The penny dropped. “Oh yeah, my mum and Auntie Chrissy run a homeless charity project. Aunt Chrissy started it when she married my uncle. To give something back and look after the people on the streets. There’s a group that goes out every night to give out food and stuff, and then once a month they set up big tents in George Square, to distribute food and more. There’s medical help, like your new doctor, legal, things like that.”

“That’s a wonderful thing to do. So the Sharkeys aren’t all scary?”

“Nah, we’re angels,” Mack joked by polishing her invisible halo. “Nikki and I usually volunteer once a month. You should come too, sometime.”

“I’d like that,” Flora said.

“So, what did your doctor say?”

Flora closed her eyes for a second and remembered the claustrophobia of being surrounded by all those men. “I told her about the night we met. Dr. Carrson said that I need to talk to you about it, so the memory can’t torture me as much.”

“You know you don’t have to.”

Flora turned her head and looked at Mack. “I think I need to. That night I was going to an OCD group therapy session. It was my worst nightmare, talking in a group, and it started at eight at night. Sandra talked me into it. She thought it was worth a go.”

“You must have felt you really needed the help if you did that,” Mack said.

“Yes, but it was the wrong thing for me, and I needed support like you have been.”

“When you were in your OCD group, Nikki, me, and her security people were having a meeting about what happened to Isy and her friend. Nikki wanted Kevin Drury’s blood. Isy was at home, inconsolable after her best friend had died.”

“It must have been awful for Isy.”

“It’s so weird how our lives came together that night. I think it was fate.”

“You believe in fate?” Flora asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but in my gut I feel it’s true. Nikki and I were having a pretty intense conversation, and if I hadn’t glanced up at the security monitors—”

“Thank God you did. I was counting down the time in the meeting to get away. It was excruciating being there, and when the others hung back for tea and coffee, I ran out, knowing I’d never be back. Then I ran to where the car was parked. I heard rowdy men coming towards the car, and I just couldn’t find my keys in my bag. Then they were there, making lewd jokes, pawing me. I couldn’t take it. I put my hands over my ears and screamed. I had a meltdown, they panicked, I think, and they dragged me around the corner. Then you were there, and I held on to you, knowing that I would be safe.”