Seven Days(37)

‘You saw them? Where?’

‘In his house. His parents were out and I watched them go inside. They closed the curtains in an upstairs window, but they didn’t lock the door. I let myself in and heard them. Heard their grunts.’ He shuddered in disgust. ‘I went to look, so I could be sure.’ He breathed in deeply. ‘And there they were. The door was ajar. I watched them. It was disgusting.’

Maggie closed her eyes as tightly as she could. This man had spied on her mum and her boyfriend, crept into a house and watched them have sex. And now she was in some prison he’d made. This was more fucked up than she had imagined.

He tapped her on the shoulder and she opened her eyes. He leaned forward. ‘You are the same, Maggie. You have the same light. And I saw the fate coming to claim you, and I could not let it. Once you were with that boy, I knew I had to save you. And now you are safe. Your light will never go out.’

‘Me and Kevin are friends,’ she said. ‘That’s all.’

‘For now. But he would do the same to you as that animal did to your mother. And I had to keep you safe. Keep your light shining.’

‘But I’m trapped,’ Maggie said. ‘There is no light in here. This is no life.’

The man shook his head. ‘This is the only life. The only place your light is safe. I won’t make the same mistake again, Maggie. I loved your mother. Loved her like no man has ever loved a woman before, and if only she had known it, if only I had been able to tell her, we could have made a beautiful life together. But it was impossible. And even if that boy hadn’t ruined her, people’ – he spat the word out – ‘society, wouldn’t allow it. They were blind to the truth. They saw only my age. And it was all ruined. Ruined forever.’ He wagged his finger. ‘And then you came into my life and I had another chance. And I’m not going to miss it.’ He looked around. ‘This is the only way. If it wasn’t for this, you would not give me a second look. You – like your mother – have been conditioned by society to think of age as an insurmountable obstacle to love. Buy why? In other areas society has moved on. Black people used to be unable to marry white people. Men could not have sex with men. The poor could not marry the rich. But all these things have become acceptable. So why is age still such a problem?’

He tapped his feet on the floor.

‘It won’t be, eventually. But I cannot wait for that day to come. I love you, Maggie, and this – all this – I did for you. One day you will understand.’

Maggie hugged her knees to her chest and closed her eyes.

‘Please,’ she said. ‘Please go. I need to be alone.’

She heard footsteps, then felt a hand on her shoulder. He kissed her head with his soft, fleshy lips.

‘This is the only way we can be together,’ he said. ‘Goodnight, my love.’





4


One thing was clear now. Among all the uncertainty, all the doubt, one thing was clear.

She had to get out of there.

The man wasn’t going to let her go. He wasn’t going to relent and start feeling sorry for her. This wasn’t some temporary imprisonment that he would end once he had what he wanted.

No, this was for good. This went back to her mum, went back decades. She was important to him in ways she couldn’t begin to understand, but she understood what that meant.

It meant that, unless she escaped, she’d be here forever.

And there was no time like the present.

She was awake the entire night, turning over her options.

And there weren’t many. She couldn’t hide, she had no weapons. Her only advantage was that he wasn’t expecting her to fight, which meant she’d have one chance to surprise him and get away.

She pictured his routine when he came into the room. He closed the door, then locked it with a key he kept on a chain around his wrist.

That was the moment. Once the door was locked, she wasn’t sure she could get the key off his wrist, but if she could hurt him in the second before he locked the door she could get out.

And maybe lock him in the room, if there was a lock on the outside and she could find some way of locking it.

But she would only have one chance.

She was lying on the mattress, staring at the ceiling, when she heard the scraping sound. She tensed. When the door opened the man needed to see her on the mattress or he would not come in, but then she would be ready.

The lock clicked. The handle turned.

The door cracked open.

‘Good morning, Fruitcake.’

The man stood in the door frame, a tray in his hand. He put it on the carpet, his eyes on her. Her stomach tensed. He was going to leave without coming inside.

‘Morning,’ she said. ‘How are you?’

He caught her eye. ‘I’m fine – as usual. You’re talkative.’

‘I was thinking about what you said last night. I think you were right.’

A faint smile touched his lips. ‘Right about what?’

‘About me being safe. In here.’

‘Exactly.’ The faint smile swelled into a grin. ‘I knew you’d start to understand, eventually.’

‘I needed time to consider it.’ She smiled back. It took a huge effort. ‘Tell me more. About how you decided on all of this.’