Now arriving, Flight BA 473 from London Heathrow.

MY HEAD SNAPS UP from the crossword as the familiar number rings over the tannoy. I jump up, and make my way towards Arrivals.

Today has been a very long time coming. It's been a very stressful few months for me, with what happened between Lara and me, and this has been the only thing I've been looking forward to. I'd barely got any sleep, with today feeling akin to waking up on Christmas morning, although I'm sure all of that will catch up with me later once the excitement of seeing my sister wears off.

Leaning on the wall, I scroll through my newly-acquired Instagram whilst I wait for a message from Millie. She isn't one that rushes off as soon as the plane lands, so I expect she will be one of the last ones through the doors.

Twenty minutes later, a message comes through with a photo of the two of them next to baggage reclaim. Millie looks as excited as I feel, but Greg looks exhausted. He's barely keeping his eyes open, and his beanie is pulled low, almost over his eyes.

I'm here, and tell Greg I have coffees.

See you soon little sis xx

I made the point of making sure I was here to pick her up this time. To be fair to me, I had just come out of the hospital, but that didn't matter to Millie. Even if I had just come out of hospital, I had let her down, and that was one time too many.

A long time has passed since I first told Millie about those nightmares, since I finally let that first person in. After that,life got that little bit easier, because I could phone Millie when I had a nightmare, talk it through rather than just endure it and let it consume me. I was finally able to start living properly, living a normal life, and despite those hefty ups and downs I've endured the last month or so, I've been able to keep my head above water. I'm proud because the Archie of three years ago would have drowned long ago.

As I watch passenger after passenger unload through the main doors, my stomach fills with butterflies. It seems every flight has emptied out before their one has, but soon I hear that bubbly voice over the noise of the airport crowd.

I spot her before she spots me, so I leap frog over the barrier and sprint towards her, only just managing to stop before we both go sprawling.

"It's so good to see you guys!" I say into her shoulder as she jumps up into my arms for hug as Greg puts a hand on my shoulder. "So good!" When I finally put Millie down, she has tears in her eyes, same as me.

It feels so good to have her here again, after nearly a year and a half without her. It was way too long, and that's why my little sister was about to get the surprise of her life... when she finds out I'm not just coming home for Christmas, I'm coming home for good.

"Arch, are you crying?" She laughs, wiping her own tears.

"Nope. Just got a stick in my eye or something," I laugh as I put my arm around Greg's shoulder, posing gallantly for Millie's selfie.

She takes a quick snap but doesn't linger, so Greg and I take the two bags and start off towards the car park.

"So how was your flight?" I ask, swinging Millie's hiking backpack over my shoulder. My ribs pull slightly but they hurt nowhere near as bad as they did a few weeks ago.

"Too long," Greg yawns from behind us.

Not only does Greg have an intense fear of flying, he always has to factor in jet lag, which has been known to leave him incapacitated. Millie had told me, but I didn't really believe it until I'd seen it first hand last summer. He had invited me down to North Carolina to watch him surf, so I invited Jared, Pete and Ollie, knowing Jared was a surf nut himself. After bigging him up, it seemed like Greg was half asleep on his board on his board to begin with. However, as the competition was over four days, he caught up enough to reach the surf off, eventually winning silver. On this trip, he'd be out of it for a few days, but for Millie and I that meant we could go exploring by ourselves, and give us a chance to catch up again, just the two of us.

We had planned for that anyway. Millie wanted to see more of the sights than Greg did, so I figured we could do the busy tourist traps before we do the fun stuff later. That said, if Millie wanted lazy days too, that wasn't a problem. They had open-ended tickets, so there wasn't really a succinct plan in terms of spending how many days where... we just knew what order we wanted to do them in.

"I slept..." Millie says with a giggle, poking Greg in his side.

"Babe, you have the annoying ability to be able to sleep anywhere. A talent I very much envy," he counters.

Greg is right. She really can sleep anywhere. I found her curled up in Bruce's dog basket once, and fast asleep upside down on the sofa on more than one occasion.

"Well, depending on how people feel, I figure today and tomorrow can be lazy days, takeout for dinner or something, maybe watching some movies?" Millie shrugs at my suggestion but Greg nods appreciatively. "Plenty of time for naps in between," I add.

Another camera shutter go off, making Greg and I roll our eyes in unison. On closer inspection after Millie falls into a fit of giggles, it seems we both have our mouths at odd angles, and our eyes closed. I'm sure it will all end up on Facebook or Instagram somewhere, but I'd just have to take her word for it when she says the rest all look okay.

"Right, shall we head homeward?" I ask, pulling my excitable sister towards the lifts, and away from the gift shop.

"Yes!" Greg agrees, pushing Millie as I pull. Despite a groan of protest, we manage to get her out of the main doors without any more stoppages.

Because the car park was so full, I had to park quite far away, much to the chagrin of my guests, but when Greg spots my newest purchase, he perks up.

"Holy shit, is this yours?" His eyes light up as I answer his question by tapping the unlock button, making its indicators light up. "What happened to the R8?" he asks.

I chuckle. "I still have it, it's back at the apartment. It's not great for picking up two people with bags," I joke. "There's one at Harlow..." I look at Millie. "Has she not let you drive it?"

"No one's driving that thing," she says adamantly. "Pretty sure it's still got its plastic on."

"You're joking," I respond in horror. "It's gathering dust?"

Millie just shrugs. "I'm certainly not driving it, Arch. That thing is a death trap."

I shake my head at Millie's overprotective nature when it comes to me and driving, but I'm then distracted by Greg's secondary reaction to the car. In his tiredness, he seems to be working on a time delay.

"Holy shit, is this the new model?" His eyes are alight with glee.

I nod proudly. It's one of the more fun perks of being a half owner of a Fortune 500 company. I have had several cars here over the last two years, but this one will by far be my favourite.

I half got it because I'd been dreaming of it since the concept car was unveiled, but we also needed something suitably sturdy for the off-roading we'd be doing in Colorado. Seeing as the new model with new plates came out a few weeks ago, I figure now was as good a time as any.

"Yep, top of the range too. Barely fifty miles on the clock. I'm hoping one of you will give me a hand with the driving?" What I didn't say was that this baby was coming home with me. I'd ordered it right hand drive for a reason.

"Oh hell yeah, you can count me in." Greg raises his hand. "One of the best perks of having you around is that you get to drive such cool cars. That Aston last year was..." He seems to be pausing for effect. "Man, it was insane."

I smile. I'd asked Henry at the London office to extend the rental on it for him for an extra month, and looking at the size of Greg's smile, it was worth every penny.

"Wait, it's right hand drive?"

I nod. "Yep, you can get them made custom right handed. Obviously it costs more..." I tail off and wink at him and he nods.

"It's what you're most used to," he suggests.

I nod. "Exactly."

Greg knew about my plan to come home. I had to tell someone, so he surreptitiously taps his nose as Millie frowns. She's probably confused as to why I bothered. I hadn't before.

Throwing Millie's bag in the boot, Greg follows suit before jumping in the back seat. But as I close it, Millie is looking at me weirdly.

I'm not sure what she's looking for, but her intense stare makes me feel uncomfortable after a few seconds, like she could see what I might be hiding.

"Come on, jump in. Ollie's got breakfast cooking!"

"Ollie's there?!" She squeals, making me flinch. "Well come on, let's go!"

My sister is one of Ollie's biggest fans. He has her in fits of laughter whenever he interrupts our video calls and every time he's not there, Millie always looks disappointed. I like that the two of them get along, as he is the closest thing I have to a best friend here. He's my American Matt, which is ridiculous to anyone else, but Millie gets it. She used to get this excited about Matt, in the good old days, and it's like a little bit of Matt has come back to look out for me.

"Yep. And Aurora." She claps excitedly as she bounces into the front seat, laughing as she turns around. "Oh my God, he's asleep already."

I turn and laugh too. Greg is already out cold and snoring on the backseat, clutching his bag like a pillow.

"Right, let's hit the road shall we?"

"Yes! Ahhh this is so exciting!" She squeals as I back out of the space, following signs for the exit.

***

WHEN WE'RE OUT OF the car park and onto the main road again, Millie turns towards me. I know what she's about to ask, and I'm surprised she's managed to keep her questions to herself for this long.

"So are you ever going to tell me what happened to your face?"

I turn towards her briefly before putting my eyes back on the road in front of me.

The swelling has gone down since the plate had been put in, but the bruising was still quite prominent. With anyone else, I would have got away with it, but not with Millie. She's very perceptive.

"I had a run-in with... someone," I answer, mumbling.

"With someone? Who was it?"

I hadn't told anyone about what Billy did. Lara was the only person who knew.

"Just someone. The who doesn't matter." I hadn't exactly promised Lara I would never tell anyone, but if I was going to tell someone, it would be my sister.

"Arch, your face is broken. Were you mugged?"

"My face is not broken," I tell her as I glance over at her.

Her concerned look makes me feel worse about not saying about not telling her. After promising I would tell her everything, I'm lying to her, and to protect who? Someone who wasn't even family. Someone who could have killed me if I hadn't got out of there as fast as I did.

"Do you remember Lara?" I ask.

Rightfully, she frowns. "L-Lara did this to you?"

"No!" I say quickly. "No, Lara would never do this. It was Billy... her brother."

She frowns harder, confused. "You got mugged by Lara's brother?"

"No, not mugged," I say quickly. "Just beat up."

Her eyes finally widen in realisation.

"Oh Jesus... Lara's brother did that to you?" She spits.

She leans closer to me, trying to inspect the bruising, but when she grabs my chin, I instinctively wrench my head away. That part was still pretty painful.

"Ow. Millie, I'm trying to drive," I say softly, trying to soften the sting for her.

She sits back but has a look on her face I know only too well. It's the look she gets when she isn't going to let this go. I knew she wouldn't, and I would explain everything eventually, but I just knew it wasn't a good idea to do it when she's tired and irritable, like she is now. Those conversations have never gone well in the past and I wasn't about to start our time together off on a bad note.

I don't push any conversation for a few more minutes as we head towards the bridge, but when we get stuck a queue, I decide a new subject is in order.

"You heard much from WEH your end?"

She glares at me for a few seconds before shrugging, accepting my change in subject for now. "Not really, but I hear you're taking more of an interest these days."

I smile. "Maybe. Just in the charitable side though."

"Maybe, huh? Henry tells me you and Pete are meeting three times a week now. What happened to being silent owners and leaving the running of it them, huh?" She's trying to sound mad, but I think she's secretly proud of me.

I knew she would never be mad at me. I genuinely hadn't meant to like working at WEH, or enjoy having such an interest in it, it just sort of happened. With all the amazing projects and talented people Dad had working for him, it was hard to stay away once I knew what went on behind the scenes.

In a weird way, I'm kind of glad that Dad forced our hands with those letters. When I was younger, I feel like him forcing me only made me dig my heels in harder. Now, as I learn about it in my own way and under my own steam, I'm enjoying it a lot more, definitely more than I thought I would.

I really liked seeing the benefits to the people around me, the number of people we had been able to help in such a short amount of time, and Pete had been such a great mentor to me, almost becoming a kind of father figure.

But now that the business was doing really well, my thoughts had turned to other things, Millie's culinary school.

Now that she had finished her own studies in the subject, she was now chomping at the bit to open a school of her own, just like she'd always dreamed. I'd taken the first step, I had the house and coach house, but now that I had them, I had to renovate them.

Once Millie knew, a surprise I was going to unveil in the next few days, I had every intention of asking Danny to head up the two building projects for me. There was an answer I already owed him, but I was hoping he wouldn't say no to this request. Once he says yes, or rather if he says yes, I'm hoping that building work can commence quickly and be finished by the end of next year, if not earlier, so Millie can get started on bookings and teaching the next generation of chefs and bakers.

I zone back in and realise Millie is still talking, clearly not noticing I'd been monologuing to myself, so I nod and smile.

"No matter what you're doing Arch, I think it's really great." She puts a hand on my shoulder before punching it playfully. "And I'm proud of you."

I smile, before doing the same to her, punching her shoulder playfully. She turns to look out the window, resting her elbow on the door. The best view in the city is coming up shortly, so I'll let them both rest their eyes for a bit before showing them. I'd gone the long way round on purpose, because the New York City skyline at sunrise is a must-see, and one of the greatest views in the world.

Putting on the radio, I let my guests sleep, and once we finally start moving off the bridge, once the view was coming up, I turn to Millie.

"Hey Mil-"

I stop and smile wider as a soft snore comes up from her sleeping figure. She has her hood up and she's slinked down so low in her seat, she's practically on the floor.

Despite the impending view, I decide to leave them both to their naps. This view wasn't going anywhere, and we had plenty of time to do it, so I turn up the radio, take in the sunrise myself and enjoy the drive.