Page 32 of Kiwi Sin

“Yeh,” I said. “I shouldn’t have suggested it. I didn’t think it was so bad.”

“It’s not,” he said. “It’s a change, that’s all. And I brought something for you. Thought it might be better to give it to you here, though, so we don’t have another whole barney about it.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t look at him. “That was kind, but I really didn’t need presents. What—”

He’d brought me a gift? Really? How did you act if a man gave you a gift? Was it all right even to take it?

I needed to know.

That was when his phone rang.

13

CHANGE OF PLAN

Gabriel

I hesitated with one hand on the door handle. I needed to do this now. Oriana had looked so sad. She’d wanted a pretty cake with candles. How could that be wrong, especially for a girl who spent her life caring for everybody else?

The phone kept ringing. Only a few people knew my number, and most of them were in the house. Were blows being exchanged in there or something?

I had to check. I said, “Hang on,” and looked.

Jack.

I let it ring, which felt odd, as if somebody were pulling at my collar. I said, “The box is in the bed, under the cover. Hang on,” and climbed out to retrieve it.

My phone chirped with a voicemail, then rang again.

Jack.

I pushed the button and said, “I can’t talk right now, mate. I’ll ring you back in a couple of hours, how’s that?”

He said, “Can you come help me?” His voice scared, uncertain.

My blood went cold. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Where are you?”

“I’m at home,” he said. “But I think I need somebody to come help.”

* * *

Oriana

When Gabriel got back into the cab of the ute, he didn’t have anything with him. He also said, “I have to leave. I’m sorry.”

It took me a moment to understand. “Oh. That … that’s all right.” My face was on fire as I scrambled out of the ute.

“Wait,” he said. “Oriana.” I hesitated, then turned, wishing I could control my face. I’d been so stupid, hoping like that. He’d probably sensed, somehow, how I felt, and wanted to get away. He’d only been being kind, taking me out of the uncomfortable moment, and I should’ve known.

He passed a hand through his thick, shiny golden hair, which had grown long enough to touch his collar in back, and said, “I want to …” He looked at the bed of the ute, where a tarp was tied down neatly over a lump of … something, then back at me. “I want to give this to you, but I don’t have time. It’s an emergency.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling better but also wanting to weep, every part of me stretched too thin by this strange day. “I understand.”

“It’s Hannah,” he said, as if I hadn’t spoken, and I thought,Hannah? Another girl?and went back to “frozen dread” again.

“Drew’s wife,” he said. “The ones I’ve been staying with. The baby was coming, and Drew had to take her to hospital in a hurry. The neighbor who was meant to come at once hasn’t turned up, and the kids—they haven’t had lunch, and—”

Oh.Hannah.I’d met her, and the kids, on the day Frankie had been taken away. She was having another baby? I said, “The kids are alone? Of course you have to go, then. But—”