Chapter 7
SEVEN
LIANE
I stare at Haven with a mixture of shock and disgust. I’m shocked because she has just said that she knew my mother and I cannot see how that is even remotely possible.
As for the disgust, that exists because it feels like this young woman has just said the most ludicrous thing simply to try and win a dispute that would allow her to stay in this room where she is not welcome.
Why lie about such a thing as knowing my mother when she plainly didn’t?
Such is the strangeness of her statement, I’m not the only one who has been temporarily rendered speechless. That is until Frederik finds his voice.
‘I beg your pardon, but how did you know Valerie?’ he asks our son’s girlfriend as politely as he can.
I have to give him credit for his control. I certainly would not have asked that question in such a calm manner. Then again, it’s not his mother Haven is so brazenly lying about.
‘It’s true,’ Joel says then, and I’m thrown by my son’s sudden show of support for his partner. How can he be in on this nonsense as well? Haven might be crazy, but I thought my son had more sense than this.
‘How can it be true?’ I cry, abandoning any urge to try and stay calm considering we are in a public place, and a well-educated woman is sitting on the other side of this desk watching this family fiasco unfolding before her eyes.
‘You met my son in Australia and Valerie died here in England before you came back. You were on the other side of the world when my mother lost her life, so how can you stand there and spout this nonsense about having known her?’
‘Just because you don’t understand something, it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,’ Haven says plainly.
I swear in this moment I could reach out and slap her. I actually don’t know how I resist, but some part of me holds myself to restraint, which is fortunate because I’m sure if I did strike my son’s partner, then mine and his relationship would never be the same again.
‘I’m sorry. Do we need to reschedule this meeting?’ Jane asks, intercepting this curious conversation as professionally as she can.
‘No, we do not!’ I snap back, though my ire is directed firmly at Haven and not the polite solicitor who was ready to get proceedings underway before we were all rudely interrupted. ‘We are ready to start the meeting, just as soon as Haven has left the room.’
‘I want her here,’ Joel repeats, much to my dismay.
This situation doesn’t need to get any harder by being made to feel like I have to choose between my son and what is right.
But there’s no doubt that the right thing here is that this meeting only involves close family members and, unless Joel and Haven have got married in the five minutes they seem to have known each other, she does not qualify as a close family member.
‘You’ll understand if you just let me explain,’ Haven says, though I very much doubt that.
‘Then why don’t you explain it to us?’ Scott says with a sigh, my eldest not looking at all angry like I am, just seemingly annoyed that he can’t leave here and go back to working in his garage already.
‘No problem!’ Haven exclaims with a big smile, as if the past sixty seconds of stress didn’t exist at all. ‘But can I take a seat first? It feels weird to stand when we could all sit down.’
Haven doesn’t wait for an invite then, instead dropping herself into a vacant chair as if she well and truly belongs in this important meeting now.
But that’s a fact that I would still very much dispute, unless she has an incredible story to tell me about how she did actually know my mother after all. And then the story begins…
‘You are correct, Liane. I was in Australia and Valerie was here, so I never actually met her in person,’ Haven begins.
I feel a sense of relief washing through me because it seems this silly woman has finally acknowledged the foolishness of what she has said.
‘But just because we were never physically together, that doesn’t mean I didn’t know her.’
I’m wondering now if she is going to say something about how Joel told her lots of stories about his grandmother and, from that, she believes she somehow ‘knew’ Valerie after all. If so, that would be quite the stretch and still not qualify her by any metric to be present in this room.
‘We exchanged messages online,’ Haven says next. ‘Quite a few messages, actually. That’s the thing about the world these days. You don’t have to have met somebody in person to have gotten to know them. Not when things like the internet exist.’
Again, I could slap Haven for spelling out something so simple that it seems like she is trying to make me feel stupid. Of course I know the internet exists. I just had no idea it was at all relevant to this discussion.
‘Messages?’ I repeat.
‘Yes,’ Joel answers for her. ‘Haven and Grandma Val were in contact with each other.’
‘But why?’ I can only ask next.
‘Because Grandma had seen our travel photos on social media,’ Joel answers again.
‘Grandma Val was on social media?’ Scott asks before laughing. ‘Really?’
‘I was surprised too, but yeah. She said she wanted to keep up to date with my adventures,’ Joel says.
I had no idea my mother was on social media either. She certainly hadn’t mentioned it to me.
‘But you said you didn’t want me stalking you online while you were away,’ I remind Joel. ‘You blocked me and only sent me photos you wanted me to see. You said you wanted space.’
‘Yes, I know. I had no idea Grandma was going to pop up on social media, but when she liked one of my photos and left a nice comment, I thought it was harmless to have her seeing my travel photos.’
I had tried my best not to be upset that Joel requested me and his father not snoop on his every move online while he was away, but only because I accepted his need for some adult privacy. But now I find out my mum was allowed to keep tabs on him and she didn’t even tell me about it.
‘Grandma sent me a message saying that Haven looked like a lovely young woman and she was very happy that I was happy,’ Joel explains. ‘I showed Haven the message and she was flattered, so she wanted to write her own message back. That’s how it started.’
‘That’s right,’ Haven interjects. ‘I messaged her from my personal account, thanking her and saying that I was looking forward to meeting her one day and then she replied asking a few things about me and life in Australia. We exchanged several messages over a number of months after that, so despite what you think, Liane, I feel like I did know your mother. I feel like I knew her quite well, actually.’
I’m not sure what to say to any of this, and my shock is currently rendering me speechless. But I do know that I don’t want to potentially embarrass myself further by being adamant about something only to have it proved wrong.
‘I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have another meeting scheduled after this one,’ Jane says, reminding everyone else in the room that she is only here to do a job, not listen to our family affairs.
‘Of course, sorry,’ Frederik says and looks to me. ‘Can we get this started, or…?’
‘No,’ I reply firmly, looking back to Haven. ‘Okay, so you might have been messaging my mother from Australia, but this meeting is much more personal than that. Please, can you understand and accept my request to just wait outside?’
I can’t say fairer than that, can I?
‘Either Haven stays or we both leave,’ Joel answers for her, putting me in a very uncomfortable position.
‘Let’s just get this over with,’ Scott tries then and he gestures towards Jane to begin.
Everyone is now seated except me, and I remain standing as Jane looks awkwardly at me before I concede and give her the nod to begin.
As the solicitor runs through her opening preamble, which is mostly just stating anything that she is legally required to say, I can’t help but stare at Haven.
It feels like my eyes are boring into the back of her head as she sits here with my family, Joel to the left of her, Scott to the right and my husband also there.
He looks back at me and mouths the question ‘do you want to sit down?’ but I just shake my head and look back to Haven.
‘As you may have already been aware, Valerie had a substantial estate. As well as her home, which recent property estimates value to be worth somewhere in the region of four hundred thousand pounds, there are her savings too. It is these savings that I will go through first.’
I should be paying more attention to what Jane is saying because it’s very important, particularly the property estimate, though it does sound in line with similar homes in this area of the North. But I’m still far busier scorching Haven’s head with my steely glare.
‘To her daughter, Liane,’ Jane says, briefly glancing up at me before looking back down at the important document in front of her. ‘As well as the house, she leaves you one hundred and two thousand, four hundred and thirty-seven pounds.’
Wow. All that money and that big house. I see my husband raise his eyebrows and look back at me.
It’s more than he thought we would get. He presumed we’d get the house, but ￡100k too?
But I remain stoic. I’m still more annoyed that Haven is in the room with us than excited about any potential windfall.
‘To her two grandsons, Scott and Joel, she leaves you each seventy-five thousand pounds,’ Jane says.
I notice Scott’s mouth visibly hang open.
Joel looks surprised too, and my two sons share an amazed look, as they should because it’s a huge sum of money to be gifted from their dear, late grandmother.
It’s clear now that when she advised me to save for a rainy day, she really, really practised what she preached.
But it’s what happens in between my two sons that gets my attention next.
I see Haven look to Joel and smile before she reaches out and gives his hand a squeeze and, in this moment, a truly awful thought occurs to me.
Is this why Haven insisted on being in here? Is this why she is even in a relationship with my son? Is she with him to gain access to his inheritance?
If so, I hope she has written a will of her own.
That’s because I’ll kill her myself.