Ellie
“You know that I hate surprises,” I told Tobias, pulling a face as we crossed the street in the centre of Edinburgh. He pretended that he didn’t hear me, pressing his palm to my back.
He was probably still angry with me about the fact that I went faced Andrew without him. I had never seen him so mad in my life. He screamed and shouted for about ten minutes straight, his face the colour of an aubergine before he let me explain what happened that night. On a positive note, he promised to punish me and he indeed delivered on that. I was sore for almost a week.
That was three weeks ago and Tobias hadn’t spoken to Claire since. I begged and pleaded, trying to tell him that it was my idea, but he was having none of it. Later on we found out that a few strippers had seen Andrew being dragged into a car by the Russian giants. I thought that I would feel sorry for him, but surprisingly I didn’t feel anything. He deserved what was coming to him, and Claire was certain that it was nothing good. No one had seen him since then, and I had a feeling that it was the end of Andrew Hamilton.
Lurkin was sentenced to over twenty years in prison; the list of charges was long and very complicated. Tobias and Claire had to testify, and according to the prosecutor, they had collected a significant amount of evidence against him. On top of that, I resigned from my job and told Phil to go fuck himself, and that felt damn good.
I finished writing my groundbreaking exposé when I was in the hospital recovering from my injuries. The whole case was publicised nationally, and I was the first unemployed reporter to deliver a spectacular article with solid photos and great interviews. I had managed to secure a deal with one of the largest newspapers in Scotland that syndicated it to the whole of the UK. They hired me on the spot, and a few days later, my dream had come true. My story was published on the front page. This whole thing was still pretty surreal.
“Relax, Angel. You will like this,” Tobias said. “I don’t think you’ve been punished enough though. There is also a surprise waiting for you at home,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
I tried to stop thinking about the nights that we spent in my apartment. Officially Tobias moved into my place, unofficially he put an offer on the apartment that was two doors away from mine, after he received confirmation that he was able to be permanently placed in Edinburgh. We were together, and we were happy. Everything turned out great. He grabbed my hand as we walked into the restaurant.
“We have the table just at the back,” Tobias whispered, leaning over while we waited for the waiter. I looked at him wondering what the hell he was planning now. “Oh, and I may have forgotten to tell you that my team caught the person that had been blackmailing you. It turned out that it was a woman from your old job named Mimi.”
I looked at him struck dumb with shock.
“Mimi was the one that blackmailed me? How? Why?” I asked.
“She recognised you and was running behind with her credit card payments. She was desperate. Besides, she was an amateur. The team traced her pretty quickly.”
I couldn’t believe it, but it kind of made sense. Mimi never particularly liked me. I guessed she thought she had a chance to make some money off me and she took it.
After weeks in the hospital, I had forgotten about the whole blackmailing thing. Now I was kind of glad that Tobias managed to get to the bottom of it.
When the waiter took us to our table I thought that I was hallucinating. My father was sitting there facing us, reading a paper, but not just any paper—the edition from a week ago with my article on the front page. I hadn’t spoken to him since the day I went to warn him about Andrew. He never tried to get in touch with me. I was so busy with recovering, starting my new job, and getting on with life that I assumed he didn’t care. He rose from his seat when he saw us approaching.
“Ellie, forgive the intrusion, but I needed to congratulate you in person,” he said, clearing his throat. God, what happened to him? He had never before congratulated me on anything that I had done. Looking up at his face, I could see that he was proud. I knew that my article created a storm. In the past few days the press wouldn’t leave me alone, and a few television stations wanted to interview me. I achieved what I had wanted, and on top of that my man stood firmly behind me.
“Thank you,” I said, blushing. It had been so weird to see my name on the front page, but I gained respect from the other staff reporters. No one seemed to want to write crap about me anymore.
We all sat down at the table. Tobias had this smug smile on his face, the smile that I knew so well. The waiter approached and Tobias was just about to order something when my father lifted his hand.
“Champagne, the best you have. We are celebrating,” he stated. I leaned over to Tobias and asked him.
“You did this, right? You called him?”
“Actually, he called me. I have no idea how he got my number,” he replied, looking at me with that familiar fire in his eyes. My father was busy looking at the paper. I had a feeling that it was his way of saying that he was proud of me, finally.
“Have you got any more surprises up your sleeve?”
Tobias ran his hand along his jaw and looked away. I hated when he did this, making me wait for his answer.
“Well, we are going to Shetland Islands. We’ll be heading to the airport from here, Angel. Does that count as a surprise?”
I gasped at him and then kissed him, because I knew that things were going to be good from now on. Everything was finally perfect.
The End
