Epilogue Iris
Epilogue
Iris
It’s been a year to the day since Daniel died.
Iris takes Margo – in her mum’s car – to the florist’s in South Molton to choose some flowers, then she drives to St John the Baptist’s church in Brayworthy and parks right in front of it.
She puts her arm around Margo, who carries the flowers with both hands, hugging them to her to protect them from the wind.
They make their way to Daniel’s grave, next to his father’s.
Margo kneels down, beside Daniel’s grave, like she doesn’t care about the wet grass, and chatters away, filling her dad in on all the minutiae of her life since she last came to talk to him a few weeks ago.
Iris clocks the fresh flowers in one of the permanent metal vases at the base of the headstone.
Mrs Duffy, Daniel’s mother, has clearly been here today or yesterday.
Iris takes Margo’s bouquet and arranges the flowers in the other vase.
Then she takes a step back to give Margo some privacy.
Josh is buried in this churchyard somewhere, but Iris hasn’t looked for his grave.
She still feels a mixture of anger and sadness when she thinks about him.
She tries not to think about him at all, but it’s weird knowing that part of who she is today is because of him.
Because of what he did to her. Perhaps Liv feels the same way.
And Sasha. Iris doesn’t believe Josh would ever have changed.
No matter how many last chances he was given.
Iris looks at Margo, then at Daniel’s headstone.
Daniel Duffy. Loving father, partner and stepfather, it reads.
Died 1st November 2024. Aged 51 years. Gone, but not forgotten.
He wasn’t the best stepdad in the world and Iris wouldn’t want to speak ill of the dead, or whatever, but he was totally useless after that video of her went viral.
She could have done with his support – or, at least, without his criticism – and Mum really needed him.
But Iris misses Daniel even so. She misses his tuneless humming, his cooking and his dad jokes.
And she can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for Margo, losing her dad as well as her mum.
Mum and Jo keep going on about how resilient kids are and they’re not wrong. Margo has been really strong.
For a while, they were worried they would lose Margo.
Margo’s aunt Paula – Daniel’s sister-in-law – wanted to take Margo to live with her and her family in Loggerheads, a place Iris had never heard of, which is apparently up north somewhere – in Staffordshire, if Iris remembers correctly.
In the end, though, everyone thought it best not to uproot Margo.
Plus, Paula and her husband already had four kids.
Her husband wasn’t keen to take on anyone else’s children, even if she was family.
Mum and Paula are planning to get together, so that Margo can get to know her cousins.
Paula herself, who didn’t ‘see eye to eye with Daniel’ hasn’t seen her niece since her sister – Margo’s mother – died, but they’ve started FaceTiming.
Mum’s looking into adopting Margo officially with Paula’s support.
Yvonne was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and failing to stop, or something like that.
The police couldn’t prove it was deliberate.
She rammed into the back of Iris’s car, causing Daniel to lose control of the vehicle.
Yvonne claimed it was a moment of inattention.
She said she hadn’t recognized Iris’s car.
Iris doesn’t believe a word of it. Nor does Mum.
It took nine months for Yvonne’s case to go to court.
She was given a four-year prison sentence and she’s been disqualified from driving for eight years.
Iris guesses that means she won’t be able to drive for another four years after she gets out of prison.
Or maybe she’ll get out early. Everyone says Yvonne got off lightly.
Olly and Iris both passed their A levels.
Iris’s grades were actually quite good and Olly’s were excellent.
Olly has gone to university – Bristol – to study medicine.
He wants to become a doctor and save lives.
He’s really helpful around the house when he comes home during the holidays, which is totally unlike him.
Mum says it won’t last. Olly’s also been helping Dad with a load of DIY projects.
They finished the downstairs bathroom at Dad’s place months ago, but they’re always working on something or other at Mayflower Farm or at Crooked Oak Cottage.
Olly was always kind, but since Daniel died and Dad persuaded him not to tell anyone what really happened in Buryknoll Wood, he has practically become a saint.
Even though he’s really busy with his studies, he does volunteer work for the Red Cross at public events and he has been talking about taking a gap year when he has graduated and applying for a medical volunteer project abroad.
Olly probably feels bad about Daniel’s death, too, even though it definitely wasn’t his fault.
Olly and Liv are still together – Liv’s studying at the University of Bath, so they’re not far away from each other.
Mum is doing well. It took a while for her to smile again, but lately Iris has heard her laughing.
Mum has learnt to cook a few more dishes since Daniel died.
She still works as a freelance editor, but she avoids taking on crime fiction – she says there has been more than enough drama in her life.
She goes for long walks every single day, whatever the weather, across Exmoor with Cheddar. Iris goes with her when she can.
Dad’s round at Crooked Oak Cottage a lot.
As Mum says, he’s always been there to catch her when she falls.
Mum pitches in with the DIY stuff, too. She says it’s like old times.
They take it in turns to choose music to listen to while they work.
Mum always chooses some awful opera stuff with lyrics no one can understand, but when Dad puts on his Eighties playlists, they both sing along, so it’s only marginally better.
Dad’s biggest worry is for what might happen once Yvonne gets out of prison. Iris overheard Dad discussing it with Ian. Dad fears the worst. A personal vendetta. A feud between their two families – the Ashfords and the Knolls. Iris hopes he’s wrong and that it’s all over now.
As for Iris, she got into the University of Nottingham to study English Literature, but she has deferred her entry.
For one thing, there’s no way Mum could have handled both her and Olly leaving the nest at the same time.
Also, Margo needs her big sister. And Iris has been spending a lot of time with Dad, setting up a website for victims of cyber sexual abuse.
Revenge porn. She wants to share her story and if it makes just one person think twice about sending a nude pic, then it’ll be worth it.
If it makes just one person think twice about sharing someone else’s nudes, then it’ll be totally worth it.
She’s using a pseudo and she’ll encourage everyone else to do the same.
For one thing, she can’t use her real name, not now Josh is dead; that would just be cruel.
And for another thing, Iris thinks other ‘victim-survivors’ – to use Melanie’s term – might feel more inclined to open up if they don’t have to use their true identities.
Another week or so and the website should be ready to go live.
Iris has also been spending a lot of time with Tom Fischer.
He’s deferred his entry to university, too.
He wants to gain some professional experience with an internship.
He and Iris are getting on really well. Just good friends for the moment.
But Iris really likes him and Tom seems to be into her, too.
So, who knows? This summer, they’re going backpacking together for two whole months around Europe.
In the meantime, Iris is working in a supermarket in South Molton.
It’s boring AF, but she’s saving up the money she earns for the trip.
Above all, the gap year is doing Iris a lot of good.
She’s happier and more confident than she was, but she feels like she needs a bit more time to take stock of everything.
She still sees Melanie from time to time, but not as often.
She still gets nightmares occasionally, but now she can go back to sleep afterwards, whereas before she would lie awake for the rest of the night.
She still wonders every time she meets someone new if they recognize her from her video.
But although she knows it’s still out there, she’s aware that at some point she’s got to stop obsessing about it.
She’s making progress. She’s moving forwards. Moving on.