Chapter 61
Sixty-One
Gemma
The police have quizzed me no end about last night.
The journey from the woods, all the way to the main road where the emergency services had parked, had been torturous through the snow, but thankfully, the lights had come back on by then.
Beanie is the toughest little bean in the world.
She wants to live and I want her to. I say she, but I’m not sure what I’m having and I don’t mind either way.
I place my hand on my stomach, knowing how lucky I’ve been.
Ethan left the hospital with Cora first thing and he’s called me twice.
He’s found an out-of-season static caravan that we can immediately move in to.
It’s not ideal but I couldn’t be happier about never having to set foot in Clover House again.
Morgan yawns in the large upright chair.
Against the wishes of the nurses, she and Ethan slept there last night and Cora snuggled with me.
The nurses weren’t happy but I couldn’t bear to be parted from my girls after what happened.
Seeing Cora fall over the edge of the balcony makes me shudder.
Ethan’s whole body was numb in the morning from our teen daughter lying over him, but still he was up and out at first light.
I told him to stay in a hotel but he wouldn’t leave me and the girls.
Morgan rubs her eyes and walks over to me. ‘You okay, Mum?’
I nod. ‘I’m feeling much better.’ I’m not, but I have to put on a brave face for the children.
They need me to keep it together. After all this is over, we’ll get to start again.
I don’t know where Ethan fits into everything because he cheated on me but I’m being practical.
He’s their father and he has nowhere to go either.
They’d never forgive me if I turned him out on the streets.
We spoke and the children are going to sleep in the tiny second bedroom and Ethan will sleep on the sofa until we get a grip on our finances and I’ve sold the house.
Morgan sits on my hospital bed, in my private little side room, and she lies next to me.
I turn over and hug her, then I play with her hair like I used to do when she was a little girl.
We’ve been through so much over this last twenty-four hours and Morgan knows everything.
She knows about my past. She knows that Aunt Dorette killed Jasmine.
She knows about the apartment being kitted out with a recording device and that freaked her out more than the letters.
‘What do you think will happen to Zoe?’ Morgan asks.
‘She’s been arrested for stabbing Quinn. She’s pleaded guilty so we won’t have to go to court. The police are also investigating Aunt Dorette’s death; I don’t know if they’ve charged her with anything yet.’
I’m grateful that Zoe isn’t putting us through a trial.
She seemed deeply upset that she’d injured Quinn, and I believe her when she said she didn’t intend to hurt anyone.
But I can’t forgive her for holding a knife to Morgan.
In that moment, I believed that she was capable of killing my child.
She also made Morgan feel terrible when she accused her of breaking into her kitchen and leaving a nasty letter there.
It was Zoe all along, trying to put us off the scent.
She read the first letter she wrote to herself out loud, for me to hear.
She was trying to see how I’d react to her mentioning Jasmine.
I picture her sneaking around our house, searching through all Aunt Dorette’s belongings looking for clues as to what happened to Jasmine.
I don’t blame her for that. If something happened to Morgan, I would never give up looking for her – ever.
‘It’s sad really, isn’t it? I feel sorry for Zoe.’
My caring daughter. After all she’s been through, she’s thinking of Zoe. ‘It is but I’m hoping she’ll also get closure and the help she needs. She can now lay Jasmine to rest.’
There is a knock at the door and a nurse walks in. She starts making notes on the chart that has been clipped to the end of my bed.
Morgan heads back to the chair, and I sit up. ‘Is my friend Quinn okay? She came in at the same time as me last night.’
‘Ah, she’s on ward seven and she’s been asking for you. It’s the one opposite this ward.’
‘Can I see her?’
She checks my notes again. ‘Your daughter can wheel you over. We need you to take it easy for now.’
Morgan hurries out and she’s soon back with a clunky hospital wheelchair. The nightdress the hospital put me in flaps at the back so she tucks me in, then she wheels me backwards past the nurses’ station, to ward seven.
We’re buzzed in and a nurse leads me to Quinn’s side room. I inhale sharply as I see all the tubes that are connected to her. She’s hooked up to a machine but appears stable.
‘Gem,’ she murmurs with a forced smile.
‘How are you?’
Morgan wheels me closer, and I look up at her. ‘Would you like to grab yourself some lunch from the café?’ Morgan is hungry and she needs a break. She nods and leaves me.
‘Look at us,’ I say to Quinn.
‘I can think of better ways to spend a Saturday.’ She huffs out a laugh then flinches.
‘It bloody well hurts to laugh. I lost a lot of blood but it wasn’t too deep and nothing was punctured.
The stitches were gross. Harry popped home but he might be in the café by now, so hopefully he’ll catch up with Morgan.
He’s a darling. He stayed with me all night. I scared him half to death.’
I let out a long, slow breath. ‘I still can’t believe what Aunt Dorette did.’
‘Me neither and I can’t believe what I did.
I’m so ashamed, Gemma. I’ve been thinking a lot and I want to be a better person, really I do.
’ She flinches as she tries to move. ‘I’m declining the Klara contract because it’s the right thing to do.
I worked on her but she’s not mine. It’s time for a fresh start.
I realise that Clover Lane turned me into a person I don’t want to be.
I’ve spent years trying to get that bunch of arseholes to like me, and guess what?
I no longer care. I’m putting the house on the market and getting out of there. How are you, Gemma?’
I laugh for the first time in ages. ‘Glad for it all to be over.’
She drops her pained smile. ‘And how’s the baby?’
‘Thankfully good. One tough cookie is residing in my womb.’
Quinn bites her bottom lip. ‘Thank you for saving my life. I would have understood if you’d left me there to bleed out.
I ran from you that day you pushed Jasmine.
Had I stayed, one of us could have called an ambulance and…
and, she might still be alive. I’ve been a bad friend. ’ She pauses. ‘You came back for me.’
‘I went back for Jasmine.’
‘And we know what happened after but we’ll never know why. Are the police still at your house?’
I nod. ‘I think they’ll be there forever. I’m selling it as a project when I get the all-clear to do so.’
‘Good move. New starts and all that. Are you going back to Bristol?’
‘Eventually, but for now we’ll be living in a caravan close to the sea front in Whitby.’
‘So, we can meet up for that drink when I get out of this joint?’
‘I’m banking on it.’
She reaches out and places a hand on mine. ‘There will always be a part of me that thinks of you as more than a friend, Gemma, but I know we can only ever be friends and I want us to be friends. Does that make sense?’
I nod, relieved because that’s all I want from her.
I don’t want to walk away from what we have here because I’m not sure who I am or what I want anymore.
I know I need to put my children first. I still love Ethan.
He will always be my first love, but he’s hurt me.
I’ll take as much time as I like to think about the future.
All I know is Quinn and I share a past that will bond us forever.
We’ve both made mistakes but we are better people for them, aren’t we?
I trust that Quinn has changed. She’s done the right thing when it comes to turning down the contract.
It’s her new start just like moving is mine. It’s time to embrace the future.