The Family Firm

Chapter 53

Frankie slowly opened her eyes and for a moment lie still in the warmth of her brother's bed. Immediately she recognised where she was; his scent of menthol cigarettes and cheap cologne was heavy on the sheets and surrounded her like his arms often did when she lie there. The familiar ache of love-making weighed on her joints, and for a while this was all she let her mind wander to. She recalled vividly the roughness in which he handled her, could almost see the bruises on her neck and arse left there by his hands, but she wouldn't allow herself to remember why.

It had always been that way for Frankie, and her Freddie as well. Perhaps it was just the way of the Evans family, to drown out their problems with sex and booze and forget about the reason they were shagging and drinking in the first place. It was almost a matter of self-preservation, really; if Frankie remembered why she and Freddie needed to fuck and forget, her mind wouldn't have been able to handle the reality of what she had seen the day before. And so, instead, it lingered somewhere in her subconscious like a bad dream, like it had never really happened. It couldn't have. Something so heinous wasn't possible, not from her, or Freddie, or anyone else.

Yawning as she sat up, she reached out towards her mobile on the end table. The shower was running in the nearby bathroom and she smiled at her brother's presence, a smile that faded slightly when she saw how many messages were left on her mobile. Donny just could never leave her alone, could he?

Back in the beginning, he had been very quick to accuse her of cheating, which . . . at least, in her mind, never counted as long as it was with Freddie. Outside of that, she had been completely faithful to him. Furthermore, she wouldn't have cared if he shagged around, and ignorantly she assumed that he was. He was always on some scheme or plan in those days, leaving her for sometimes weeks at a time to fend for herself and little Junior, while he sought after little jobs here and there that inevitably failed. Probably because he had spent all their money on drugs and prostitutes, as she had always suspected.

Now that he was back, he was home constantly, and since she was a working woman who sometimes went out in the middle of the night on business (which was as much as she was going to allot herself to remember the day before), he suddenly had a problem with it? With her having her own life? The hypocrisy was astounding.

She never let herself see her relationship with Freddie as cheating. It couldn't be cheating, not really. They could never be anything more than brother and sister, whether or not they were fucking. If they could, she would have married him long ago. That way he would be all hers.

But he wasn't, now. He had that bitch Stella. Frankie's smile had completely faded by then. She knew Fred had been shagging her for a while now, and that was the part that scared her. He went through women like he changed pants. He didn't have girlfriends, and yet, there she was, his posh little tart. And she had seen Stella a number of times—the woman was drop-dead gorgeous, and Frankie felt insecure around her as she often did around Freddie's birds. Stella was always perfect and clean and posh, not a wreck like Franks herself had been for quite some time. Sure, she cleaned up well, but she imagined Stella waking up with perfect hair and make-up already in place, and while she knew it was silly she couldn't get the thought out of her head. Waking up like that next to Freddie of all people. Her Freddie.

Furthermore, she was in "the business" as they called it. Frankie didn't know many women that were on the take, especially not those in positions of power as Stella seemed to be. She knew Fred appreciated what she did herself, but she wasn't a real earner like that bitch was, she didn't make the deals and wasn't violent or whatever else she had imagined Stella to be. She must have been his dream woman, wasn't she.

The truth was, Franks didn't know her. They had never even been formally introduced. Before, Freddie had been all hers, and suddenly Stella was at his side, and it was as if the rug had been pulled out from beneath Frankie's feet. They had never talked about her, or about Donny. It was as if it were an unspoken truce between them to ignore the reality of the fact that they each had to live separate lives, even if they loved each other more than anything. And Frankie had to believe Freddie loved her more than Stella. She'd go mad otherwise.