Shane said nothing, just stood and watched like a wily cat, biding its time or maybe trying to work out what ‘things’ Molly knew.
‘Like what? Why can’t I trust him?’ Dee stared, and there was a hardness in her eyes that Molly didn’t expect.
‘Yes, Molly, what do you know? Perhaps it’s time you shared with the group. Has Aunty Nancy been gossiping? I saw you both went out earlier so, do tell, what’s she been saying about me now?’ Once the sickly smirk faded it was replaced by a challenge. It was there, in his eyes saying,Go on, I dare you.
Molly’s face burned at his brazenness, and it caused something to snap. It was all too much, and the thing that had been building inside all morning boiled over and spewed out in words, that even as she said them, she knew and didn’t care that they could never be taken back. She looked him straight in the eye as she spoke to Dee, each syllable a weapon.
‘Dee, there’s something you should know about me and Shane, a huge secret and it’s going to really shock you.’ She watched as his face tensed, a nerve at the corner of his eye twitched and for a beat, it looked like he was going to speak or move towards her, prevent her from saying out loud what he was. She beat him to it.
‘I found out today that Shane is my real dad but he already knew, ever since he married Mum and then, this is the really twisted bit, when she got fed up of him cheating on her, because that’s the kind of guy he is, he started blackmailing her, threatening to tell me the truth and ruin my memories of our lovely dad, Ronnie. My dad, a decent man who willalwaysbethe best father in the world, who I will love forever, no matter what my genes say.’
The day stopped. The three of them trapped for all eternity in a still-shot entitled –Truth on the Terraceby Molly Lassiter.
Dee’s hands were clutching her throat, her eyes so wide it looked like they’d pop right out and roll across the marble tiles. ‘No, that’s not true. Shane, is it true? Are you Molly’s dad?’
Dragging his eyes from Molly he at least did Dee the honour of looking at her while he replied. ‘Yes, it’s true, but maybe Mother Julia and Saint Nancy might have twisted the real version to suit themselves because I wanted to tell Molly from the start, but I was persuaded, emotionally blackmailed actually, into keeping quiet. So let’s all remember who the injured party is here.Me.’
Molly took an angry step forward and jabbed her finger in his direction. ‘BULLSHIT! You stole a sample of my DNA and then used the results as a bargaining tool to keep Mum under control while you made a fool of her at work and here in the village, sleeping with women from ClearGlass and God knows who else, so don’t you dare lie. You were out for what you could get from the start and probably never even loved Mum, did you? Go on, admit it, you sick perverted freak.’
Shane looked like he’d been slapped. ‘I am not sick, or a freak.’
‘Oh yes you are! You deceived me, you lied and lied and lied so you could carry out your warped perversions…’
Molly stole a glance at Dee who was pacing, her hands clutching her head, muttering something intelligible, but she hadn’t finished with Shane.
Striding right up to his face – but not touching, she couldn’t bear that – she said under her breath, ‘Why, why did you do it? Have you done it before, with other sixteen-year-olds who’re toostupid to see what was happening to them? That they’re being groomed.’
A gasp from Shane, real shock, as though the thought had never occurred to him. ‘It wasn’t like that… not with you, what we had was love, a mutual thing that you wanted too, all of it, and there’s nothing wrong with that… because you belong to me. You’re mine and I hated it, hated hearing you talk about Ronnie like he was a god whenIwas your dad. You’re my daughter and it should’ve been me you were idolising not him.’
Forgetting about Dee, as though there was just her and Shane left in the world, on a stage in a play starring themselves, she delivered her lines, unrehearsed yet from the heart.
‘Oh my God, you’re sick, properly mentally sick, and evil, you know that, don’t you? You’re a paedophile,a pee-do-phile,’ she said it slowly for effect, ‘and what we had or did was not love. It was incest,in-cest.Do you not get that? You groomed and manipulated me and played on my emotions when all the time you knew I was your daughter. You disgust me more than I disgust myself.’ Molly’s eyes blurred with angry tears as her core shook with pure hatred, the urge to slap him immense and then, sobbing…
They both turned to see Dee, her hands pressed on the stone balcony wall, her body hunched and shaking with sobs, causing Molly to race over, followed closely by Shane. When Molly reached out to touch her, Dee turned and shoved her so hard she tumbled back into Shane, his touch making her skin crawl as he saved her from falling to the floor. Dee’s face was red with rage, her eyes wild, a manic look taking over her pretty features making Molly recoil slightly.
‘Get away from me… get away…’ Dee pointed at Molly, her hand shaking. ‘You and him, you were together. I heard what you just said. That’s dirty, you’re disgusting, you were doing itwith him. He was cheating on Mum, all the time, when she was sad and on her own, you were withHIM.’
Dee screeched the last word and then began pacing, pulling at her hair, thumping her head with the ball of her hand and then she began rambling. ‘I’m sorry, Mum, I’m sorry… I didn’t know. You were right, you were telling the truth… I’m sorry I told him. Mummy, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Mummy… it’s all my fault… I didn’t mean it…’
Molly had to stop her. ‘Dee, Dee what do you mean? What did you say to Mum? DEE!’
Dee froze, blinked, like she was waking up from a dream and said, ‘It was me, who told Shane about the divorce. It was me that saw the email from Aunty Nancy and I told him, the day she died. I thought I was helping and if he knew then he could sort it out, make everything all right because I didn’t want them to split up. I wanted us to stay a family but now I know… and I wish I’d not told him. I started it all off and it’s my fault she’s dead, too.’
Molly spun around to face Shane. ‘YOU! This is all because of you. Do you see what you’ve done to her, using her like you used me…’ But she halted mid-attack because Shane was looking over her shoulder and what he saw made his eyes widen.
Molly turned. Dee was climbing onto the balcony wall, on her knees, then standing, swaying and unsteady. Molly stepped forward slowly, her heart pounding, Shane by her side but slightly in front.
‘Dee, get down, don’t be silly now… please, Dee, get down.’ Molly held out her hand.
‘Go away. I hate you both. I want to be with Mum so I can see her and say I’m sorry. I don’t want to be here anymore with you andhim,I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.’
‘Dee, sweetheart, there’s nothing to apologise for… you’ve not done anything wrong, nothing at all. You were trying to help and I know you hate me but please let me try to put it right.’
‘NO! You don’t understand. I was all my fault, ME! I’m a bad person and I need to say sorry to Mum cos I didn’t believe her when she was right, about him,’ she pointed to Shane again, ‘and it’s been driving me mad and it’s there all the time, like a monster that won’t leave me alone and it’s eating my head.’ Again Dee pounded her skull with her fist then started to pull at her hair.
‘Dee, you are not a bad person… I don’t understand why you’d think that. We all love you so much and want to help you get well so please, hold my hand and come down.’
‘I AM A BAD PERSON! Don’t you get it? Are you stupid? It was ME! I pushed Mum down the stairs. I killed Mum. I pushed her and left her at the bottom of the stairs to die on her own.’
