An Eye for an Eye

An Eye for an Eye was originally written for World Book Day 2003. It has since been republished in new editions of Noughts & Crosses.

Summary
One evening while Sephy is pregnant with Callie Rose, her sister Minerva visits her. Minerva offers to patch up things between Sephy and Jasmine, but Sephy tries to get Minerva to leave. As Sephy had feared, Jude arrives at her apartment, having followed her for a few days.

Jude, Callum's older brother, has watched Sephy enter her apartment building, and he plans to kill her. However, he does not know that Minerva is in Sephy's apartment as well.

Sephy tells Jude that she knew that he intended to kill her just before midnight since it was Callum's birthday that day. Jude feels that Sephy is responsible for Callum's death and wants to make sure that Sephy will not see Callum's next birthday since Callum had not seen his next birthday. Sephy is not alarmed and does not protest, but Minerva panics. Sephy tells Jude that he would be doing her a favour by killing her and wants to die because she misses Callum. When Minerva tries to change her mind, Sephy declares that she hates the baby because it was alive and that Callum should be alive instead.

Sephy begins to provoke Jude by saying that she and Callum loved each other and Kamal offered her a choice of keeping the baby and letting Callum be hanged or getting an abortion and saving his life. Jude loses his temper and tries to shoot Sephy, but his gun jams. Minerva, in an attempt to save Sephy and herself, runs towards the front door and screams to attract attention. That fails, and Jude shoots her in the shoulder. Jude realises that Sephy seriously wants to die so he decides that since killing her would be to do her a favour, he will make her suffer instead.

Jude gives Sephy permission to call an ambulance for Minerva and tells her that he knows she cares about her sister and her family, especially her child. He then tells her that he plans to use her baby to hurt her. Sephy threatens to kill him if he hurts her child, but she later pleads with Jude to leave both of them alone. Jude leaves just as the ambulance arrives, with a new plan in mind.