29. I don’t make threats #2
“When I stopped screaming,” I managed to say around my tight throat.
The room was frozen in horrified silence.
“You let me out when I stopped screaming. But it wasn’t you that let me out, Mum.”
“It was my idea to send Vicky to stay with you, Margot,” Gareth’s voice sounded from the front door, and we all turned to him.
He walked in and closed it behind him, dropping his keys onto a side table before he turned back to the kitchen. He looked older than when I last saw him, defeated.
“When I came home and saw what Janet had…” His voice broke at the end of that sentence as he shook his head and then looked at Mum.
“I made excuses for you. You hid the worst of it from me, but I made excuses for how you treated that girl. But when I came home that day… and I asked where she was. The house was silent, and you wouldn’t tell me.
When I finally found her and let her out, the silence was deafening . ”
“That’s when you stopped speaking,” Margot said as she turned to me.
To my shock, I could see that her eyes were filled with tears, which she quickly swiped away before turning to my mother and Gareth.
“You sent me that traumatised little girl with no warning.”
“Vicky was a shell of herself when I found her in that basement. Her eyes had this unfocused look of terror in them, and there were bruises on her arms,” Gareth said in a low voice.
“I thought it was a one-off. I thought that Janet must be under too much stress and just snapped; that she needed a break. I thought with some time out of this house, Vicky would recover, and… and the truth is, I couldn’t bear her silence.
” He turned to me. “I let you down, cariad. I’m so sorry. ”
He dropped his head in shame then, and I made myself move to him, putting my hand on his arm, just like Lottie would do for me.
“You were always kind to me,” I told him. “That’s not letting me down. That was important to me.”
He shook his head. “I should have protected you, love.”
“Protected her from what?” Mum snapped. “From me ? For goodness sake. She was only locked down there for a few hours. And so what if she had a few bruises? I had to restrain her—she was like a wild animal.”
“I’m sorry too, Victoria,” muttered Rebecca.
My shocked gaze flew to her.
Rebecca never apologised.
She darted me an uncomfortable look. Her pale cheeks had reddened now, and she was shifting uncomfortably on her feet.
“I was a bitch to you. I didn’t know about the basement thing but?—”
“You were a year younger than me, Rebecca,” I told her. “None of that is your fault.”
She shrugged. “I knew Mum picked on you, I saw her grabbing you too hard when we were growing up, and I was still a little shit. Then what I did in that nightclub was horrendous. I actually did feel ashamed after that, but I was too proud to admit it.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Becky?” Gareth asked in a now weary voice.
“I invited Victoria out with us, took her to this nightclub, and left her in the crush, knowing it would stress her out. But I didn’t realise…”
“You didn’t realise how full-on my meltdown would be,” I put in. “You didn’t know I’d collapse on the dance floor. That I’d have to be carried out.”
“My God, Becky,” Gareth breathed as he scrubbed his hands down his face. “As if this family hadn’t done enough to her.”
“I’m so sorry, Vicky,” Rebecca said in a small voice, using my preferred name for the first time in years. There were actual tears in her eyes now. “I was jealous of you.”
“Jealous?” I frowned at her. “What was there to be jealous of?”
“You were successful, beautiful. You had a whole other family that were way posher than mine.”
My eyebrows went up. “It never occurred to me that you could possibly be jealous of me.”
Rebecca shook her head. “You’ve never seen yourself clearly. I was a jealous, bitter shrew when I should have been grateful for the financial support you still offered me and Mum that we didn’t deserve. And there’s no excuse for Darrell.”
“Rebecca!” snapped Mum. “What are you saying? Darrell is?—”
“Darrell is a rapey dickhead is what he is.” Rebecca cut her off then looked at me.
“Loads of my mates have come forward, actually. Seems he’s been super gross for ages now, but they didn’t want to say anything.
Some of them want to go to the coppers to back you up, Vicky. I’m going to tell them to do it.”
“Rebecca!” Mum shouted.
“I’ve dumped him, Mum,” she told her. “It doesn’t matter how much money he’s got, or any of that bullshit now.
We’re getting the marriage annulled. I’m not staying with someone who assaulted my sister, and frankly, you’re a psycho for encouraging me to.
But then again, you’re a psycho all the way around.
I only agreed to meet Vicky with you today to apologise. ”
“But what will everyone think?” Mum said in horror.
“Who the fuck cares what any of your stuck-up friends think?” roared Gareth.
“If you weren’t so wrapped up in what everyone else thinks, maybe you wouldn’t have abused your own daughter for being a bit different and then extorted money from her to put on that ridiculous wedding.
Right, come on, Becky, love, we’re leaving. ”
“Leaving?” Mum screeched. “What do you mean?”
“I’m moving out, and Becky’s coming with me, Janet. She’s already been exposed to way too much of your toxicity. Hopefully, it’s not too late for her to turn her life around.”
Rebecca was at her father’s side now. They paused in front of me on their way out while Mum screamed obscenities in the background.
“Take care of yourself, cariad,” said Gareth. “Uh… is this okay?” He held his arms out.
I nodded, and he pulled me in for a very brief, firm hug.
“I’m always here, you know,” he said into my hair. “You probably won’t ever want my help, but I’m always here if you need me. Wish I had been from the beginning, but that’s a mark on my soul that I’ll just have to live with.”
He set me back and moved to the door, then Rebecca was in front of me, too. “Sorry again,” she whispered, tucking her hair behind her ears.
I gave her a nod, and thankfully, she didn’t attempt a hug, but instead, moved out of the house with her father.
“Right,” said Margot smartly. “We’ve wasted enough time in this hovel, Vicky. Let’s be off. Janet, it’s been an absolute dis pleasure. I’ll be in touch about your eviction.” Then she simply guided me out and shut the door on my mother’s ranting and raving.
Half an hour later, I was in the drawing room of Buckingham Manor with a fancy china cup of tea in front of me, and a cat sitting in my lap.
I could have argued with Margot, but I didn’t think it would have been productive.
She had asked my driver to take my car to the Manor, while I was hustled into her car.
Apparently, we needed to have a “little chat,” and she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“How did you know I was at Mum’s house?” I asked Margot.
“Oh, that,” Margot said dismissively as she lifted her teacup from its saucer to take a small sip.
We were sitting opposite each other on the ancient but very comfortable armchairs, overlooking the grounds. Somehow, the staff had already rustled up a multi-tiered tray of small cakes and cucumber sandwiches on the table next to us.
“When it became clear to me that I had neglected my duty regarding your welfare, and that I could not fully trust you to act in your own best interests, I decided to have a discreet team of private security follow you. They knew to inform me of any unusual activity, especially in the event of your mother or sister approaching you, or indeed, if you should go to them.”
I stared at Margot for a long moment.
“You never neglected your duty,” I told her.
I didn’t address the surveillance stuff – I wouldn’t have been able to stop her doing what she wanted anyway.
Logically, I should be outraged. But I knew that when it came to people she cared about, Margot was very invasive.
To be on the receiving end of her overbearing attention and her bossiness was actually…
nice. It was one of the reasons that I forgave her for what she did with Mike.
At least she’d cared enough to blackmail someone into dating me.
Wow. I was coming to realise that feeling like I was a burden on everyone my entire life may have messed me up, just a little.
Margot put her teacup back on its saucer, and then gracefully set the cup and saucer on the small table next to her, before she reached across to me, pausing until I nodded, and her hand enclosed mine. Her grip was firm, and her hand dry, so I could tolerate it better than I expected.
“Yes, I did,” she said softly. “And it won’t happen again. You’re a part of this family, and that means me being… now, what is it the young people say? Ah yes, right up in your grill .”
I wasn’t much into slang, but I was quite sure that the young people of Margot’s acquaintance said no such thing.
“Now,” she continued, releasing my hand and leaning back in her chair. “We need to discuss Mike.”
I stiffened. “Margot?—”
“Firstly, I’m going to say sorry. I’m an interfering old bat, and it always backfires on me. Just ask your brother.”
“You meant well. And, had you not intervened, Mike would never have?—”
“Absolute rubbish!” she cut me off. “That boy couldn’t take his eyes off you long before I gave him a little push.”
I blinked, then shook my head. “You’re remembering it wrong. I was the one stalking Mike, not the other way around.”
Margot started laughing. “Mike Mayweather has always watched you, Vicky. Even as children, he could never look away. Back then, the more you ignored him, the grumpier he got.”
“I didn’t ignore him.”
“No, I know you didn’t, but Mike didn’t understand why you wouldn’t speak to him. Your mother…” Margot broke off to clench her jaw.
She’d picked her teacup back up, and her knuckles were white from how hard she was holding the handle. She cleared her throat, closed her eyes briefly and then continued.
“Your bloody mother didn’t agree to any assessments or in ‘labelling you’, as she put it, so there was no good explanation we could give to people like Mike.
I’m sorry I didn’t do something, Vicky. You should have been supported at school.
You should have had access to specialist services. I let you down.”
“It wasn’t your responsib?—”
“You were a child under my care. Okay, so maybe that was only for two weeks a year, and maybe I didn’t have parental responsibility, but I could have done more.”
“I’m not your daughter,” I said in a small voice, and her expression softened.
“You’re a sister to my children, darling.
That makes you my daughter by default. Back then, I’m afraid my pride was hurt by your father.
But quite frankly, fuck your father. Who cares if he was shagging around?
I was well rid of him anyway by the time you came to stay with us.
My pride and your father were never the important things.
You kids were important, and in those first precious two weeks after you arrived as a tiny six-year-old, I let Ollie look after you when I should have been the one doing it. ”
“Honestly, I?—”
“No. I won’t hear any more on the subject.
I was wrong, and that’s that. And what I did with Mike was wrong too, but you’re just going to have to get over that, because there’s no time to waste now.
If we don’t act quickly, Mike’s going to make a huge mistake, and I’ll never be able to forgive myself. ”
I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t ask about Mike, that I wouldn’t let myself go back down that road. I knew it wasn’t healthy for me, but…
“What’s Mike done?”