Chapter 22 #4
“And that’s it. That’s how I lost my husband, laid bare for the world.
The horrific, raw, painful, unedited truth.
Now, after all these years, perhaps the conspiracies might stop.
That car wasn’t an organised hit arranged by Cam.
It wasn’t a hit, put in place by a disgruntled business partner of my dad’s.
It wasn’t Marley in a jealous rage, or a crazy fan trying to kill me.
It was an eighty-eight-year-old man called Samual Weinstein.
He had a heart attack and died on his kitchen floor in the middle of the night two days after the accident.
His wife, Esther, fled to America to be with her family because fans and the press were so fucking awful to her.
She reached out to me a few years later.
I accepted the apology she made on her husband’s behalf, and she died peacefully in her sleep just a few days later. ”
I lick my lips. They taste of salt. I need them to taste of Prosecco.
“When we talked previously, you said you didn’t want to include Sean’s final moments or the funeral. Is that…?”
“I think you’ve got enough, don’t you, Danny boy?” my dad says. “You’ve rinsed all you’re gonna get from my daughter today, so let’s leave it at that, shall we?”
“Thanks, Dad,” I say. “Sean’s final moments are private. His funeral was private. Nothing’s changed. I won’t be sharing those details.”
“Then, I think that’s a wrap for today. Thank you, everyone,” Daniel says.
The room erupts into a round of applause.
“I should be out of your hair after tomorrow,” Daniel tells me as I stand from the sofa. “We’d just like some insight into your year after losing Sean, your grieving process, your mental health, so that we can segue that into the charities the foundation supports and has created.”
Cam is now standing, too, and has a protective hand on the small of my back. It’s a gesture I love.
“You gonna be up for that tomorrow?” he asks.
“You know what? Can we skip a day?” I ask Daniel. “Today was a lot. I’m gonna have a couple of drinks tonight and unwind. I don’t want to feel tomorrow like I did this morning.”
Blur’s “Song 2” suddenly blasts from the built-in speakers, and I know that it’s time for Daniel and his crew to leave, and for my family to let off some steam.
“Of course,” Daniel says. “What we got today, your story, your strength after all that you’ve been through…. Honestly, Georgia, I have no words. Thank you for letting me be a part of this, and I apologise again if I sometimes push too far.”
“Push all you like,” I tell him. “Just know I’ll push back harder, and if I fall, I’ve got this lot to pick me up and back me up.”
“Duly noted,” he says with a smile. “I’ll see you Wednesday.”
My family have all headed into the house.
Daniel leaves, and the crew are packing up around us when Cam wraps me in his arms and smiles down at me.
“You are fucking amazing,” he says.
“I know. I mostly forget, but days like today remind me that I must be okay to have all of you lot on my side, putting up with my shit, loving me.”
“Can you not, just for once, accept that it’s not about us or anyone else? It’s you. Just you.”
“Oh do, fuck off,” I say, repeating Jimmie’s response to something from earlier today. So much has been said that I don’t remember what it was.
“Don’t swear, and you fuck off,” Cam replies.
“You just tell me to fuck off?” I raise my brows.
“Yeah, I did,” Cam says, and at the same time, our gate alarm goes off. “Who the fuck’s that now?” he asks no one in particular.
“No idea. Maybe they got sick of waiting for us, and the kids have ordered food.”
“Thanks, guys. See you Wednesday,” Jarrod, one of the crew, calls out and shuts the doors behind him.
Cam locks it, and we make our way into our house. When we exit the laundry room into the hallway, we see that our front doors are wide open.
“What the fuck?” Cam moves towards them.
I stay where I am, listening to the noise coming from the kitchen.
Fontaines D.C’s “Starburster” is now playing, and I swear the volume has got louder.
Probably thanks to Harry, because these are currently his favourite band.
The volume has me worried about my parents and how they’ll be coping amongst the apparent chaos happening in our kitchen.
“You two all right?” I hear Cam call out and wonder who he’s talking to.
He pushes our double doors to, but doesn’t close them.
I raise my chin and shrug in a ‘what?’ gesture.
“Marley and Ash,” he says as he reaches me. “I don’t know if they’re out there arguing, fucking, doing lines, or what.”
“Knowing them, all three.”
“Fair point.”
We share a quick kiss and head towards the party that’s apparently started without us.
Two hours later, the Indian food we ordered has been consumed, loud music has continued to be played—my parents are currently jiving to Bobby Day’s “Rockin’ Robin”—and far too much alcohol is in my system. I feel like I’ve been awake for a hundred years, but it’s not even eight o’clock yet.
“Rockin’ Robin” ends, and my mum and dad finish showing the kids how it’s done as Rizzle Kicks’ “Down with the Trumpets” starts to play. Standing with my arse against our kitchen island, I watch as Cam and Lennon stand with their heads together, deep in conversation.
“What are they talking about?” I ask Jim as she dances her way towards me.
“Don’t laugh. It’s all a bit cute from what I could make out. Len’s telling Cam what a big part of this family he is and that he gets all of this must’ve been pretty fucking shit for him to have to sit through.”
“Aww.” I throw my arm over her shoulders and pull her into me. “Do you think I’m selfish for doing it?” I ask her.
“No. I totally get why you did it. Hopefully now, between this, the film, and the fly-on-the-wall show, it’ll shut a lot of people up, and a lot of the stories down, and raise lots of money along the way.
I just wanna say, before I get too drunk and can’t, and you get too drunk and wanna fight me, you did so fucking well today.
Not just today, but every day. Reliving it all… I don’t know how you survived.”
“I didn’t,” I tell her honestly. “The person I was before I lost Sean and Beau is a different person than I am today. That person, the Georgia I was, she didn’t survive.
She died right along with my boys, and I had to become a new version of me to be able to move on with the rest of my life.
I was only able to do that because of the help from all of you. ”
“George…” she starts.
“No, look. I’m finally beginning to accept that I had to put a lot of work in myself, but I only survived everything I’ve been through because of Cam and all of you.”
“You know, what Ash said…”
“Where is Ash?” I ask, cutting off whatever she was about to say.
“Right here, bitches. You miss me?” Ash says from behind us.
“Where’ve you been? What were you doing out the front? Are you stoned?” I question, but before she can answer, it happens. The instant the first beat plays, both Cam and Len look our way.
“Yes!” Ash says, going straight to my utensil drawer. Whisk, steak mallet, egg slice. I bagsy the whisk and am standing up on our kitchen island before a single word has been sung.
“Fuck me, please do not fall and break the floor,” Marley says as he appears from who knows where, looking more stoned than Ash.
The three of us, all now side by side, up on my kitchen Island, flip him our middle finger before busting out the words to “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield.
For over twenty years, this has been our party piece.
It started with the girls singing it to me, but now I own that fucking song and each and every one of those lyrics.
By the end of it, we’re all a laughing, sobbing mess.
Cam helps me down. After wrapping my legs around his hips and my arms around his neck, I suddenly get the giggles, wishing it was my legs around his neck.
I’m just about to tell him this when my dad says, “Can someone turn the music down, please? I’ve got a few things I wanna say.”
“Go, Grandad,” Lu says.
“Where’s Kiks?” I ask, just realising my youngest twin is missing.
“Probably on the phone to her boyfriend,” George says. “They’re awake in America now.”
“What?” I question. “What boyfriend? He’s American?”
Lu gives George a slow hand clap, and he shrugs.
“I thought you two told her everything,” he says.
“Whether we do or don’t, it ain’t your business. And it’s not your news to tell,” she scolds.
“Who is he?” I ask
“Kai Carmichael,” George says.
“You are such a grass,” Lu tells him.
“Kai Carmichael?” I question. “Gracie’s stepson? Did you know?” I turn and ask Cam, but before I get an answer from anyone, I realise Ash is still standing up on the island all on her own, swaying her hips, singing into her mallet the words to Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”.
“Get her down before she falls,” I say to Cam.
“Is anyone fucking listening to me?” my dad calls out.
“Where’s Marley?” Ash asks as her feet hit the floor. “Thanks, T, my saviour,” she tells my husband.
“See what I mean about conversations never getting finished in this family? It’s a wonder our kids haven’t all grown up with issues.”
“Paige!” pretty much all of us say in unison.
“Okay,” Jim says. “It’s a wonder more of our kids haven’t grown up with issues.”
“Is someone gonna turn that fucking music down or what?” my dad shouts.
“Yeah, turn it down,” Marley says as he walks back into my kitchen with Makenzie Wild, Joe, and a tall, fair-haired bloke I assume must be Jake Wright.
His eyes meet mine, and my skin instantly prickles. That smile, those very blue eyes of his…
“Oh, my God,” Lu says. “Is that…?”
“H, shut down the sounds, would ya?” Marley calls, cutting Lu off. “Dad, before you get started on yet another of your epic and highly entertaining soliloquies, Joe’s got something he needs to tell you.”
My dad holds out his arm. “Go for it,” he says to Joe, not really meaning it because he hates to be thwarted from delivering one of his legendary speeches.
“Nan, Grandad, famalam. I’d like to introduce you all to Jake. My brother. Your, grandson, nephew, cousin.”
“What?” I gasp.
“What the fuck?” Jimmie, who’s apparently consumed even more alcohol than me, cries out.
“Jake,” my dad says. “Welcome to the family, boy.”