BooksBarbecue
Back The Game
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. NOW
  4. One
  5. BEFORE
  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. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. NOW
  26. Twenty-One
  27. BEFORE
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. NOW
  46. Thirty-Nine
  47. BEFORE
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Forty-Nine
  58. Fifty
  59. Fifty-One
  60. NOW
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. Fifty-Three
  63. Fifty-Four
  64. Fifty-Five
  65. AFTER
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Acknowledgements
  68. About the Author

‘Maybe,’ Mark said, holding his hands up in mid-air. ‘Maybe not. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something else keeping her away. Something stupid, something that’ll make no sense. It doesn’t have to be the exact same story to have the same outcome. I’m not saying it’s what’s happened, but I’m saying you never know. That’s why you can never give up hope. People are just full of surprises. You can never tell what they’re going to do next. You can never predict their behaviour, their choices, their decisions. Life would be easier if you could, but there you go.’

‘Thanks for trying,’ Stephanie said after a few seconds of silence, staring into Mark’s eyes. They lingered for a moment, then she turned away. ‘I just can’t see it. Something bad has happened to her. I can feel it.’

‘You can’t know that…’

‘I know something, Mark,’ Stephanie said, her voice louder now, interrupting his. ‘I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it here, in the pit of my stomach. Eating away at me. Like it’s a part of me dying off or something. Something bad has happened to her. I know it.’

‘That’s just your fear, Stephanie,’ Mark tried, keeping his voice level and soothing. Or trying to at least. He was never sure if it came out as soothing or patronising. ‘You’ve been through a lot this week. You need a break.’

‘I don’t need a break,’ Stephanie replied, her raised voice reverberating around them, bouncing off the walls and shifting the atmosphere in the house. She slumped back in the chair and covered her face with her hands. ‘I’m sorry. It’s just… I need my sister back.’

She began to crumple in front of him, his chair scraping back before he realised it was happening, moving across towards her as she dissolved into tears.

‘It’s okay,’ he said, an arm around her shoulders as he squatted down next to her. ‘I know you want her back. We’re trying all we can to bring her home.’

‘I know,’ Stephanie said through gulps of air. Her body shook with emotion, as the week’s events finally caught up with her. ‘I just can’t live like this anymore, with the not knowing. That’s what’s killing me. The fact I have no idea where Emily is, or what’s happened.’

‘I know, I know.’

‘But…’

‘What is it?’ Mark said, his arm still around her, as she grasped on to him with one arm and wiped the other across her face. ‘I’m here to listen to anything you have to say.’