Who Killed Ruby?
Page 23
‘Hayley!’ Vivienne calls to her as they get out.
Hayley looks up and waves, and as they approach they hear her directing two other men where to take a sofa they’re carrying between them.
When Viv reaches her she hugs her warmly. ‘Thank you so much for your help. You’ve been bloody amazing.’
Hayley grins and turns to Samar and Cleo. ‘Exciting, isn’t it? The start of your new life?’
At this Samar smiles grimly. ‘Christ, I bloody hope so.’
For the next few hours the four of them work hard, unpacking boxes, directing the removal men and slowly getting the house in order. They’re taking a break in the kitchen when there’s a knock at the door. Viv looks at Samar in surprise. ‘Are you expecting someone?’ she asks.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll get it!’ Hayley hurries from the room.
When she returns she has three other people in tow. Vivienne’s jaw drops. ‘Oh my God,’ she whispers. ‘I don’t believe it!’
Standing in front of her are Jo, Christine and Sandra. ‘Hayley said there might be a celebration in order!’ Jo says, holding up two bottles of champagne and grinning broadly.
Vivienne falls on her unexpected visitors in delight. ‘It’s so lovely of you to come,’ she says as she hugs them all warmly. ‘I don’t know what to say! I can’t believe you’re here!’
After she’s introduced the women to Cleo and they have all been reunited with Samar, the seven of them sit at the kitchen table, smiling at each other over their glasses of champagne. Jo, in her late fifties now, is rosy-faced and comfortably plump, her olive skin shining with health. ‘Hayley told us that you were in touch,’ she says to Viv. ‘We couldn’t wait to see you again.’ She hesitates then adds, ‘We were so sorry to hear about what you’ve been through – and about your mother.’
The other women nod. ‘We couldn’t believe it,’ Sandra says, glancing at Christine. ‘I don’t think we’ll ever forgive ourselves for not realizing what Stella was really like. She had us completely fooled.’
‘We only wish we’d helped you back then,’ Christine adds quietly.
Viv smiles at them gratefully. Only Samar and Cleo know the whole truth about Stella – Viv will never tell another soul about how Ruby really died. But she had told Hayley enough about her and Ruby’s childhood to ensure that, when it came to Stella, the scales had well and truly fallen from her eyes.
After Viv has assured them that their apologies are not needed, Jo pours them some more champagne and as if by mutual agreement, that’s the last they talk of Stella, each of them keen to keep the day as one of celebration and reunion. Instead, Christine and Sandra tell Cleo what the commune had been like, Jo and Hayley joining in with anecdotes and stories that Viv has long forgotten. For a time those days of camaraderie and awakening come flooding back. Viv listens with delight, affirmation that not all of her past had been something to regret, that there were people who loved her, times of real happiness too.
Later, after Samar has gone out for more wine and Viv is ordering pizza for everyone, there’s another ring on the doorbell and when Jo goes to answer it she returns a few minutes later with a new visitor in tow. When Viv hangs up the phone and looks around, her heart shoots to her mouth at the sight of the elderly woman who enters the room with a walking stick. ‘Margo,’ she whispers.
When Margo reaches her she takes both of Vivienne’s hands in hers. ‘Hayley invited me, I hope you don’t mind …?’
Mutely Viv shakes her head and Margo stands back, drinking her in. ‘Well, look at you,’ she says. ‘What a beautiful woman you’ve become. Just as I always knew you would.’
‘I can’t believe you’re here,’ Viv says, ‘I’ve thought of you so often lately … I guess you heard about everything.’
Margo nods. ‘Yes, I did, and I’m so sorry.’
‘This is my daughter,’ Vivienne tells her, as Cleo comes forward and shyly says hello.
The other women come to Margo, then, embracing her, everyone talking at once as they sit down at the table. When the pizza arrives and the wine is opened and conversation fills the air, the women reminisce with such fondness and laughter it is as though Nunhead and Unity House was only yesterday, and still Viv can’t take her eyes off Margo.
Eventually, when Cleo offers to show the others around the new house, the two of them are left alone together.
‘Come and sit by me,’ Margo says.
When Vivienne goes to her she blurts, ‘I’m so sorry that I didn’t believe you back then, Margo. I know that Stella planted those things in your room. She was jealous, I think. She never could stand me being close to anyone but her. But I’m so sorry that you had to leave, that she treated you like that.’ She blinks away tears. ‘I’m so sorry about all of it.’
Margo puts a hand on her arm. ‘It’s I who should be sorry, I’ve felt terrible for all these years that I left you to that woman.’
‘Did you know all along about her?’ Viv asks.
Margo sighs. ‘I’ve never disliked anyone on sight the way I did Stella. There was something I sensed about her from the start – the way she was with you disturbed me, and I wanted more than anything to try to show you that there was more to life – more to you – than her control.’ She smiles sadly. ‘But my influence could only go so far: she was as wary of me as I was of her. I think she knew that I saw through her.’ She pauses. ‘I don’t blame you for what happened, I never have. Just like I never blamed any of the other women for being taken in by her. Your mother was a master manipulator, but I trusted that one day you would see the truth and I was right.’
‘But why didn’t you deny it, when it happened?’ Viv asks, her eyes searching the other woman’s face. ‘Why did you leave the way you did when it wasn’t you who’d stolen those things? Why didn’t you tell me then that it was Stella who’d put them there?’
Margo shrugs. ‘Sometimes you have to wait until a person’s ready to hear the truth. When we were all standing there in my room that day, when your mother pulled those things from my drawer, I had a decision to make. I could take the blame myself or tear your whole world apart and force you to see what Stella was like. Hayley has told me a little of the childhood you endured, and if I’d known the full extent of your mother’s abuse I would have done everything I could to get you away from her, but I had no idea – and you were so young, so vulnerable … I could see you needed to trust in your mother’s goodness, and I didn’t think you would have believed me.’ She sighs. ‘Besides, I was ready to go, I’d been thinking of moving on for a while, it seemed the right thing to do at the time.’
There is the sound of footsteps on the stairs, Cleo calling, ‘Come and see the garden, it’s massive,’ and Vivienne and Margo smile as the others troop out after her.
A silence falls between them and Viv wants to tell Margo that a small terrified part of her had always known the truth about Ruby’s death, had spent her life refusing to let herself believe it. Miranda’s therapy had worked so easily because it was only when Cleo’s life was in danger that she allowed herself to face it. But as she meets Margo’s gaze she understands that, though Margo doesn’t know the full, horrifying extent of her mother’s wickedness, she has guessed that there’s far more to her and Stella’s estrangement than the explanation Viv had given Hayley. Vivienne puts her head in her hands and begins to cry, then, and Margo draws her close and puts her arms around her. She smells in the folds of her clothes and in the scent of her skin that recognizable Margo smell she’d known so many years ago.
After a while, when Vivienne has dried her tears she says, ‘I still have days when I think I will never ever get over what happened, that I can’t forgive myself for not saving my sister. I sometimes think that it will never let me go, that I’m not strong enough to bear it.’ She glances up at Margo. ‘And Cleo is doing so well, but for months it didn’t look like she would ever recover from what that bastard did to her. I was terrified she’d be destroyed by it, and it killed me to watch her su
ffer. She’s so much better now but sometimes I’m frightened that neither of us will ever truly move on from it all.’
Margo is silent for a while as she strokes Vivienne’s hair, and then she says, ‘When I met you at Unity House I saw a little girl who had been through such unimaginable trauma, who had lost everything she knew and loved, yet had emerged with the courage and strength to be one of the sweetest, most curious, most loving children I’d ever met. You are still that person, Vivienne. And you have brought up a daughter to be a strong, incredibly brave young woman too. Nothing can take that from you. You will survive this. You might not think so yet, but you will, both of you.’
After a while the two women rise together and, going to the window, look out at Cleo, Samar and the others chatting on the lawn. Quietly, Viv asks Margo, ‘That charm, from your bracelet. The one you left in your room for me to find. What did the symbol engraved upon it mean?’
Margo smiles. ‘Freedom. It means freedom. I knew you’d find it sooner or later.’
They go outside to join Cleo, Samar and the four women who have arrived out of Viv’s childhood to be made miraculously real; flesh and blood and kindness and quiet strength solid against the hazy summer evening sky. Cleo looks up from laughing at something Jo has said and, seeing her mother standing there with her hand outstretched, crosses the lawn towards her and takes it in her own.
Keep Reading …
Enjoyed Who Killed Ruby? Make sure you’ve read Camilla Way’s previous novels:
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Beth has always known there was something strange about her daughter, Hannah. The lack of emotion, the disturbing behaviour, the apparent delight in hurting others … sometimes Beth is scared of her, and what she could be capable of.
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Click here to order a copy of The Lies We Told
BEFORE
Edie is the friend that Heather has always craved. But one night, it goes terrifyingly wrong. And what started as an innocent friendship ends in two lives being destroyed.
AFTER
Sixteen years later, Edie is still rebuilding her life. But Heather isn’t ready to let her forget so easily. It’s no coincidence that she shows up when Edie needs her most.
NOW
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Someone has to pay for what happened, but who will it be?
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Acknowledgements
My thanks to Julia Wisdom, Kathryn Cheshire, Anne O’Brien and the rest of the fantastic team at HarperCollins UK. Huge thanks also to my agent Hellie Ogden at Janklow & Nesbit UK. Thank you to Dr Laura Haigh, Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes and Marcus Jones for their invaluable advice, and to Alex Cree for reading and critiquing along the way. Finally, big love and thanks as ever to David Holloway.
About the Author
Camilla Way was formerly an editor on the style magazine Arena and has written for Stylist, Elle and the Guardian. She is now a full-time writer and lives in south-east London with her partner and twin boys.
@CamillaLWay
Also by Camilla Way
The Lies We Told
Watching Edie
The Dead of Summer
Little Bird
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