Then I saw her.
Thinner than I remembered. Make-up under her sunken eyes. Wearing a sequined designer dress and her trademark four-inch heels. Her eyes were bloodshot and wild. She looked deranged. I blinked and took a step back from the microphone, feeling the blood drain out of my face. This couldn’t be happening.
“You always were a stuck-up, holier-than-thou little bitch!” she screamed at me, and the crowd fell silent. Her words were a little slurred but clear enough for everyone to hear. “I should have got rid of you whilst I had the chance. This fancy fucking party.”
She was advancing on me now, tottering up the steps to the stage with a determined look on her face. My instinct was to run, but for some reason, my feet were frozen in place. I glanced into the crowd, and I could see both Harry and Heath fighting to get to me, but the people in their way were so shocked that they weren’t moving quickly enough. Then my fucking mother grabbed the microphone. I watched her sway in front of me and I thought I might throw up. The prime minister was in the crowd for God’s sake. Harry’sfamilywere here. I swallowed the bile and braced for what was about to come out of her mouth.
“This fancy building. You fucking your fancy billionaire.” Now with access to the mic, her voice was projected across the vast space. I closed my eyes as humiliation washed over me. There goes my reputation in the architecture world – everybody would think I shagged my way into this job now. “What about me, hey? What about yourmother? I put up with you little shits for years. How dare you cut me off. I deserve–”
It was the worddeservethat did it – that snapped me out of my frozen horror. This excuse for a human didn’t deserve anything.
“You deservenothing,” I said, my voice was shaking with fury, but still clear enough to be picked up by the microphone. In that moment I forgot about the crowd. I forgot about my professional reputation. It was just me and this horror-show of a mother and all the insecurities she had instilled into me over my lifetime. “You didn’t deserve the millions that you’ve already drained out of the Markham family and spent. You haven’t deserved the payoffs I’ve given you since then. And you arenotmy mother. You’ve never been a mother to either Heath or me.” I could see Harry and Heath now at the side of the stage. Harry looked like he wanted to stride over to me, but Heath had a hand on his chest to hold him back. I made eye contact with my brother, and something passed between us. I needed to say this. Heath understood that. “A mother does not neglect her children. She doesn’t forget they exist so that she can party with her depraved friends. She doesn’t starve her kids or make them sleep in a fucking shed.”
“Youchoseto sleep in that shed!” she screamed.
“We weren’t safe in the house!” I shouted back. “That house wasn’t a place for children. It wasn’t even fit for the dogs. We were all better off in the goddamn shed.” I shook my head and turned to Heath again. “Call the police,” I said before turning back to Felicity. “Now get off my stage, you pathetic excuse for a human being.”
Her face twisted with a new level of rage, and I was too slow to spot the danger. She launched herself at me, drawing her hand back and then striking me across the cheek with the back of it. She may have been a skeletal shell, but she seemed to be filled with superhuman strength in that moment. I felt the sharp edge of one of her many Markham heirloom rings tear the skin under my eye, and the force of the blow brought me down to my knees. There was a commotion around me then. Bodies were flying onto the stage. I could hear a struggle going on. But I stayed on my knees, focused on the blood dripping onto the wood of the stage from my face.
“The police are on their way!” I could hear Heath shouting. “Check on her. I’ll deal with this bitch. Harry!”
At Harry’s name, my head shot up. It took a moment to find him. He had my mother by the scruff of her designer dress, nearly taking her off her feet. She was struggling, and by the looks of it had managed to scratch his face. “You will pay for this,” Harry said to her as she thrashed about like a wild cat. The stage was then swamped with what seemed like dozens of dark-suited men. I recognised Sam among them and realised they must be the majority of Barclay and Kira’s close protection crew.
The adrenaline started to wear off then and I just felt completely drained, as if that interaction with my mother had sucked all the life force out of me. I took a deep breath and pushed up to my feet. The blood was still dripping from my face and now falling onto my dress, showing up in large red patches against the pale fabric, but I was beyond caring. I was beyond anything. All those years of hiding the horror of our childhood wasted. Rationally I knew that it wasn’t our fault that out parents didn’t love us. But the unwanted child that lived in my heart was still embarrassed. Still wondered what was wrong with her that she didn’t inspire the kind of love other people received freely from their parents. Still wondered why she wasn’t good enough. It was that part of me that needed to flee. I didn’t want to see the pity in everyone’s eyes. Didn’t want to look at their faces as they saw me in a new light, saw the broken child I would always be.
Uncaring about the blood now soaking the front of my dress, I moved quickly to get off the stage. There was so much chaos up there that nobody thought to stop me. As I went into the crowd it parted to let me through, everyone too shocked to stop me. So, before anyone could get in my way I was at the exit. I could see the police car pulling up and still I felt numb. As they came into the venue, I turned away to the cloakroom to hide my face and blood-stained dress. One thing was certain, I was not up to being questioned now. The stunned coat assistant handed me my stuff and I shrugged on my coat to hide my dress.
“Er… do you need–?” he passed me a tissue and I tried and failed to give him a weak smile in return.
“Thanks,” I muttered, accepting it, but still not having the energy to press it to my face and stem the blood flow. It was then that I felt a hand on my arm which made me flinch and step away from the contact. When I looked up, I saw it was Mrs York. Her face was pale and there were tears swimming in her eyes.
“It’s okay, love,” she said, using that soft voice that I’d heard her use with her family, but never with me, and holding her hands up as if to reassure me she wouldn’t try to touch me again. “It’s me. I’m not going to hurt you.”
I blinked at her, hating the pity I could see in her expression. She might pity me now, but I was quite sure that she would still think I wasn’t the best choice for her son. Who would want an entirely fucked-up woman latching onto your golden child?
“I’m so sorry,” she said in an unsteady voice. “I can’t believe I thought…” A tear made its way down her cheek, and she let it fall. “That awful, awful woman.”
I cleared my throat but when I spoke my voice still came out hoarse. “She lied pretty successfully back then. You weren’t the only ones that believed her.”
“The Hardcastles didn’t believe her, did they?” Mrs York said sharply. “They weren’t taken in. I spoke to Max’s mother earlier. She told me what went on.” She shook her head. “And here I am thinking I’m a good Christian.”
“Honestly, it’s fine. You weren’t to–”
“You were achild,” she whispered, openly crying now. “You were both just children. We all let you down. It’snotfine. We should have pushed harder with the school. We should have reported it to social services.”
I felt my eyes sting and took a step back. I could feel the blood continuing to drip down my face. “I can’t–”
“Let me see to that cut, sweetheart,” Mrs York said in that soft voice again. “You’re bleeding all over your pretty dress.” She moved towards me, but I held up my hand to stop her.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered back. “I just can’t be here. I can’t–” I couldn’t get the rest of my words out. My throat felt like it was gripped in a vice. She moved towards me again, but I was too quick. I spun on my heel and darted out of the exit.
“Verity! Wait!” I heard shouted after me, but for once my luck was in. A black cab pulled up to let someone out just as I made it onto the pavement. I slipped inside, slammed the door behind me and rested my head back against the leather.
“You’ve been in the wars, love,” the cabbie’s concerned voice came through the screen. “Which hospital do you want to go to?” Mindful of the ongoing streams of blood and that the cabbie probably didn’t want his interior blood stained I finally managed to press a tissue against the cut to stem the bleeding.
“I’m fine,” I said, reaching for my normal clipped, commanding tone but failing miserably. “Just drive. Please.”
Chapter30
