Chapter 48
Forty-Eight
Quinn
She lies in the middle of the floor of her studio with the letters thrown around her, staring at all the storyboards she’s drawn for the Klara project.
That contract was going to change her and Harry’s life.
Everything in life she does is for her precious boy.
If he’s turned against her, nothing matters anymore.
It’s dark. With only the light from her computer screen, she already sees too much.
She sees her lies, her crimes and everything bad she’s ever done.
Her wrongs surround her, reminding her of what a bad person she is.
She thinks of Dorette and what she did. The only person who ever believed in her was that woman and look how she ruined that.
She thinks back to the car accident that took her mother and she shivers.
If Dorette had never helped her, Dorette would be here too.
She’s poison to everyone around her and now she’s hurt Gemma.
The way Gemma spoke to her in the car has run through her mind since she got back.
She needs to talk to Gemma but she can’t face her yet.
‘Mum,’ Harry calls from behind her locked door. Diggerty lets out a half-hearted bark. Zoe has turned the vacuum off, and Quinn hears her saying bye.
Her son knocks but she can’t answer him. He’s the only good thing left in her life and it’s only a matter of time before the darkness within her takes him too. She drags the bottle along the floor and holds it to her lips. Another swig of vodka slips down her throat.
‘Mum, I’m really worried now. I’m sorry for the things I said last night but we have to deal with them. You can’t run away from this.’
She can and she will. She can stay in this room forever and never come out.
Maybe if she drinks herself to death, she won’t have to face what is outside that door – Harry’s disappointment in her and the fact that what he knows is only the tip of the iceberg.
What he doesn’t know is that on the night Dorette fell to her death, Quinn had been in Dorette’s office, arguing with her mentor.
Dorette found out that Quinn had stolen her ideas because her darling son Harry had told her.
She couldn’t blame him, he’d been excited, especially as Quinn had received so many offers to produce it as an animation.
Quinn begged Dorette not to tell anyone and offered to share the money with her.
Dorette’s publisher had already dropped her, they weren’t interested in what she had to offer, but Quinn had worked on Klara, built the world in a more colourful way with her amazing illustrations.
Dorette should have been grateful but the woman had shouted, telling her that she couldn’t have Klara because that character was hers, that even if she failed in that project, she didn’t want Quinn stealing her ideas.
‘Mum.’ Harry knocks again and, once again, she ignores him. She’s in too much pain to face what she did.
Quinn had then followed Dorette to the balcony room, where they continued to argue but Dorette was a woman who couldn’t be reasoned with.
A flash to seeing Dorette lying dead on the slabs hits her and she feels her stomach lurch slightly.
She stole that notebook from Dorette’s office, and she knows there will be more evidence in that house – evidence of all her wrongs.
She also knows that Gemma suspects her because Gemma caught her stealing that notebook.
Morgan saw it in her bag. As for Gemma, none of this changes how Quinn feels about her.
She has always loved her, but she knows Gemma will never want her.
She’s even lost the right to be her friend now.
‘It’s over, Harry,’ she says with tears slipping down her face. Very soon, everyone is going to know what she did and Harry will never want anything to do with her ever again.