No Control | Holding Me Ransom (Book 2)

6 - Start Again And Find Somebody

"Don't let her go!" I heard Karen shout to Harry as I walked down the corridor to the stairs. "Go after her! She's going to the press!"

The door to the stairwell swung shut behind me, cutting off her voice and plunging me into silence. There was no way I was going to the press about this, but I couldn't help but smile at the thought that Karen was clearly beside herself at having just wound me up and sent me off, with no legalities in place preventing me from saying what I wanted to anyone who would listen.

When I reached Reception, Antos was sitting in a chair texting, and he got to his feet when he saw me.

"Can you take me home, please?" I asked.

As we walked out into the car park I caught sight of Harry's Range Rover in one of the parking bays - how had I missed that on the way in?

Antos let me into the back seat and as he shut the door behind me I fumbled in my bag for my phone, and suddenly remembered Harry's overreaction when I had tried to look at his phone. What the hell had that all been about? Was he really texting someone else so soon after we had finished? Or had he been doing it all along and I had been too naive to see it? Was it Nadine? Were they getting back together? I felt sick at the thought.

I saw Karen come striding out of the front door, and as she approached the car and bent down I rolled my eyes. I slid the window down and was inwardly pleased to see she looked harrassed, and there was a huge water mark on the front of her skirt.

"Please don't sell your story," she said, in the kindest tone I'd ever heard from her. It was funny really, how she was so good at being nice to get what she wanted.

"Why not?" I asked. "What have you ever done for me? What makes you think I want to do you any favours?"

"I'm not asking for me. I'm asking for Harry. Everything I said before still stands. He doesn't deserve this."

"So if it's so important to Harry, why isn't he out here asking me himself?"

Karen sighed. "Harry's not himself."

"I don't even know who Harry is!" I laughed shortly. "This whole episode was a joke. A farce. I just want to go back home, to my own boring life and enjoy being able to be a normal person again, without all this drama and interference."

"Then going to the media is that last thing you want to do," she began.

I rolled my eyes and pressed the button to wind the window back up again. "Bye Karen."

I think she realised she wasn't getting anywhere, because she stood back up again and watched as the car reversed out of the parking bay and drove back down the ginnel to the security gates. I refused to look back at her until we had turned onto the road, and as I peered back up the ginnel I could just see her standing in the car park alone, staring after us.

Harry clearly couldn't have been that bothered, because he hadn't even come after me, despite Karen telling him to. I couldn't understand it. It seemed to be Karen more than Harry who was so panicked about how the public would be treating him. It was almost like he had given up worrying about it. It seemed a far cry from his confession a couple of weeks ago that he was terrified of the fans dropping him like a stone once something more exciting came along. None of this added up.

Why wouldn't he look at me the whole time I was there? Why wouldn't he speak to me? I could have understood if I had been the one who had been unfaithful, and therefore he hated me, but it had been Harry who had ruined everything. He was the one who had cheated. He was the one who had ended it, despite me offering to try and work it out. So why was he acting like the one with the problem? It just didn't make any sense.