Chapter 50
Fifty
Gemma
It was Quinn all this time. ‘Why?’ I ask her.
She claims to love me but she puts me through this.
She turned the neighbours against me, brought up the past and now…
now, I need to do something. I take her wrist and I’m relieved to feel that she has a pulse and it’s a strong one.
She snorts so I gesture for Ethan to help me get her into the recovery position.
Now on her side, she prises an eye open. ‘Gemma, I’m sorry.’ Her eyes dampen. She wipes her face, smearing eyeliner and lipstick everywhere. Diggerty licks her cheek, and she holds a hand up.
It’s not the right time to say anything. Ethan shouldn’t have charged in like this, regardless of what they did. I have my children to think of so I’m going to be the grown-up here. ‘Harry, maybe you could make your mum a coffee while we try to get her into a chair.’
He nods and is almost relieved to get out of the room. Ethan follows him, calling Diggerty out of the way as he leaves. It’s like my husband suddenly doesn’t know what to say after racing around here ready for a fight and being confronted by Quinn lying on the floor.
‘Why did you run away from me, Gem?’
‘Because I know, Quinn. I know everything and I was hurt. I’m still hurt.’
‘I’m going to make it right, Gemma.’
I don’t know how. I wonder if she even knows she’s the one who infected me.
The doctor told me that quite often, people don’t know they have chlamydia.
The letters, Jasmine’s bag and my fear over losing Beanie all run through my mind.
‘There’s no way you can ever make it right.
You wrote all those letters. You slept with my husband, and I will never forgive you.
’ I glance up at her computer and see a notebook labelled up with Klara on the spine.
It’s just like the ones that my aunt used to write in.
I stand and walk over to it. On turning the page, I can see my aunt’s name in it.
This is what she stole on the day we were in my aunt’s office.
The drawings are all around us. It hits me.
She stole all my aunt’s work and claimed it as her own – the perfect motive to kill Aunt Dorette.
Her brows crease. She squints as she struggles to sit up. Eventually, she’s on her bottom with both hands straight behind her, pressing into the floor to stay upright. ‘You’ve got it all wrong, Gemma.’
‘What’s this?’ I hold the notebook up.
Quinn looks into her lap. ‘Okay, not that bit. I did use your aunt’s character and we argued.’
‘You stole her work? She was going to tell, wasn’t she? So you pushed her.’
‘No…no, I didn’t. I would never do that. We argued and I left. Then she was dead. I didn’t hurt her.’
‘The letters?’ I pick up the letter from the floor and throw it at her. ‘The hamper, the worms, the article.’
She frowns. I never told her about the article, but Quinn is a good liar.
She starts slurring an explanation out. ‘No. I saw the neighbours out there with letters and I didn’t have one.
Ray showed me his and I took a look at Tessa’s.
I knew it looked just like your aunt’s writing.
It was even her notepaper and I had some of the same paper.
I thought I’d get the blame because, guess what, the neighbours don’t like me either.
I wrote letters to myself, that’s all. I left one sticking out of my post box so you’d find it.
What I put in that letter wasn’t true. It was just malicious, like the one Tessa got.
I didn’t think you’d believe it, but I needed you to believe I received letters too.
If the neighbours thought I sent them, I feared they’d also wonder what else I was capable of. ’
‘Why should I believe any of this?’ The whole story sounds ridiculous but then again, I remind myself, Quinn makes stuff up for a living. Looking around, I can see she lives in a fantasy world, surrounded by her pictures and characters, and she clearly has a drink problem.
‘You don’t have to, but it’s true. I never sent you or anyone else any letters.’ She hiccups.
‘But you slept with my husband.’
She shakes her head. ‘You know I only ever wanted you.’
‘Why did you do it, Quinn?’
‘I didn’t.’
Ethan enters with a coffee. ‘That’s the truth, Gemma. I have never slept with Quinn.’
‘But I know who he slept with.’ Quinn stares at him.
From the look on Ethan’s face, he wasn’t expecting that. I’m sick to the back teeth of all this. I head towards the door.
‘It was Ruby. I’m sorry, Gemma. I’m sorry that Ethan cheated on you and I’m even sorrier that you thought it was me.’ She takes the coffee from Ethan.
I hate this place and everyone in it. My fists are now balled up and I’m trying hard not to explode. My children are my world. It’s time to leave, so I step out of the studio and along the corridor.
‘Gemma, wait.’ Ethan follows me. He places a hand on my shoulder and steps in front of me.
‘Get out of my way.’
‘We shouldn’t leave Quinn until Harry is with her. I thought she was your friend.’
‘Move,’ I yell. I don’t want to see his face. All I can picture is him and Ruby together.
He holds his hands up and steps aside. My hands go down to my stomach. Beanie and I don’t need any of this drama. We need to leave. I’ll quickly tell Harry that Quinn will be fine then I’m getting the children and leaving.
‘Harry.’ I step into the kitchen area. He’s nowhere to be seen, but Diggerty is still there, eating out of his food bowl. ‘Harry.’
The front door is wide open but Harry isn’t anywhere to be seen. However worried I am, I know Harry is fourteen, that he’s probably just taking some time out or he’s gone to see Morgan.
I hurry up the path. Someone is shovelling snow on Ray’s drive. That’s where Harry must be. As I go to cross the lane, Ray turns up to check his post box, with a shovel in his hand. Tessa is walking from the entrance to the lane.
‘Where’s your car, Tessa,’ Ray says to her.
‘Got stuck in the snow on the main road. I’ve had to leave it there.’
My heart starts banging. I’m trapped, I feel sick. I have to try to get away. Our pickup might still get us out.
Tessa stares at me as she passes.
Ruby is now walking down the lane with a shopping bag, clanking a couple of bottles with each step.
I cross over and stand right in the entrance to her drive. I’m shaking from the cold now, despite having a coat on. My feet are damp and my toes are dead. Ruby frowns and goes to step to the side of me, but I step in her way.
‘What are you doing?’ She frowns.
‘I know what you did. Nice of you to share something extra special with my husband, then me and my unborn child.’ My clenched fists are itching to hit her but I won’t sink that low.
Looking at her face, I know I can walk away after dropping that bomb.
She doesn’t deny it, she doesn’t even try, and that’s how I know Quinn has told me nothing but the truth.
With shaking knees, I hurry to the house.
Ethan catches me up. ‘Gemma, wait.’
I can’t help but let all my frustration out on him.
My fists batter into his chest and then I stop dead as I think of Jasmine’s bag that Ethan unearthed in the snug.
Jasmine has never been seen since Quinn and I were with her all those years ago.
My blood runs cold. That bag, the snug…it’s time to go.
‘Gemma, I deserve all of this. I’m going to help you pack and I’m going to get you and the kids out of here. I’ll just get my phone and things from the snug.’
I drop my fists, relieved that he’s going to help. That’s when I hear Cora shriek. I’ve left her with Morgan all this time and something’s happened. I can sense that was no normal shriek.