Chapter 49
New Year’s Day usually made Meg feel hopeful. There was something so promising about the first day of a brand-new year, but today she could barely lift her head off the pillow. She lay in the oversized bed between the crisp cotton sheets, reliving the disastrous events of the night before.
After twenty-nine years, Meg had found a sister, only to lose her again.
Issy hated her. And why wouldn’t she? Meg had lied about who she was and what she was doing in Hartwell.
She’d had no choice, obviously. She couldn’t tell Issy she was investigating corrupt deals done by her family, but that didn’t change the fact that as far as Issy was concerned, Meg was a liar.
Her phone flashed on the bedside table. Pete.
‘Hey,’ she said.
‘Hey, yourself. Happy New Year, Hunter. You have a good night?’
‘I drank Champagne in my hotel room with Isobel Ashworth.’
‘Seriously?’
She told him about the DNA results, that Issy was her half-sister.
‘Holy shit,’ Pete said slowly, when she’d finished. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘What can I do? She hates me. She thinks I’m a liar. She wants nothing to do with me.’
‘Could you confront Malcolm alone?’
‘He’d just deny it. Bella Ash could be anyone. The results are useless without Issy’s support.’
‘Does this change anything?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, if these people are your flesh and blood, are you still happy to blow the top off their corrupt property deals?’
Meg thought for a moment. ‘It changes nothing. I’m more determined than ever.’
‘Good, then listen to this.’
Meg ran through the plan in her head as she drove to the jail. It was time to come clean, to tell Issy the truth about Ashworth Property and hope she might believe her. But when she reached the spot by the towering jail wall where Issy’s vintage Mercedes was usually parked, the space was empty.
The engine idled as Meg tried to decide what to do next. If she called her, Issy wouldn’t answer. A text message would be pointless; Issy would ignore it. The only way Meg would be able to speak to her was to ambush her. She would drive the streets of Hartwell until she found that car.
She started working her way up and down the quiet streets, systematically moving from east to west. Fifteen minutes later, just as she was wondering if Issy might have left town, Meg caught her breath.
There it was, parked outside a pretty sandstone cottage with a red tin roof.
Issy was sitting on the front veranda with an older woman.
Meg drove past, keeping her pace steady, and stopped far enough down the street that she wouldn’t draw their attention.
She adjusted her rear-vision mirror so she could watch them, and waited.
It was ten minutes before they stood, Issy towering over the tiny woman with dark curls and a kind face.
Heart racing, Meg got out of the car and walked towards them.
When they reached the gate, the older woman took Issy’s hands, speaking intently, then pulled her into an embrace. They stood like that for a long time.
Meg stopped a few metres away, feeling like she was interrupting an intimate moment. When they parted, they both looked in her direction, sensing her presence. Issy’s face was red, her eyes swollen.
Meg stepped forward, searching for words, but none came.
For a long moment, they all stood in silence, eyeing each other.
The older lady spoke first. ‘This is the sister,’ she said to Issy. A statement, not a question.
Meg and Issy both looked at her, confused.
‘Yes,’ Issy said. ‘How do you know?’
The woman looked at Meg. ‘You have your mother’s eyes.’
Meg felt tears. She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. ‘You knew her?’
‘Yes. Anna. She was my friend.’
‘Meg, this is Rosa,’ Issy said. ‘She was my nanny when I was a baby.’
‘What happened?’ Meg whispered.
Rosa shook her head. ‘I’ve said too much already.’
‘Please?’ Meg begged.
‘You tell her what I told you,’ Rosa said to Issy. ‘But I need you to go now.’
They watched as Rosa went inside and closed the front door.
Issy looked at Meg for a long time, then sighed. ‘Come,’ she said, opening the door of her car, motioning for Meg to get in.
They sat side by side as Issy told her what Rosa said. That there was ‘an incident’ while Anna was living at their home. Slow, silent tears ran down Issy’s flawless cheeks as she spoke. The air between them felt heavy.
‘An incident,’ Issy said, softly. ‘Do you think … do you think he … raped her?’
Meg recoiled at the word, nausea rising up in her throat. ‘I don’t know.’ She took a breath. ‘Issy, I need to tell you why I’m here in Hartwell.’
‘It’s because of this, isn’t it? You knew.’
Meg shook her head. ‘I’m a journalist.’
Issy frowned, still staring straight ahead. ‘So the story you told me was a lie.’
‘Yes. I stumbled across Hartwell because my mum mentioned it. It’s true, what I said about her having dementia.
She was confused. She thought I’d travelled from Hartwell to visit her.
She called me Tina. When I tried to find out who she was talking about, who Tina was, I stumbled across the controversy about the Hartwell Gaol redevelopment.
I pitched the story at work and they sent me down here to investigate. ’
Issy turned to face her. ‘But there is no story. We won the bid, did the redevelopment, and that’s that.’
Meg bit her lip, wondering how much to tell her.
There was something childlike about Issy, innocent, which made Meg want to protect her from the truth.
She thought of what Issy had told her the night before, about Spencer being an arsehole, her father not trusting her and Hugh muscling his way into Ashworth Property, probably at her own expense.
Maybe the only way she could make Issy trust her was to tell her the truth.
The whole truth. It was a risk, but what else could she do?
‘Well?’ Issy prompted.
Meg swallowed. ‘Issy, what I’m about to say will come as a shock but you need to listen.
’ Meg told her about the rumours that Lindsay councillors had been bribed to approve the Ashworth Property bid, about Mayor Skelton’s twenty-five acres, which he bought shortly after the deal was done.
She told her about the strip of houses on Barton Drive, which had been purchased through trusts they’d traced to Purcell Partners, run by Evan Purcell, who Hugh and Spencer seem to know.
Meg showed her the photo on the yacht, and the tracking tile in her bag, and told her about Dean Morgan, who had visited her mother and possibly thrown a brick through Pete’s window.
She ended with the final piece of the puzzle, which Pete had told her just an hour before.
That the factory, which was now decommissioned, had been bought through a trust on behalf of Ashworth Property.
Pete had spent New Year’s Eve at a rooftop bar with Evan Purcell, who had loose lips after the three tequila shots Pete shouted him.
‘According to Purcell, they’re planning to bulldoze the lot and build a luxury golf resort,’ Meg said.
‘They’ve had it approved thanks to some help from friends in high places, even though it doesn’t comply with the zoning laws.
’ Evan had mentioned the name of the State Government Minister for Planning.
Turned out he went to university with Spencer and Hugh.
Meg waited for Issy to say something, anything, but she still stared out the windscreen.
‘Issy?’
She turned to Meg, her face wet with tears.
‘Do you believe me?’
Issy nodded. ‘I left something out when I told you what Rosa said.’
‘What?’
‘My parents did a deal with her, bought her silence in exchange for putting her three boys through Dalton Grammar. Her youngest is in year eleven. That’s why she won’t talk.’
Meg looked at Issy. ‘I’m the only one you can trust, Issy. We need to confront your father.’ She swallowed. ‘Our father.’
Tears pooled in Issy’s eyes. ‘I don’t think I can.’
‘Why not?’
‘You don’t know what he’s like.’
‘You’re right. I don’t.’
The words hung in the air between them.
‘Can I ask you something?’ Meg said. ‘Why did you do the DNA test?’
‘Because I felt like everyone was lying to me and I wanted to know the truth.’
‘You don’t get to choose the truth, Issy, just because you don’t like it. Please. Let’s tell him about the DNA results, and what Spencer and Hugh have been up to. Let’s tell him the truth.’
Meg waited.
Then Issy shook her head. ‘If I do that, I’ll lose everything.’