“Hi there, I’m Gilbert.”
The twins ignored Gilbert. I gave him a weak smile – he looked like he might be in over his head. Felicity broke the awkward silence.
“I spoke to Crawley and he–”
“There’s nothing for you in the will,” Heath rapped this out through gritted teeth and Felicity’s eyes flashed.
“That fucking bastard,” she spat, then took an unsteady step towards Heath before she grabbed onto the front of his jacket. A wave of pure rage swept through me as I watched him recoil from her alcohol infused breath. “He owed me.Youowe me.” She turned to face Verity. It was the first time she’d even acknowledged that her daughter was standing there. “You fucking leeches, ageing me before my time. You and your–”
That was when I lost it. I can count on one hand the number of times in my life I’ve lost my temper. One of the reasons my family had been so shocked when I had a go at them the other week was because it’s just not in my nature to be anything but chill. But in that moment, after everything I’d seen and heard that day, after lying in that miserable shed with Heath and hearing that he’d slept there since he was six-fucking-years old after his parents had failed to protect him and his sister in the worst way, I was almost incandescent with rage.
“Get your filthy hands off him right fucking now,” I snapped, yanking her back by the neck of her dress with one hand and wrenching her fingers from Heath’s lapel with the other. Then I gave her a firm push. She flew backwards into Gilbert, whose smile had dropped. In fact, he looked like he wanted to find the nearest exit.
“Who the bloody hell are you?” she slurred at me as she straightened.
“More to the point. Who the fuck areyou?” I snapped back. “Because you are certainlynotHeath and Verity’s mother. A mother doesn’t let her six-year-old kids sleep in the goddamn shed. She doesn’t let them get hurt. A mother doesn’t neglect them to the extent that even the sight of their childhood home makes them physically unwell. All that privilege and wealth, all the advantages you were given, and you couldn’t even be bothered to take care of your own children.”
“I looked after my–”
“Shame on you.” The anger vibrating through my voice now was totally foreign to me, but it has the desired effect of snapping this woman’s mouth shut. “Shame on you for what you’ve done. I hope it haunts you for the rest of your miserable, lonely life.” She opened her mouth to speak, but I moved into her personal space before she could get the words out. “Don’tevercome anywhere near Heath or Verity again.”
“You can’t tell me what to do, you little gutter rat. My son–”
“He’s not your son,” Mum said, stepping up beside me. “And Verity’s not your daughter. You haven’t earnt that right.”
“I–”
“You stay away from those kids,” Dad put in from behind my mum. The fact Heath and Verity were well into their thirties was by the by. “If you think that there isn’t enough evidence in that mausoleum of a house to convict you on multiple counts of drug dealing and child neglect, you’re very wrong.”
Her face went pale, and she took a step back.
“I know Grandpa and Granny cut you off, but there’s no money for you here either, Mother,” Verity said. Her voice was soft and held no anger, just resignation and a little sadness. “We’ll never give you any of the money. So there’ll be no point speaking to us again anyway. You may as well leave.”
“You always were a self-righteous little bitch,” Felicity spat. She gave the twins one last look of contempt then spun around to stumble back up the aisle of the church. Her stunned toyboy took a moment to collect himself. He opened his mouth and looked as though he wanted to apologise to us, but then closed it again, his face flushing red with embarrassment before he turned away to leave. As he caught up with Felicity she made a grab for his arm to steady herself, but he shook her off and power-walked out of the church – obviously very keen to get as far away from her as possible. In fact, when we made it out of the church we found Felicity standing in an empty parking space, watching as her boyfriend’s car sped out of the church car park. My last image of her was in the rear-view mirror as we were driving away, throwing her designer handbag on the ground and swearing at the retreating vehicles. If her face could have moved, I’m sure her expression would have been furious.
We drove straight from the funeral back to the motorway to leave for home, having packed up and finalised everything with the removal people earlier. All the arrangements could now be done remotely via the agent I’d found. Heath and Verity never needed to go there again. Somehow the car situation had rearranged. I was now next to Heath in the front of his car with Winnie on my lap, and Verity had gone with my family in the van with Dad driving. As we drove away from the church, I took Heath’s hand in mine to give it a squeeze and he just kept hold of it. We drove for the next hour like that – in silence, with him holding onto my hand on his lap. When we stopped for petrol, I took Winnie off into the bushes at the side of the service station. Verity followed me out there. I turned to smile at her, but she didn’t return it. She just kept coming at me until she collided with me and dragged me into a tight hug. It was the least Verity-type behaviour I had ever experienced. To be honest, I was too shocked to speak.
“Thank you,” she whispered in my ear, then pulled back and walked away.
Another half hour on the road later, Heath finally broke the silence.
“I’m sorry,” he said, staring ahead at the road. He hadn’t taken my hand hostage again, but was instead intermittently stroking Winnie’s head. We were trying to get Winnie used to Heath, since he was adamant that she was coming to live with him.
“What are you sorry for?”
“For underestimating you.”
“I don’t understand.”
He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable. “I thought that…” he trailed off, and I watched his throat move as he swallowed. “I tend to categorise people.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
“At first, I categorised you as a child, because you were one – obviously. A child who I thought was cute, and who I knew was kind-hearted, spirited, adventurous, great fun. Then you became a teenager and I…” he cleared his throat again. “You were so beautiful. I’ve never been into younger women, but you at sixteen – it was insane how beautiful you were. It made me uncomfortable, especially as you were Max’s little sister. Your family meant so much to me. So, then I tried to avoid you as much as possible.”
“Ah.” I had been hurt at the time. I thought that Heath had just lost interest in our family. The idea that he found me attractive had never crossed my mind.
“Then you were an adult, and I was so drawn to you it felt almost beyond my control. I’ve never been keen on not being in control.”
