Chapter 9
Nine
Gemma
As I hurry outside, everyone is shouting over each other so I can barely make out what is being said. My heart pounds for my little girl. ‘Cora,’ I shout as I run along the drive.
Ethan’s voice booms: ‘If you ever upset my daughter again, you’ll wish you were dead.
’ Then he’s coming towards me, pushing Cora who is by some miracle still asleep.
He blows out a breath on reaching me. His hair is dampened from the snow and he’s red, proper angry red in his face. ‘Is this your doing, Gemma?’
He seems to be accusing me and I don’t like it. I want to shout at him to not let what’s happened today come between us. I shake my head. ‘I’d never say those things to anyone, let alone our new neighbours.’
He walks back towards the door with me and speaks in a hushed tone until we’re standing in the hallway with the door firmly closed. ‘But you sent those letters, years ago.’
‘That has nothing to do with what’s going on here and you know it.’ I’m angry at him for even bringing that up.
‘We nearly crashed into that man’s car. I know you were angry that he shouted at us and it was his fault. Or are you trying to sabotage this project because you didn’t want to come here?’
I know why Ethan suspects me. We had bad neighbours move in once.
It was years ago and I went through a real stress period because of them.
Yes, I’m guilty of writing them two anonymous letters, telling them how much I hated them and that I wished they’d drop dead.
Morgan was a baby and they’d woken her up at two in the morning, set fire to our bin and stank of weed all the time.
Needless to say, they moved out after a while.
I’m stressed. He knows I don’t want to be here.
‘And I am so ashamed of that. But I didn’t send those letters.
I wouldn’t say anything that nasty.’ I can’t believe my husband suspects me.
He stares me out as if he’s waiting for me to confess. ‘I know you never wanted to come here. Just tell me if you’re trying to sabotage this project. I need the truth, Gemma.’ His Adam’s apple bobs under his stubble.
‘I didn’t do it.’ My tone is firm and unwavering. He has to know that I’m not lying. It’s not like I was a liar back then. I told him about the notes last time.
‘When I went out to pick dinner up last night…’
‘I didn’t leave the kids alone in the apartment to post those letters to the neighbours.
I suggest we go out there and face them because I haven’t done anything.
Besides, how do I know it wasn’t you? You left the building last night and it was dark.
You didn’t seem enamoured with his terrible parking either.
’ It’s immature I know but I can’t help turning this onto him to see how he feels about being accused.
He shakes his head and places his arms around me. ‘Sorry, okay. You’re right, we haven’t done anything. Besides, someone gave us a wormy hamper. Maybe it’s the same person who’s going around sending nasty letters.’
I check Cora and she’s still asleep. The sooner we face everyone on the lane the better. Everyone here will soon see that we only want to fit in and be good neighbours. ‘What do we do?’ I hug my husband and sink into his chest.
‘I’m angry with myself for losing my temper. First, I need to apologise and then maybe we should kill them with kindness, but I’m not letting the man who upset Morgan off the hook. If these people have anything to say, they need to come to us, not upset our child.’
I agree. The thought of Morgan being upset hurts.
This needs to be dealt with now. We open the door and get blasted by a blanket of sleet.
Maybe it’s not a good idea to go out, but Ethan is on a mission to put things right so I follow him towards the end of our long drive, onto the lane.
There is no one out there now apart from the woman in the long white coat.
‘Gemma, I thought it was you when I looked up at your window last night.’
Did she leave me the hamper, leaving that article for me to find? Jasmine Slater. The name won’t leave my head now. ‘Quinn.’
Ethan looks at both of us in turn. ‘Have you already met?’
Quinn takes a step closer, bends down to peek at Cora, then she smiles. ‘We knew each other as kids. When Gemma came to stay with her aunt, we’d hang out together.’
Quinn holds a note in her hand. My eyes widen. She’s obviously here to confront us. ‘I received this.’
I sigh and fold my arms. ‘And let me guess, you think I sent it because we’re new around here? Someone sent us a veg hamper with a note and the hamper was full of worms. We’re victims too.’ I’m actually shaking. ‘What does your note say?’
She passes it to me, and Ethan glances at it over my shoulder. We both read it.
YOU REALLY THINK YOU LOOK GOOD IN THAT COAT AND THOSE RIDICULOUS BOOTS. YOUR BOTOX IS SO OBVIOUS AND YOU WEAR YOUR MAKE-UP LIKE A CLOWN. I HOPE YOU TRIP OVER AND brEAK AN ANKLE IN THOSE BOOTS. GO ON, I DARE YOU, KEEP WEARING THEM IN THE SNOW AND ICE, QUINNY.
She frowns. ‘No one calls me Quinny. The only person who’s ever called me Quinny is you, Gemma.’
I’m struggling to catch my breath. ‘It’s a coincidence. It has to be. It’s not as if that nickname was hard to come up with for me or the sender of this letter. I didn’t write it. I would never do this.’ I can’t suck in enough air and light-headedness is making me sway.
Ethan places an arm around me. ‘When do you think we’d have time to go around upsetting everyone like this? My wife hasn’t done anything, and I suggest you walk right back over to your house and leave us alone.’
His muscles tense in the arm he has around me.
Across the road, a couple of neighbours have come back out and are milling around watching the confrontation, and I get this urge to turn around and run back up those stairs to the safety of the apartment, but Ethan keeps me firmly in place.
He’s going to make me face this angry mob who, thankfully, haven’t got their actual pitchforks out yet.
Quinn nods and looks at me. ‘I know, I wasn’t making accusations.
In fact, I was thinking that there was no way your family could do this.
We were friends, good friends.’ She now stares at me.
‘I knew there was a bit of commotion going on which is why I brought my son in, but I had no idea what it was all about. When I came over, I wanted to see you, to say hi and then I saw the letter sticking out of my post box. I only read it as I was walking over.’
My heart starts to calm down. I have an ally in all this. Thank goodness because I could really do with a friend right now.
‘Do any of the neighbours have camera doorbells?’ Ethan asks.
He has his sensible head on, unlike me. I feel like pregnancy hormones are already ravaging me despite Beanie barely being a bean.
‘Ray does.’
‘Who’s Ray?’ Ethan asks.
‘He’s about as tall as me, early seventies with a reddish nose. You can’t miss him.’
Ethan bites his bottom lip and takes a moment before replying. ‘I’ve met Ray.’ He lets out a long breath. ‘I had an argument with him over his parking when I was doing up the apartment and another one when we moved in.’
That makes it look more like we’re guilty.
Why didn’t Ethan tell me about this argument when he was blaming me for sending those letters?
I’m the person with a history of sending horrible letters.
That’s why he suspected me. At least I now know who my husband was shouting at.
Ray. I recognise the name Ray. He must have lived here when I stayed with Aunt Dorette.
Quinn continues. ‘Whoever sent the letters didn’t come to our doors.
Our post boxes are at the end of our drives, like yours, and we all have long drives and large hedges.
Ray’s camera doesn’t reach his post box.
One of the other neighbours has a doorbell camera but they haven’t come outside saying that they have a note. ’
The man with the red, bulbous nose is walking towards us. I do recognise him from years ago. He frowns and stares at me. ‘Well, now you’ve come across shouting your mouth off, are you going to own up and tell us why you sent these?’ Ray holds the note up and shakes it at Ethan.
Ethan steps away from me and starts stomping towards Ray. I don’t want another scene. ‘Ethan, please. Let’s just go back in. We can talk about this properly when everyone has calmed down.’
He glances back. ‘No, I am not hiding away just because a bunch of small-minded country bumpkins think we’ve sent some stupid childish notes and, let’s not forget, they’ve upset Morgan.’
Ethan’s words make me cringe. He’s now insulted everyone here with that outburst. There’s no stopping him now that he’s started.
I don’t have the energy to chase after him, and maybe he’s right.
Ethan’s a fair person. He’ll say what he has to say and I trust him not to start a fight, or do I?
Ray has just pushed him and they’re shouting.
Ethan follows him around the other side of our tall hedge until they’ve both vanished from my line of sight.
Then I hear a scream and shouts of ‘Call an ambulance’.
My husband comes into view, his hands at the side of his head, and he’s wearing a look I’ve never seen on his face before. Pure fear.