Ellie woke early; Jasper was flat out, on his stomach, his head turned towards her. She carefully got out of bed and went to the bathroom. Her face felt different this morning, not as swollen. Yesterday she had been too frightened to look in the mirror even when she had been in here before. She had avoided looking at her face; if both Gus and Jasper said she shouldn't look, then she would take them at her word. This morning though, she glanced up as she was washing her hands. Determined not to cry or make a noise that would wake Jasper, Ellie stared at her ravaged face. That was some bruise over her eye, and her cheek was still very swollen, but she could feel that it had gone down. By tomorrow, it would be yellow around the edges. Taking a breath, she needed more painkillers. Slipping her dressing gown on, she walked silently out of the bedroom.Ellie gave a contented sigh. It felt so typical to be putting the coffee on as usual; she sat in her little apartment. This time of d

Grant huddled under the bridge, and he pulled his hood up around his face. He was cold, shocked and stupefied at what he had just done. He was so glad that the man, Richie, he assumed, had turned Kylie out of the way and sorry that he had taken the bullet. That wasn't supposed to happen. Grant had shocked himself, and he was confused and didn't truly understand what was supposed to have occurred. He wished he had never taken the gun out. He knew it wasn't just their life that he had ruined, but his own as well. It was Saturday evening. He should be having tea with Kylie, watching Suki toddle around. Just what the fuck had he done?"You can go in and see him now." said the nurse, "He's still not quite with it, so you may get a weird conversation if you get anything at all."Richie was in the recovery position, his wound uppermost; Kylie went over to him, and she stroked his hair back, and his eyelids flickered."Hey Richie," she said softly, "I'm so glad you are alrigh

When Kylie got to the hospital that afternoon, Richie already had a visitor. A woman was sitting ramrod straight on the edge of the chair next to Richie's bed. All Kylie could see was her black hair pulled back to a tight bun on the back of her head. Kylie looked in the porthole window in the door; neither of them had noticed her so far.Kylie didn't go into the room. It looked as though Richie wasn't thrilled with her. She was older than Richie, maybe in her early forties. She could see Richie was talking to her. He had his business face on and certainly wasn't smiling.Kylie turned to the nurse's station behind her. Sarah, the staff-nurse, looked up from her note-taking. "Hello, are you here to see Richie?""Yes, do you er, know who is in with him now?"Sarah pulled a face, "Apparently, that's his housekeeper. She was how can I put this, rather abrasive to the staff when she first arrived.""Oh dear, she was like that when she called me this morning.

After Ellie had taken the sandwiches up to her mum, she made her excuses."My ribs are aching. I'm going to rest for a while," Ellie said to no one in particular."Are you alright?" Jasper asked quickly.Ellie nodded, "Yes, I'm fine." She mumbled, turning her head, not wanting him to see the tears filling her eyes. Once the door had closed, she could hear them all chatting away, her mother laughing. Her dad was cracking his silly jokes, probably at her expense. She knew it was meant with love, but sometimes she just wanted love without the jokes. Without her mother pushing her to do the next thing on her list. No one ever seemed to look at her list and the things she wanted to do. She had never told them about Greg about why she had left the hotel, her mother would have raised the roof, and all she wanted to do was forget. She didn't want to be reminded of that. Her mum would have just gone on and on about it.She went to get her painkillers, which were still in

Veronica Fox, Roni, was never satisfied with what she had. She had a lovely home. She had a loving, although very busy, husband, and she had a beautiful, good-natured daughter. They had enough money to go on lovely holidays, buy nice clothes and generally enjoy life, but Veronica wanted more. Her eyes were almost out on stalks as she stood on the private terrace in the most beautiful hotel in Paris, where her sister-in-law was having her surprise engagement dinner. Standing almost within touching distance were four of the most handsome and richest men, she could hope to come across.She knew that Ellie had already taken one of them, but even so, she knew her sister in law would have a job keeping Jasper satisfied. Maybe he would appreciate a more experienced woman now and again. She cast her 'professional' eye over the rest of the men. Two of them were quite possibly the most famous people in the world at the moment. Both Nick Henderson and Gabriel Swann were panty-throwing han