"I'm getting a taxi back to Lucy's now."
"Okay. Brody? Don't let him near me."
I turned my phone off, ignoring the voicemails from Isaac.
When I got into the taxi a few minutes later, I looked over and saw that his car was gone. Was he out looking for me or had he gone to see Abbie?
Chapter Twenty One
I'm not sure which one woke me up first, the pounding in my head or the barbed wire in my throat. I had the hangover from hell. I ached all over, it even hurt to blink. I made a vow to never drink again. Then I made a vow to stop lying to myself.
After a good few minutes of feeling sorry for myself, my heart broke all over again when I remembered what had happened last night. The physical pain in my chest was way worse than any hangover. I would rather have a hangover every single day for the rest of my life than feel this kind of pain.
I turned over and nearly had a full on heart attack when I saw Isaac sitting in front of the bedroom door. I sat up way too fast and immediately regretted it. I allowed the dizziness to subside before I took a proper look at him. He looked exhausted. I was about to shout for Brody when I remembered where I was. Regardless of what happened last night, Lucy couldn't know that Isaac was here.
"What are you doing here?"
"Brody let me in."
Traitor.
"Why? I told him to keep you away from me."
"I know but I need to talk to you."
"Talk to me or hold me hostage?"
"Whatever it takes for you to listen to me."
"The damage has already been done."
"April, I swear that nothing happened between me and Abbie."
"Save your breath, I heard what she said on the answer machine."
"Yes and you didn't give me a chance to explain. Instead you jumped to conclusions and ran away."
"What was I supposed to think?"
"You were supposed to think that she's a lying bitch and I'm your boyfriend who you trust."
"You have five minutes to explain."
He sighed, "Remember when my mum rang me on the way back from the lake house?" I nodded. "Well she wanted me to go and pick Abbie up from the police station. She was questioned about the fire."
"Because of what I told them? About our disagreement?"
"Well that's what I thought until I found out she called Lukas on the day of the fire, asking what number house you lived at."
"What? Why would she do that?"
"She made up a story, said she wanted to go and talk to you about something."
"How do you know?"
"Lukas told me, I went to see him on the day that he got out of hospital."
I frowned. That was the same day that I went to visit him. My thoughts drifted back to when I was walking down his street and saw a car similar to Isaac's. Could that have been him? I remembered the phone call where Isaac had been acting strange. He said that he was busy and couldn't talk. Was that because he had been with Lukas at the time?
He stroked my hand, "It's okay, I know you went to see him too. You arrived just after I left."
I couldn't help but feel guilty. He knew that I went to see him all along but hadn't asked me about it. He must have thought that I was keeping it a secret. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to tell you over the phone and then Brody turned up and it just didn't come up. I know how it looks but I didn't keep it from you on purpose."
"I know you didn't. I'm sorry for keeping things from you too but I wanted to protect you. After seeing Lukas, I asked Abbie to tell me the truth but she swore that she had nothing to do with the fire. Of course, I didn't believe her but I didn't want to get on her bad side. A couple of days ago, she turned up at my place, a total mess. The police had interviewed her boyfriend, who told them that he wasn't with her the night of the fire. He was supposed to be her alibi." My mind was racing as he took a deep breath, "That's when it all started."
"When what started?"
"The blackmail. She wanted me to tell the police that I was with her before the fire, before I gave you a ride to your house. She wanted me to lie to them. That's when I knew that she did it."
I felt like I was going to throw up as the reality of what he was saying kicked in. "She set my house on fire?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell the police?"
"April...she had a tape." Her words from last night started running through my head. "She had a tape of me and you. She threatened to show everybody including the University if I didn't help her."
I shook my head, "But how? What kind of tape?"
He placed his head in his hands, "The stockroom."
I shook my head, "No..."
"I'm so sorry."