Chapter 30
ORLA
‘Erm, since… well, since Aidan punched him out on the night of the bar’s birthday party.’
It felt like those words had been going round in Orla’s head for days. Probably because they truly had been.
When Kimi had shared them on Christmas Day, at Carlo and Yvie’s family and friends’ lunch at the café, Orla had understood what it meant when people said that time stood still.
‘Oh, shit, no – have I done it again?’ Kimi had wailed. ‘Goddamn it. I thought you must know because he had a black bloody eye.’
He’d lied to her. He’d flat-out lied.
‘He told me he’d walked into a machine at the gym,’ Orla said in voice so robotic she didn’t even register it as her own.
Kimi had gone into a full panic. ‘Fuck, fuck. First, I’m so sorry that I’ve hurt you yet again. And second, my brother is going to kill me.’
Another realisation dawned on Orla. Aidan knew too.
And not that they’d been chummy, or even had a proper conversation since the day he’d given her a lift to Weirbridge, but there would have been nothing to stop him knocking on the door, and saying, ‘Hey, sorry about punching your husband. You should really leave that prick.’
She might have added that last bit all by herself, but still…
Was she the only person in the street that didn’t have a clue what was going on in her own life?
She had never felt more heartbroken, or more stupid or more humiliated.
She’d chosen to believe him, even though every single nerve in her body had told her that he was lying. What a fool she was.
Kimi was still panicking. ‘Tell me what you want to do and I’ll do it.
I don’t even care if it’s illegal at this point.
I’m so sorry, Orla.’ Even in her trance-like state, Orla had felt a pang of sympathy for the woman with a knack for blowing up Orla’s life.
Maybe that’s why she’d managed to hold her cool and speak in a calm voice.
‘Can you go and get my friend, Keli, please? She’s over at the table I was sitting at. Can you just make some excuse to get her here without causing a big fuss?’
‘Given my track record, I can’t guarantee it, but I’ll try. Aw bugger, I’m hopeless.’
Kimi had gone off, and Orla had held on to the bar top to steady herself, somehow managing to stay upright and keep breathing until Kimi returned a couple of minutes later with Keli in tow.
‘Orla, I know you’ve had a stressful time, but this isn’t the answer,’ Keli had chided her. ‘It’s not good for the baby.’
Before Orla could even try to work out what the hell was happening, Kimi had jumped in.
‘Sorry, it’s all I could think of at short notice. I whispered to her that you were over here trying to sneak a bottle of vodka into your bag.’
That’s when Orla had known for sure that she’d never understand the workings of Kimi’s mind.
‘So there’s no vodka?’ Keli had tried to keep up.
‘Oh, thank God. I didn’t fancy trying to prise that from your hands.
Fighting with a preggers chick in public is the kind of thing that can get you cancelled.
’ As she’d clocked the drained complexion on Orla’s face, her mind took another leap, to the obvious question.
‘What is going on then? What’s happened? ’
Orla was still holding on to the bar top. ‘He lied again, Keli. The night of my baby shower, when he got the black eye and he told me it was at the gym…’ The words had dried up as Orla had lost the power of speech.
Kimi had taken pity on her and stepped in. ‘He wasn’t at the gym. He came to the bar I work in. The same one as—’
‘The bit on the side?’ Keli had gasped, sucking in way too much air from the room.
Kimi had nodded. ‘My brother was there…’
‘Hemsworth over the garden fence?’ Keli was doing her best to keep up.
Kimi had assumed they had the same person.
‘Yeah, that’s my brother, Aidan. Anyway, Aidan saw him there, they had an argument, Aidan punched him in the face.
And before you think about pressing charges, or assume that my brother is a psycho, I can honestly say that’s the first time in his life that he’s ever been violent to another human being. He doesn’t even kill spiders.’
Keli had groaned. ‘No judgement here. If I wouldn’t lose my nursing licence, I’d be tempted to go over there and smack him myself. Orla, tell me what you want me to do.’
‘Can you get me out of here? No fuss. I don’t want to draw attention or do anything that will spoil Yvie’s party. Just help me get a taxi and then tell Kyle that I’ve left. I don’t want to deal with him, and I can’t stand to look at his face.’
Kimi had intervened, but this time it was in a positive way. ‘You don’t need a taxi. I was leaving shortly to head to my mum’s house anyway. I’ll drop you home on the way. It’s the least I can do for having the biggest gob in Glasgow around you.’
That’s what she’d done. Kimi had taken her home, made sure she got into the house and Orla had found out later that Keli had gone back over to the table, told Kyle she’d seen someone slashing his tyres, then when she’d got him outside, told him that he was a faithless prick who’d been found out and warned him that if he went near Orla before she was ready to see him, she was phoning the police.
‘I need to go home. Get my stuff…’ He’d tried to argue.
‘I’ve got 999 on speed-dial and, trust me, you don’t want to test me,’ Keli had told him.
It must have worked, because Kyle hadn’t come back to the house that day. He’d called, he’d texted, but he hadn’t turned up at the door. When Orla had calmed down enough that her hands were no longer trembling too much to type, she’d simply replied with a text.
Stay away from me. I’ll let you know when I want to talk.
About an hour later, Emmy and Cormac had arrived at her door and stayed over, and the next morning, Yvie, Keli and Emmy had worked out a rota to make sure that she wasn’t left alone until her mum arrived yesterday. Orla wasn’t sure how she was ever going to thank them.
Her only other visitor had been on Boxing Day, when Aidan had knocked her door.
She’d leaned against the door frame, holding the edges of her cardigan close together, but she hadn’t invited him in. Her eyes were red raw from crying, and she was, quite frankly, over all members of the male species.
‘Listen, I heard what happened yesterday. Kimi is like a frigging megaphone and I feel like this is déjà vu, but I just wanted to say sorry, for the last time, for this time, for my sister’s gob…’
‘For punching my husband?’
There was a hesitation, then he’d shaken his head. ‘No, not for that. He deserved it. Look, I’ll leave it to him to tell you about it – I’ve interfered enough. But I’m sorry, and I’m always next door if you need anything.’
‘I’ve left him,’ Orla had said, she wasn’t sure why.
Aidan had nodded, slowly, his face full of sympathy. ‘Good. Then I won’t need to punch him again.’
Despite the weight of. Everything that was happening, and her general disapproval of violence of any kind, that had almost made her smile.
That was nothing to be proud of, but looking back, she cut herself some slack because, of course, Kyle hadn’t done what she’d asked.
He’d continued to call, had even turned up at the house, but Emmy had sent Cormac over to change the locks on the doors so that Kyle couldn’t get in.
Again, she’d texted him and told him she’d speak to him when she was ready.
That time had finally come earlier today, when her mum was there to make sure he left when Orla was ready for him to go.
Her mum had answered the door to him, but she’d warned Orla beforehand that as before, she wasn’t going to interfere.
‘He’s still the father of your baby, love.
He’s done a terrible thing, and you can be furious with him – you’ve every right to be.
But you’re going to have to find a way to be in each other’s lives for a long time, so you need to find some kind of peaceful resolution. ’
Orla had completely understood her mum’s viewpoint, even if there was part of her that wished her mum would rage against the man that had just decimated her daughter’s life. That wasn’t her mum’s style, though.
‘I think you’ve spent too much time in war zones, Mam.’
‘You’re probably right. I just don’t want you dragged into a battle that only has losers. Set your boundaries and then stick to them, because fighting him isn’t worth losing your peace of mind.’
Orla had agreed. Braced herself. Summoned all her composure. Taken a deep breath as she heard him come down the hallway to the kitchen. She’d known he’d be sheepish. Apologetic. Maybe even humble. And she had to resist that.
Only, when he’d walked into the kitchen, she’d realised she was wrong about it all. He hadn’t even made it to the stools at their kitchen island before he went on the offensive.
‘This is ridiculous, Orla. You’ve totally got the wrong end of the stick.
I know I shouldn’t have lied to you, but I was just trying to protect your feelings and make sure I didn’t upset you.
I only went there that night to tell her to stop harassing me because she kept calling and texting me after I called it off.
It was done. It’s still done. So we need to just stop this nonsense and get back to normal. For the baby’s sake.’
It was like a rehearsed speech, and maybe once upon a time she’d have believed him.
She’d thought back to what her mum had said. Set your boundaries. Stick to them.
‘Our marriage is over, Kyle. I don’t want to hear it. You can be involved in the baby’s life as much as is fair – 50/50 where possible. I want to stay in this house—’
‘No. No way. Is this because of that prick next door? Are you seeing him?’
That’s when she’d lost it. ‘Seeing him?’ she’d shouted, before remembering that she was heavily pregnant and stress wasn’t good for the baby.
A memo he’d clearly missed. ‘Of course I’m not seeing him.
I’m nine months pregnant with your baby.
’ She had taken another breath, regained her composure and made a note not to tell Yvie, Keli or Emmy about this, or his tyres would get slashed every night for a month.
‘Like I said, we’re done. There’s no coming back from this. You’ve broken my trust too many times…’
‘It was one time, and you already knew about it.’
‘No, it was many times. Months.’
‘Yeah, but only one woman,’ he’d said, as if that made it ok. ‘I’ve never been unfaithful to you before that or since, Orla. Like I said, I only went back to tell her to stop harassing me. She’s deranged.’
‘One woman is one too many,’ she’d said sadly, feeling deep in her soul that he was lying even now.
Was his affair really over? Every fibre of her being doubted it.
‘Look, Kyle, the details don’t matter. I thought I could get over it.
Turns out I can’t. Let’s try to keep this peaceful, though.
For the baby’s sake. I’ll let you know when I’m in labour… ’
‘I want to be there. I want to see my child born.’
‘I won’t stop you. But don’t contact me before then, Kyle. Like I said, we’re done.’
He’d got up, shook his head. ‘You’ll change your mind.’
‘I won’t,’ she’d said calmly. Quietly. The days of him dictating her behaviour, gaslighting her, swaying her from her instincts were gone.
That had been at four o’clock this afternoon.
Now it was nine o’clock, and Orla was counting down the hours to the new year.
To her new life. The one where she and her baby were together and she’d figure out everything else.
If her antenatal pal, Maddie, could face solo parenting with determination and confidence that it would be okay, then Orla could too.
Kimi being there on Christmas Day had actually done her a favour.
Now she knew the truth, her fate was in no-one’s hands but her own.
‘You okay there, sweetheart?’ her mum asked her, as she sat down on the sofa beside her.
‘I think I am, Mum.’ Orla pushed over the edge of her white furry blanket so that it covered her mum’s legs too.
‘Thanks, sweetheart. You know, I’m so proud of you and…’ Her mum stopped and Orla knew that it was because her face had twisted, and she’d gasped as she doubled over, trying to breathe through a pain that had just ripped through her side.
‘Mam, can you go grab my hospital bag and call a taxi please,’ she stuttered, through repetitive breaths. ‘I think your granddaughter is about to make an appearance.’