The Night I Looked Away.

We were out in the West End, everything lit up, money moving faster than sense. I watched Frank gamble like someone trying to outrun himself. Thirty thousand gone in a single night. His life savings. The future he'd built in careful steps, burned away in hours. When the losses closed in, so did the tears. Then the anger. Security had to step in because he started shouting at the dealers, demanding something back ' free play, anything. All they offered were hotel nights and polite smiles. It wasn't enough. I should have been there. Instead, I was at the bar, half drunk, talking to a woman who made me forget the room behind me. I didn't walk out with him. That's the part that stuck.