Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
LIANE
I stare at the earring in my hand, the one I found on the bedroom floor in my mother’s house and, as of now, the only thing of Haven’s that remains here after she and my son left this morning.
I could throw it somewhere. Anywhere. But I am holding onto it.
I guess it’s symbolic. I’m holding onto it because I know it’s not the last I’ve seen of Haven. Not at all.
‘How are you feeling?’ Frederik asks me as we walk side by side in the park he suggested we go to after the drama of the morning.
After being shocked to see Haven in my house and then having a heated argument with my husband while Joel and Haven left, it was obvious I needed a break.
So Frederik suggested we come here, to the leafy surroundings of this green space for a bit of fresh air.
I put the earring in my pocket. I haven’t mentioned to my husband that this is the same park where I met Haven’s brother.
I hardly think mentioning something like that is going to cheer either of us up or prevent us from having another argument.
So I’ll continue to keep it to myself. I really don’t want to argue with Frederik.
He is my best friend as well as my husband, and I need his support. I need it now more than ever.
‘A little bit better,’ I say in answer to his question. It’s not really the truth. I don’t feel any better. But I don’t want Frederik to think his suggestion to go for a walk has been a complete waste of time either.
‘I think you should talk to somebody,’ he says then as we keep walking. ‘A therapist, maybe, or a counsellor. Somebody who can help you process the shock of your mother’s death.’
‘Is that all I talk about with them?’ I ask with a sigh. ‘Or would I mention Haven too, and how she thinks our eldest son is a killer?’
‘Maybe just start with the grief thing and see how it goes,’ Frederik says, and we both can’t help but laugh at that.
If only life was as simple as a walk in the park. Wouldn’t it be wonderful? But we both know it’s not, which is why we can laugh here but will soon be reminded of the grim reality when we get home to find Joel gone.
‘I don’t want to lose us,’ I admit then, which is also perhaps an admittance that I have been hard to live with in recent times.
‘Me neither,’ Frederik replies, and that’s comforting to hear.
‘And I don’t want to lose our sons,’ I add. ‘But I fear that this woman is trying to take them from us. If she has her way, Joel will never speak to us again and Scott will be in prison for something he didn’t do.’
‘Nobody is going to prison,’ Frederik says calmly.
‘Your mother died in an accident and only Haven is suggesting otherwise. Not anybody else and certainly not the police. We don’t know why she is making up these false stories about Scott, but they won’t lead anywhere.
They certainly won’t lead to our family breaking up. I promise you that.’
‘How can you promise it?’ I ask anxiously. ‘How can you know for sure that this situation isn’t going to get worse, not better?’
‘Because I’ll see to it that it doesn’t get any worse,’ Frederik says, pausing and turning to look at me. I stop walking too and we stand face to face on the park path, staring into one another’s eyes, totally undistracted by any other people who pass us.
‘I have a bad feeling about this,’ I admit to my husband. ‘I can’t shake it.’
Frederik lets out a sigh, but I’m not paranoid. My fears are entrenched in something very real.
‘I know Scott didn’t hurt his grandmother and it’s insane for someone to suggest it,’ I say. ‘But if Haven’s accusation about Scott gets to the police, I fear they will take it seriously based on what he did in the past.’
Frederik knows exactly what I am talking about.
‘No,’ he says. ‘That was a long time ago and it was completely different.’
‘It was violent conduct and it could be used as proof that he has a temper and is prone to outbursts of violence.’
‘It was a drunken fight outside a pub when he was eighteen years old,’ Frederik cries. ‘He wasn’t the first young guy to drink one too many beers and end up in a fight, and he won’t be the last.’
‘But he got a criminal record. He punched someone who ended up in hospital. Scott was charged. Yes, he didn’t go to prison, but there will be a record of it, and it will come up if Haven gives the police a reason to look at him again.’
‘No self-respecting police officer is going to think that somebody who has a fight outside with his mates when he was a teenager is then capable of murder ten years later. Scott, like most people, was a fool at eighteen. But now he is a grown-up, hard-working, respected member of society and that’s what the police will care about, which is why they will dismiss this silly notion that he is a murderer, just like we have already done. ’
I want to believe my husband. I want to believe it could be as easy as that.
But the fact is, Scott is not perfect. He made a mistake in the past, albeit a drunken mistake that some other men his age might make, and while nobody died, he can’t claim to have a flawless history.
I hope Haven doesn’t know about it or it would only strengthen her resolve in thinking that Scott is a bad guy.
But surely Joel hasn’t told her what his older brother did a decade ago.
It’s barely worth mentioning. We’ve all moved on, Scott in particular.
He’s more ashamed than anybody that he once got so drunk that he punched someone and they needed the care of a paramedic.
He is not that guy anymore and he is certainly not a murderer.
‘I just want this to be over,’ I say to my husband as we start walking again.
‘I know,’ he replies. ‘Hopefully it will be.’
With no way of knowing that for sure, we complete the rest of our walk in worried silence. Meanwhile, Haven is out there somewhere, with my youngest son, probably living her best life as they discuss what to spend the inheritance money on.
That young woman is wreaking havoc wherever she goes.
What will she do next?