Chapter 42
GENIE
Now
Gray is up already, and I can hear him happily whistling away to himself in the kitchen below.
I shouldn’t waste too much time dawdling in bed as Emma is arriving late this afternoon to stay with us.
I’ve offered to pick her up from Richmond Station but she insisted on getting a taxi.
Gray said he would try and finish work a bit earlier than usual to join us.
We’re not going anywhere tonight, just staying at home to eat.
Gray pops upstairs to say goodbye and to wish me well before he leaves for work. Later, I potter around the house, cleaning as I go. The house is immaculate. I’ve cleaned it twice already, but I just want everything to be perfect and the compulsive cleaning is keeping my brain occupied.
Emma arrives promptly at 5pm as we’d agreed. I’ve been obsessively watching out for her through the shutters in the sitting room. As soon as I spot her, I smooth down my carefully chosen pale blue linen dress and go to open the front door to greet my long-lost friend.
As soon as I see her, it was as if we had never been apart as we effortlessly chat away like a couple of schoolgirls.
‘Oh, it’s so good to see you again.’ Emma exclaims.
‘I feel the same!’ I reply, and I really mean it.
‘You have two sons, don’t you?’ I ask. ‘Yes, I have two sons, Andrew, my eldest, is at uni in Manchester and my youngest, Matty stayed close to home at Bournemouth University. I miss them both, but it means that my husband Matt and I get to spend more time together without the constraints of family life. Tell me all about your family. I’ve thought about you often. ’
‘Well, I had my baby, not long after my exams and she was given away to a ‘nice’ Catholic family as was the arrangement and as you know I then left for Brighton.
' I begin. ‘I’m married to Gray. I met him not long after I arrived in Brighton and we’ve got two children.
Cassie who is sixteen and Will is fifteen.
And out came my story to yet someone else.
Emma was probably one of the easier people to speak to.
She knew only too well what my life had been like in Bournemouth with both my mother and my aunt.
Gray arrives home early for once, keen to protect me potentially from Emma and her revelations. Thankfully, Gray warms immediately to Emma.
‘It’s so good to finally meet you. I’ve heard an awful lot about you recently.’ he says pleasantly.
‘It’s great to meet you too, and to finally catch up with Genie, although I still think of her as Evie, but I completely understand her wanting to reinvent herself!
’ Emma replies, warmly, touching me reassuringly on my arm.
‘Sorry about all the cloak and dagger messages but I’m just very wary of my socials being hacked.
I don’t really take much notice of the tabloids and celebrity gossip doesn’t interest me at all but over the last year I began to think that Evie my friend from Church all those years ago was #thegirlinthesong from the Netflix documentary.
It took me a while to realise it was you, but when the press identified you, I then saw the resemblance.
You’ve obviously changed quite a bit over the years, I guess we all have to a degree, but I knew it was you, so it didn’t really come as much as a surprise when I got a DM from you. ’ Emma continues.
Gray and I sit and listen while Emma tells her side of the story of what happened after I’d left.
When Auntie Maureen had recovered from her laxative laden tea she contacted my mother at the church.
Mother was enraged and later Auntie Maureen had recognised Emma from both school and church, so she was interrogated by both her parents and my mother and my aunt.
Emma remained loyal to me and told them that she was as shocked and surprised at my disappearance as they all were.
For weeks afterwards she was quizzed by everyone about my whereabouts and although she had recommended that I should go to Brighton, Emma really didn’t know where I was, so technically she wasn’t lying.
Eventually they stopped quizzing her as they had come to realise that she really didn’t know my whereabouts, or if she did, she was a very good liar.
It was a couple of months after I’d left that she noticed that a middle-aged couple who came to our Church had suddenly acquired a new baby.
Most babies to teenagers all look the same but one Sunday when her mother was admiring the baby Emma took a closer look.
The baby didn’t have much hair and was always asleep whenever she saw her at Church, so she never saw the colour of her eyes.
One day she plucked up the courage to ask the baby’s name.
The slightly harassed mother said her name was Frances, named after St Francis of Assisi.
The couple attended Church for at least a year before they disappeared.
Emma’s father said that they had relocated to London, due to work and that was the last she ever saw of any of them.
Gray took notes as Emma spoke. She did stress to us both that she had no proof that the baby was mine. It was probably just a romantic notion from an impressionable teenager, but I knew in my heart of hearts that it was Milly.
After dinner, Gray makes his excuses to do some work and retires to his office, leaving Emma and I to catch up some more and then that was when Emma drops a bombshell.
‘I just wanted to let you know face to face that I had nothing to do with the TikTok reveal on Amira Malik’s account.’ Emma says solemnly.
‘I know you didn’t. Amira was quite adamant that you hadn’t spoken to her.’ I reassure her, placing my hand on her arm.
‘But I’ve recently found out who it was.’ she reveals, taking a breath, as if waiting for me to say something.
‘I don’t understand what you mean.’ I reply, not quite knowing where this line of conversation is going, as my heart races.
‘I’m just going to come out and say it.’ Emma blurts. ‘It was Hetty, my sister who contacted Amira Malik. I’m so sorry, Genie. If I could have stopped her, I would have. You’ve got to believe me.’
‘Hetty?’ I say. ‘It was her….’
Emma just nodded.
‘I’m so sorry. I had no idea that she even remembered you from Church, but she was always such an observant child.’
This was not the revelation that I had been expecting. Emma shakes her head sadly.
‘She’s always liked being the centre of attention and I’m not sure that Amira even paid her anything for her revelation.
These TikTok people don’t realise how they are destroying people’s real lives with all their revelations and speculations, but Hetty has always been a bit of an attention seeker so in some ways it doesn’t surprise me that she’d want to be in the thick of things.
’ Emma further reveals, wiping a tear away from her right eye that is threatening to fall.
‘Thank you for telling me. At least I know now. I’ve just got to decide what to do next.’ I reply, although I’m completely blindsided that it was Hetty behind the story. We hug and I feel such gratitude towards Emma for telling me the truth although I can tell that she is heartbroken.
‘I guess you’ll contact Ed?’ Emma suggests, leaning back on the sofa, looking so much more relaxed now that she has shared the information about Hetty.
I nod, knowing that I can’t put off speaking to Ed any longer.
Gray and I both agree that he deserves to know that he does have a daughter out there somewhere.
‘Despite everything, Ed does deserve to know the truth.’ I reply.
Emma stays for a couple of days. Any thoughts that Emma was ‘in it for the money’ disappear from both mine and Gray’s minds as Emma simply delights everyone that she meets.
The children love hearing our stories from school; Emma reminding the children that once upon a time I was a young and feisty girl who followed her own rules.
I also introduced her to Maura, and they got on like a house on fire.
Initially two strangers who, in their own ways were both sent to me in my hour of need.
When Emma finally returns home, the house feels empty without her, and I spend the rest of the day daydreaming about how on earth I’m going to contact Ed and tell him that all the rumours about him being a father are in fact true.