Free The Fall by Claire McGowan Page A

lip, for Christ’s sake, her actual mouth . One of her bottom teeth had been knocked out by the fall on to the sink, and Charlotte had carried it to the hospital in a gummy pool of blood. It was too late to reattach, they said. She could have an implant when her mouth healed.
    It was the idea of being toothless that made her cry most, more than the bruises to her ribs that left her struggling for breath, more than the split lip or black eye she was squinting out of. She was missing a tooth, like an old bag lady on the street! She’d always been a baby about injections, but she was so dazed she sat silently, tears welling up until the doctor had to wipe them away with a piece of gauze. It would never heal if she kept crying on it, he said.
    By nine Charlotte had walked the few streets from the hospital to her house, and just wanted to sleep and sleep for ever and not wake up.
    There was, in her head, a list of things she would have to deal with soon. Knocking on her skull. Like that Dan was in prison, right now, this second. That he wasn’t getting out. And the worst – the absolute worst . . . But she couldn’t think about the wedding. It was too big to think about, like looking at the sun. Getting a lawyer, a decent one this time. Explaining to Simon why she hadn’t turned up today. Somehow, she’d thought that when Dan was released, they’d both go merrily off to work.
    But she’d barely got home when there was an almighty buzzing from the door and her name was being yelled up from the street loud enough to rouse the whole building. ‘Charlotte! Charlotte! Are you there? Right, that’s it, Phil, call the police.’
    Oh, crap. It was her mother.
    Charlotte’s mother was short, like her daughter, and had greying fair hair in a sensible feather cut. She burst out crying as soon as she saw Charlotte. ‘Why didn’t you answer your phone? I thought you were dead!’
    Phil, Charlotte’s step-father, was trying to get his wife inside. ‘Come on, Gail, let’s not make a scene.’
    ‘Why shouldn’t I make a scene? To see it on the news like that! I just don’t know what to tell everyone. They were looking forward to the wedding so much!’
    Charlotte’s stomach flipped; she wasn’t ready to think about that. ‘How did you get here?’
    Phil was settling her mum on the sofa, coaxing her out of her M&S suede jacket. ‘Came down the M6. Easy run, at this time. Stopped at the services for a bite.’
    Charlotte felt slightly hysterical; in a minute he’d be telling her what route the SatNav had taken them on. ‘I mean, what are you doing here? It’s a Monday evening.’ In normal circumstances her mother wouldn’t make the drive south without a six-month detailed planning period.
    ‘Well, what else could we do?’ Gail started up noisy sobs. ‘It’s just not fair, Charlotte. I’ve been working so hard on this wedding, and now who knows what’s happening!’
    Charlotte shut her eyes. ‘Mum, will you just – I don’t know, OK? I don’t know what’ll happen now.’
    ‘But why didn’t you call us?’
    She snapped. ‘Because I got beaten up, OK? I’ve been in hospital all day.’
    ‘Where are my glasses, Phil?’ Gail peered at her daughter and pressed a hand to her own chest. ‘Oh my goodness, your face!’
    Charlotte sank down at the kitchen table. ‘I was in the toilets, after the – at the hearing. Some girls hit me.’
    Gail’s face said that everything she’d always believed about London had come true.
    Phil cleared his throat. ‘Shall I make us a brew?’
    ‘What? If you want. Mum, I didn’t tell you because it was all so fast. I just never thought it’d go like this. I honestly thought it would all be fine after this morning.’ As she said it, Charlotte realised it hadn’t been fine – so now what? How was she going to think about what was next?
    ‘But they said he – he killed a man!’
    ‘I know, I was there, all right? But he didn’t. I know he didn’t.’ Her voice