Chapter 54
Issy stood by the stage where the audio engineer was setting up, pretending to be busy overseeing the final preparations.
Actually, she was watching her mother make dazzling conversation with a vaguely familiar, pasty-faced man in a navy suit.
He had the soulless look of a politician.
A surge of disgust rippled through Issy as she watched Heather throw her head back, laughing at something he said, her hand on his forearm.
Had they paid him off, too? Put his children through private school? Funded a beach house?
Near the entrance, Malcolm shook hands with Tony Skelton and a couple of other grey-haired men.
Lindsay councillors, probably. He hadn’t even glanced in her direction, still angry.
She pictured him, the day before, red-faced, his words charged with fury.
‘I had a vasectomy when your mother was pregnant with you!’ She’d rarely seen him so uncontained, so incensed.
When she’d returned to the apartment, she’d replayed the conversation over and over, each time more convinced he was telling the truth.
And then there was Rosa’s response when Issy had told her she had a half-sister.
The confused frown, the distant gaze, as though something wasn’t making sense.
Was her father’s anger a result of being exposed?
Or was it indignation, outrage, at being accused of something he didn’t do?
If what he said was true—if he did have a vasectomy—he couldn’t possibly be Meg’s father. The timing didn’t work.
Since her post in the Facebook DNA group the night before, she’d been consumed by theories. Spencer was eighteen when she was born. She looked over to where he sat with Hugh, who was on the phone.
‘Got you a coffee.’
She turned to see Felix, a takeaway cup in each hand. ‘Thanks.’ She took the cup.
‘Everything okay?’
‘Yeah, fine. Do you remember my night nurse when I was a baby? Anna?’
Felix looked away, squinting, as though he was trying to see her in his memory. ‘Yeah, she was nice. What happened to her?’
‘She left town and had a baby.’
Felix nodded, not understanding.
‘She had a baby … not long after she left our home,’ Issy added.
His eyes widened. ‘You mean, she …’
‘She was assaulted, Felix. I thought it must be Dad, but apparently he had a vasectomy when Mum got pregnant with me.’
‘Assaulted?’
Issy nodded. ‘It must have been Spencer.’
She looked over at Heather, who had moved on to a group of women who all looked exactly like her: Eastern Suburbs socialites with puffy faces and quilted Chanel bags and oversized diamonds on their manicured hands. There was something grotesque about them. How had she never noticed that before?
Felix followed her line of sight to their mother, then looked back at her. ‘Are you sure you’re right?’
Issy nodded. ‘I bet she knows what happened, and I’m going to find out.’