milly’s eyes dropped to her hands, now clasped together in her lap. Belle saw a tear slip down her cheek.
‘Mills, it’s going to be OK. I promise you.’
Milly was shaking her head. ‘No. It’s not.’ Her wet red-rimmed eyes met Belle’s. ‘It’s all such a fucking mess. You know, I always felt pushed aside. First when they adopted Harlan. And then little Jake.’
‘Mills . . .’
‘And then they left everything to Harlan. Nothing for me except a yearly allowance. He was included in the business, he inherited the manor. I was like you, kept out of everything, too fucking useless to be involved. I was just the girl.’
Belle stared at the rage on Milly’s face, taken aback. Milly was such a quiet person, usually; inoffensive. But all this had been boiling away inside her, and now it was overflowing.
‘Mills,’ she said quietly. ‘You have to let this go. Forget Harlan. Forget the past. Make your own life now. Start again.’
‘I don’t know that I can,’ wailed Milly.
‘You? Damned sure. We’re the can-do girls, remember?’ Belle smiled.
Milly’s smile was thin and trembling. But it was there.
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘You’re right.’