“I’m sorry, but I just don’t want to talk. ”
Abby stood in the café, her voice barely a whisper, as the weight of the day pressed down on her. Her son Alfie was in the hospital, fighting for every breath. She had only just found the mold creeping up the wall in his bedroom, black and sinister, and now the doctors were saying those fungal spores were the reason her little boy could barely breathe.
She had called Idris, her landlord, furious. But when he showed up, it wasn’t to apologize. It was to threaten her. “That flat’s got mold everywhere,” he snarled, his face twisted with rage.
“You put a kid in hospital. ”
“All flats have mold,” she tried to argue, but he wasn’t listening. “Not mine, scumbag,” he spat. “I don’t let people live like animals.
Thanks to you, I’m the bad guy. For my loss of reputation, you pay. ”
Before she could react, he had shoved her, thrown her to the ground, and warned her with a cold, terrifying promise: “If I have to come and find you, believe me, you’ll be ten times worse. ”
Abby lay on the floor, stunned and shaking.
This wasn’t just a dispute about rent or repairs. This was a threat. And she knew, deep in her gut, that Idris wasn’t just an angry landlord. He was dangerous.
That same morning, across the street, Cassie was nursing her own wounded heart. Steve had been her anchor, her new hope, and she had decided to take the leap. She had knelt on the sticky laminate floor of the café, looked up at him, and poured her heart out. “Steve McDonald, I love you.
Despite your ex’s best efforts, I trust you. I’ve not loved many people in my life, and I’ve trusted even fewer. But it’s you. It’s you who I want to spend the rest of my life with.
”
She had quoted the rom-coms, called herself his Kate to his William, his June Carter to his Johnny Cash. She had asked him to marry her. He had stared at her, frozen, and then muttered something about not needing to conform to society, about a piece of paper meaning nothing. “Get off me.
Get in now. Move out. ”
Cassie had watched him scurry away like a frightened child, and the sting of rejection burned hotter than any slap. She had the guts to ask, and he didn’t even have the decency to say no properly.
“Your response said it all,” she later seethed, facing him again. “I will never be good enough for you, will I? At least I had the guts to be honest with you. Unlike you, you don’t even know how to be honest with yourself.
”
Steve had squirmed. He had always been like this, avoiding hard conversations, hiding behind jokes. Cassie was the first woman in years to make him feel something real, and he had thrown it away because he was terrified of being happy. “You two deserve one another,” she spat, gesturing at him and his ex-wife Tracy, who was watching with a smirk.
“Next time, try the proposal from Pretty Woman. She was a bit of a slapper and all. ”
She had walked out, her head held high, but her heart was shattered. Later that day, Summer and George sat in the quiet of a borrowed kitchen, the air thick with the memory of their own hurt.
Months ago, after the horror of Theo’s attack, George had been questioned by police about a murder. Summer had been sure of his guilt. The accusation had fractured them both. “I am so sorry,” Summer whispered.
“It was a huge betrayal after I backed you all the way when the police questioned you. You act all honorable, but you turned on me in a heartbeat. How could you possibly think that I was capable of murder? ”
George shook his head.
“I thought he could have been Theo, you know? None of us were thinking rationally. We were just trying to process the trauma. ”
“You hurt me, George.
You really really hurt me,” Summer said, her voice raw. “I was so scared. I thought they were going to lock me up for life. ”
“I know.
And I can’t take it back. But I will spend the rest of my life making this up to you. ”
They had agreed to take it slow, to start fresh. The tears were still in their eyes, but there was a quiet hope too.
Over at the builder’s yard, Tim was showing Steve the readings from Abby’s flat. The moisture meter had climbed to 30 percent in the bedroom, far above the safe 12 percent. “There’s a proper musty smell in that bedroom,” Tim said, frowning. Steve nodded grimly.
“Well, that explains Alfie. Poor little lad. ”
But the conversation soon turned to Brody, the young man who had been working with Idris. Sally had come to Tim with a worrying story.
She had seen Brody shoving some terrified bloke into the back of Idris’s car. “What I saw earlier was definitely not gophering,” she insisted. “He was strongarmming some bloke and shoving him in the back of Idris’s car. I’m telling you, that guy is up to no good, and he’s got Brody involved.
”
Tim was uneasy. He had vouched for Brody, even sung his praises. Now he wasn’t so sure. “First the flat and now this,” Tim said to Steve.
“I don’t want Brody jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. ”
“Not on our watch,” Steve agreed. “But let’s stay cool. Whatever he’s got himself into, we know at heart he’s a good lad.
We don’t want him flying off the handle. ”
Meanwhile, at the hospital, Kevin and Abby waited in the corridor outside Alfie’s high-dependency ward. The consultant had explained that the blood test results showed a clear connection between the mold in their flat and Alfie’s breathing difficulties. “Fungal spores,” Abby repeated, the words bitter in her mouth.
“I’d like him to be seen by one of our respiratory specialists,” the doctor said. “We’ll carry out a peak flow test and let the steroids kick in. ”
Alfie was stable. He was improving.
But the doctor had also warned them: they needed to think about where they would move to when he was discharged, because their flat was no longer safe. Kevin watched Abby’s face crumble. “Idris should be made to answer for this. ”
“Yeah, and believe me, he will,” Abby said through gritted teeth.
“But right now, my priority is Alfie. ”
The next morning, Abby was back at the flat to grab clothes when she found herself outside the builder’s yard. Tim was there, and so was Brody, who had been doing odd jobs for Idris. “Brody, I need to talk to you,” Abby called out, her voice hard.
“I saw you yesterday. With that bloke. You were shoving him into Idris’s car. What’s going on?
”
Brody’s face went pale, but he tried to brush it off. “It was nothing. Just some business stuff. ”
“Don’t lie to me, Brody,” Abby pressed.
“That man looked terrified. You’re involved in something, and it’s not good. Idris is dangerous. He threatened me yesterday when I confronted him about the mold.
He shoved me to the ground and told me I’d pay for ruining his reputation. ”
Brody shifted uncomfortably. “Look, Abby, I’m sorry about the flat, okay? But you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Idris is tough, but he’s not a monster. ”
“He put my son in the hospital, Brody! That mold made Alfie sick. And he came after me when I tried to make it right.
If you’re mixed up with him, you’re on the wrong side. ”
Brody looked torn. He wanted to believe Idris was just a hard businessman, but the image of that bloke’s terrified face kept flashing in his mind. And now Abby’s warning echoed in his ears.
“Just stay away from him, Brody,” she said, her voice softening for a moment. “You’re a good lad. Don’t let him drag you down. ”
She walked away, leaving Brody standing there with a growing knot in his stomach.
He knew she was right. He just didn’t know how to get out. Back at the café, Cassie had come to apologize for her outburst. Hope was working behind the counter, and Cassie slid onto a stool, looking exhausted.
“I just wanted to say sorry,” Cassie said quietly. “I thought you were being a normal teenage lad giving me grief. Some of the things I said and did, I was out of order. ”
Hope frowned.
“It wasn’t just about her, you know. I didn’t like you. ”
Cassie let out a dry laugh. “Okay.
How about I give you a free pass on that, and me and you start again? ”
Hope paused, then nodded. “Deal. ”
“Was she hurt in the fight?
” Cassie asked, referring to Megan, the woman who had terrorized them all. “Bit of a scuffle. Nothing major,” Hope replied. “Look, I’ll be honest with you.
I don’t even know how you heal from something like this. But you will. And I’m here if you ever want to chat. ”
Cassie managed a small smile.
“Thanks, Hope. ”
That evening, Steve sat alone at the bar in the Rovers Return, nursing a drink. Tracy had been stirring again, claiming she had heard the whole embarrassing radio broadcast of Cassie’s proposal. Steve had tried to laugh it off, but the guilt was gnawing at him.
“You know, I’m actually starting to think that Steve likes it that way,” Michelle had said earlier, and the words had stung because they rang true. Steve thought about Cassie, about the look in her eyes when she had knelt in front of him. He thought about his ex-wife, about the years of bitterness and bickering. He thought about Abby and Kevin, fighting for their son.
He thought about Summer and George, trying to rebuild trust. And he thought about Brody, a young lad getting tangled up in something far darker than he understood. He pulled out his phone and stared at Cassie’s number. His thumb hovered over the call button.
He had no idea what he would even say. But he knew he couldn’t just let her walk away. Not like that. He pressed call.
Meanwhile, across the street, Abby sat by Alfie’s bedside, watching him sleep. The doctor had just told them he might be able to go home tomorrow if he had another good night. She should have been relieved. But all she could think about was that flat, the mold, and the man who had threatened her in that cold, dark alley.
She turned to Kevin. “I’m not going back there. We can’t go back there. ”
Kevin squeezed her hand.
“We won’t. I’ll sort something out. I promise. ”
But Abby knew better now.
She had been promised help before, and it had ended with her son fighting for air and a landlord who shoved her to the ground. She looked at the small, sleeping face of her boy and made a decision. She wasn’t going to wait for someone else to fix this. She wasn’t going to let Idris scare her into silence.
She was going to make sure he paid for what he had done. And she knew exactly where to start.
