What Did You Do? by M. I. Hattersley

Author:M. I. Hattersley [Hattersley, M. I.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

19

Nadia couldn’t stop pacing. She must have walked from the far side of the stable block to the side closest to the house over a hundred times in the last fifty minutes. Each time she returned to where Laurie and Andrew were standing, they’d appeal for her to slow down, to wait with them. But she didn’t want to. She needed to feel like she was doing something. If you stood still in this life, you allowed the darkness to catch up with you. It was best to keep moving. It was safer that way.

Her poor Tudor. Dr Simmons had arrived about the same time that Andrew had stumbled down from the house, and his initial theory was that Tudor had been poisoned. Poisoned. Her beautiful stallion. Seeing him so frenzied had broken her heart. But to see him lying on the floor of his stall, fighting to breathe, was more pain than she could bear. He was so powerful, so strong. How did this happen?

“Nadia, stop, please,” Laurie whispered as she walked back over. “This isn’t helping anything.”

Andrew stared at her with quizzical eyes. At least he knew better than to get her to stop. Either that or he was too scared to speak to her. She got to the far side of the stable and, like before, turned around and marched away from them. She knotted her hands into fists and her nails dug into her palms. Her bottom lip was numb and swollen where she'd been chewing on it.

It had to be Stacey. There was no doubt in her mind. She was here somewhere. Nadia raised her head, squinting through the gloom into the shrubs and undergrowth that surrounded her home.

Was she watching her right now, gloating at what she was putting her through?

Her mum and dad had been right about her all along. She was bad news. A troubled child with no chance of redemption. If only she’d listened to them all those years ago. If she had, none of this would have ever happened. She wouldn’t have been down by the creek that day. Instead, she’d have been up in her room doing homework or painting. Like the girl they wanted her to be. A good girl. The girl she should have been.

She got to the end of the stable block and spun around to see Dr Simmons walking towards Laurie, pulling off a pair of off-white latex gloves. There was news. She quickened her pace, reaching her husband and son at the same time as the vet.

“What is it?” she gasped. “Will he…? Is he…?” Dr Simmons looked at Laurie and then at her. He had a grave expression on his face, which made her feel like she was about to throw up. “Oh, God! Oh no!”

“I’m sorry, Mrs Morgan. There was nothing I could do for him in the end. He’s at peace.”

“What happened?” Laurie asked, reaching an arm around Nadia’s shoulders and trying to pull her close. “Can you tell us?”

Nadia shrugged his arm away.

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