Chapter 10
"I am?" Samantha spat back, "Take a look at yourself Abigail."
"Says you! At least blokes fancy me. At least I'm not a dried up old hag. Who'd go with you mum answer me that."
The stunned silence got slightly more stunned, but all Duncan could see was the hurt that flooded Samantha's face - it made her look so vulnerable and that wasn't something he'd seen before. He watched her stand up, and obviously trying to maintain a shred of dignity walked out of the bar without another word. Before he knew what he was doing he was on his feet and following her.
Near blinded by tears Samantha ran through the hotel lobby. She had no idea what she was doing or where she was going, but she knew she needed to be far enough away from Abbie to avoid killing her. She thought about grabbing her stuff and doing a bunk but soon realised that she didn't want to. She wanted to go back and get blasted with Gina, then taunt Debbie until she made her cry. This was her reunion, she wasn't going to let Abbie ruin it for her.
She threw herself down onto one of the couches that littered the reception's lounge and tried her hardest to compose herself and as she did so, she noticed Duncan standing in front of her.
"What do you want?"
He sat beside her, "To talk." She went to protest, tell him that she didn't want to talk but didn't. It wasn't his fault her daughter was evil personified.
"I'm sorry I didn't realise she was your daughter." He sounded nervous. "I should have done. You're very alike."
Alike? Her and Abbie? Charming.
"You're both beautiful. Headstrong. You both know what you want out of life."
He was right. Absolutely right, but what he didn't know what exactly what Abbie's aim in life was, and, she decided, it was about time he did. "You know what Abigail wants out of life?" confiding in him wouldn't be easy, but she wanted him to know what he'd been part of. She wanted him to know how he'd been yet another weapon that Abbie had used to hurt her, "She wants revenge on me because I won't tell her about her father."
"Revenge?" He was sceptical. She could see that in his eyes. She didn't blame him. It was a bit melodramatic.
Not that, that stopped it being true.
"You're not the first Duncan. Abbie likes sleeping with my friends, with my colleagues. It's about getting one up on me. She likes making me feel inferior to her." She was crying now and there was nothing she could do about it, "She became a profiler not because she wanted to but because I couldn't. That's what she's like and this is no different." She wiped her eyes, "She had you because I screwed up our friendship and she knew it. She's probably even spent the last 14 years planning this."
Duncan reached out and wrapped an arm around her and once again she didn't bother to protest - he'd already seen her cry and heard about the disaster that was her relationship with her daughter, what was a hug after that?
"You know what I think we should do?"
She looked at him expectantly.
"As we speak I expect Abigail is being chastised by Gina, there's a round of shots going begging and a slap up meal waiting. So I say we go back in there and spend that evening together that you oh so expertly avoided during the investigation into the River Murders. What do you say?"
She didn't say a word. She just took him by the hand and led him back into the bar.
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