The Consequence

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

Now

I glanced between them both, "Okay, so is somebody going to explain why I wasn't told she was alive?" I questioned.

Luke's eyes flicked to Chantelle's before he let out a huge breath. "She didn't want you to know."

My hand on the mug tightened ever so slightly. "Pardon?" I really didn't want to hear what he'd just said. I loved her, she loved me. Why would she not want this?

He gulped and he looked pained to be telling me this information. He barely looked me in the eye, just stared at the ladybird mug in his hand. "It was about a month after she had woken up. She wasn't the same, she was more reserved and quiet. She didn't speak and suddenly you get in touch and you confirmed what I had already believed, you thought she was dead."

I nodded my head. "That conversation was quick. It was just to say I was safe."

"Yeah, from the payphone in Canberra." I was astonished that he'd remembered such a trivial point. "I nearly told you but the phone was put back down and the chance was lost." He explained.

"So?"

"Well I went and told Megan. I thought it would have cheered her up, given her a bit of life but once I said you name..."

My eyes widened. "What? What happened?"

"She lost it Jamie." Chantelle completed for me. "I was there at the time. She trashed the baby's room, she smashed a window... she just broke down." My heart sank at not being there for her. It was a reaction from her, Megan was always laid back, it must have snapped her.

I felt a single tear fall down my cheek but I wiped it away as soon as I felt it. I should have been there for her... so we could have grieved for Mia together. That's how it should have been. "I'm a monster." I whispered. "How could I have done this?"

The pain that she must have felt, the despair, the loneliness. She lost the biggest person in her life and she also lost a future she had dreamt about as soon as she found out she was pregnant. I wasn't there for her when I should have been.

"Jamie, what did you do?" I looked up to Chantelle as she sat across from me. Her face had softened but she also had this enquiring look in her brown eyes.

"I honestly don't think you want to know..." I told her honestly. I didn't want to relive it all, this was hard enough. Going to Tony's and beating a few of his thugs up was easy compared to this.

The regrets, the mistakes, the lost hopes and dreams... dashed because of my stupid ego!

She glared at me. "I deserve the truth. I lost my best friend through this."

I matched her glare. "I know. It is just fucking hard." I spat.

"Hey!" Luke cried. "None of that!"

"Well you fucking tell her then!" I shouted. "What I did was the biggest mistake of my life – do you know what that feels like? Knowing that you killed your own fucking daughter, Chantelle? Do you know how difficult it is to come to terms with the fact that the love of your life, the one person who you thought would never hate you is now alive? You know, after believing she was dead after three years? And not only that, but she made your friends carry on the façade because she despises you?"

I had stood up in fury during my rant. I grabbed the bottle of whiskey and poured another glass with my back to them both.

"Well you must have deserved it then!" She yelled back, stood up herself by this point. "Megan was the best girl in the world and when she went into that hospital, she was not the same person that came back and if you did do what you are saying, then I don't want you in my fucking house or near me ever again!"