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Back Because She Loves Me Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Contents
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Ninteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Epilogue
  48. Letter From the Author
  49. Acknowledgements
  50. About the Author

She laughed and I hung up. How dare she laugh at me? If I could have stomped I would have. Instead, I limped over to my desk and sat down, prepared to write a stern email to the hospital. But by the time I’d found an email address the wind had dropped from my sails. I was OK. It didn’t hurt at the moment; the nurse was just doing her job. I had some Nurofen in the cupboard. I’d take that tonight after the codeine had all gone.

I spent the next few hours working, then sent the results to Victor. Just after lunch I noticed that the room was brighter than normal and went over to the window. The sky was blue, cloudless; the sun had returned like a hero from war. My spirits immediately lifted. If it stayed like this for a day or two, the ice would thaw and I should be able to go out again.

I switched on the TV, hoping to catch the weather forecast. I flicked to BBC News and staggered over to the kitchen to make myself lunch.

As I opened the fridge, a snatch of the news report caught my attention.

. . . young woman attacked in south-east London . . .

I walked over to the TV.

Police are appealing to anyone who might have witnessed a horrific crime in West Norwood last Friday. A young woman was seriously injured when acid was thrown into her face by an unknown assailant.

The victim, an Albanian immigrant who worked as a cleaner, is being treated at King’s Hospital. The young woman is reported to have lost the sight in one eye and to have suffered horrific burns to her face . . .

I stared at the screen.

West Norwood. That was a ten-minute walk from my flat. Albanian cleaner.

I put my hand to my mouth. It had to be her. It had to be Kristi.

Eighteen

Eighteen

‘What’s her name?’ I said aloud to the TV.

But the news moved on to something else – a story about Lucy Newton, the so-called Dark Angel, who had been slashed across the face by another prisoner – and I was left flicking around the news channels trying to find more about the cleaner.

Giving up, I turned to my computer, went onto Google News and typed ‘acid attack West Norwood’. The page filled with results.

The second result was from my local paper, The Norwood Examiner, with the headline ACID ATTACK VICTIM NAMED.

Heart in mouth, I clicked the link.

Police have revealed the name of the victim in a horrific attack in West Norwood last Friday, February 9th.

Kristi Tolka, 23, is originally from Albania but now lives in Streatham Hill and works as a cleaner.