Chapter 51
Fifty-One
Morgan
I can’t stop Cora from crying so I hug her closely and hope it will pass.
I didn’t mean to turn my back on her but I had to go to the toilet, and she slipped off the settee.
I don’t know what to do with her. She misses Mum, and Dad is in his own world.
He’s been staring at that hole in the wall for hours.
I want him to come back up here so I can go to Harry’s because I need to speak to him.
Cora’s cries are giving me a bad head. She isn’t even hurt from that little fall but she’s overtired. I’ve fed her, I’ve played with her, we’ve watched Mika’s Magical Bicycle on repeat, and that song is now making me want to cry along with Cora.
A loud crash at the door makes me jump back into the draining board. The stacked-up plates and pans rattle. Even Cora stops crying as we wait for whoever is out there to unlock the door.
My heart pounds as a key enters the lock, and Mum bursts in. Her skin is normally a light, warm olive colour, but now, she’s pale and her eyes are red and bruised looking, like she’s had no sleep, but she comes in like a storm with the zest of someone who’s downed ten cans of energy soda.
‘Mum, are you okay? We missed you.’
‘I missed you both too. More than anything.’ She gives me a quick hug. ‘Pack your things. We’re leaving.’ That’s music to my ears. I don’t want to stay here any longer. She gets her laptop out and uses the Wi-Fi on her phone to log on to the internet.
‘Can you have Cora?’ I go to put my little sister next to her on the settee.
‘No, I need a minute. I have to find somewhere for us to stay and it can’t wait.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘I don’t know,’ she shouts, more out of frustration than at me.
Cora yanks my hair because she wants to go down, so I let her wander around the apartment. Mika comes on the TV again. She toddles over and stands in front of the screen laughing. Mum turns it off, and Cora cries again. ‘Want Mika…’
‘Mum, what’s going on?’
‘I can’t talk about this now. You just have to trust me, Morgan, okay? Can you do that?’
She’s treating me like I’m a baby now. It’s okay when they want me to look after Cora, but when it comes to what the hell is going on with our family, I’m suddenly not grown up.
‘I’ve been stuck here for two days worried sick, Mum.
You were in hospital and now you’re saying we’re leaving.
For what it’s worth, I’m happy we’re leaving.
I never wanted to move from Bristol but no one asked me what I wanted.
You and Dad decided and we come here and I miss Mai and my school and now you won’t tell me what’s going on.
It’s the letters, isn’t it? I know it is.
It’s also Dad, he’s going through something, probably losing his shit. ’
‘Morgan, stop it with the language.’
Really, all she cares about is me using the word shit. I fold my arms and stand in front of her with a downturned mouth. I’m not packing or moving until she tells me what’s going on.
‘What are you waiting for?’ She carries on tapping away on her keyboard.
I lean over and see that she’s looking for a holiday rental.
‘You’ve been in hospital. I thought you were going to lose the baby and I was scared…
’ I can’t hold my emotions back now, however silly I feel.
If I could be anything, I’d choose brave but I’m so far away from brave.
Tears prick at my eyes. ‘I was scared that something would happen to you and that me and Cora would have no one.’
She gasps and dumps her laptop on the settee. Her arms wrap around me. This is what I need. I’ve missed my mum and I want her to hug me and tell me that everything’s going to work out, but I know it isn’t. We’re leaving Dad.
‘I love you so much, Morgan, and I’m fine. All I have is a little infection.’
‘Why are you blaming Dad? I know he’s down there and he’s been drinking, but we can’t leave him here, not with these people.’
She holds me close. ‘I’m sorry to tell you this, but he cheated on me, Morgan, which is why we need to leave.
He’ll always be your dad and he’s not a bad person.
We’ll work something out, but for now, I need some space to think.
’ Mum swallows hard. She hates Dad and I think I hate him too. How could he cheat on Mum?
‘Who is she?’
Mum ignores my question.
I burst into tears. Mum needs to know about Klara and what Quinn did to Great-Aunt Dorette. ‘Mum, I don’t trust Quinn.’ I wipe my eyes. Cora cries so Mum turns Mika’s Magical Bicycle on again. We are both tolerating this tune at the moment for an easy time of it with Cora.
‘I saw the den and all your notes on the wall.’
My eyes widen. She was never meant to see all that but it’s too late now.
She’s seen the note that was to Quinn, the one I took and hid from her.
She now knows everything I know except for the Klara thing because I haven’t told another living person what I heard Harry and Quinn talking about last night.
‘Harry and I thought we could work out who wrote the letters.’
‘And did you?’
I shrug.
‘What do you think?’
I can tell what I have to say is important to Mum, and for once I feel like I’m seen and heard, not just someone to throw Cora at. ‘Up until last night, I thought it was Ray or Tessa but now I think it’s Quinn.’
Mum sits and takes a couple of deep breaths. ‘It’s not Quinn.’
I furrow my brows. It has to be. ‘When you went to the hospital, Cora fell asleep. I asked Zoe if I could pop to Harry’s quickly and she said it was okay.
When I got there, I heard shouting and Harry was accusing Quinn of stealing a character that Great-Aunt Dorette created and she had a big contract.
She had a reason to get Dorette out of the picture, Mum.
I also saw the notebook. When I was at Harry’s I saw a little book sticking out of Quinn’s bag.
When she went out of the room, I snuck a look and there were pictures and notes about this character, and the notebook belonged to Dorette.
The writing in the book was the same writing that was used on the letters that everyone received.
Black ink capitals. I believe that Quinn wrote the letters to try to get rid of us because she didn’t want you to ever find out that she stole Great-Aunt Dorette’s work, and to stop her talking, she pushed her off the balcony. ’
‘I know all this but Quinn didn’t write the letters.’
‘Well, who did?’ This is stuffing my mind up.
Now I think of it, how would Quinn have had the time to leave a note on the door of Clover House the other night, and how could she have broken into Zoe’s kitchen?
She’d been shouting at Harry at the time.
I’m a terrible detective. I was so sure I’d solved the mystery.
‘I don’t know but whoever did is trying to ruin us and I’m scared they’ll hurt us. This is serious, Morgan. Hurry, grab your things, we have to leave.’