by K. L. Slater
He asks me to put everything in an email and send it to him personally.
When I end the call, I sit for a moment with my head in my hands. My first thought is that I’ve hit yet another brick wall but it’s swiftly followed by a far more troubling conclusion.
If George didn’t in fact speak to Mr Romano as he’d said, then did he actually care enough about our children’s safety to report the incident at all?
Forty-Four
George gets home later than expected. Something about him makes me take pause. He has a sort of confidence, a swagger that I haven’t noticed before.
His manner reminds me of how Joel used to act on occasion. He’d say he’d had a good day at work but of course, with hindsight, I know now he’d probably been with his ‘other’ woman.
‘You look very pleased with yourself,’ I say lightly.
‘I’ve had a good day.’ He beams. ‘Confirmation of my interview for the promotion for starters and then an interesting meeting after work with a colleague. My kind of day!’
It’s a shame I’m about to wipe the smile off his face but I can’t waste time fretting about that. Some things just have to be said.
‘I’ve been busy myself today.’
‘Oh yes? What’ve you been up to?’
And so I tell him about the altercation with Opal outside the café.
‘What the hell were you thinking of?’ George puts down his glass of wine with a hard clunk and tiny drops of the thick red liquid within leap up towards the rim. ‘I told you not to have any contact at all with her.’
‘I know what you told me, but I came out of the café and she accosted me! I barely said a word to her.’ I feel the tears stacking up behind my eyes. This feels so frustrating and unfair. ‘Something’s got to be done here. She’s making our lives a misery.’ The first tears plop down my cheeks and I try to sniff the others back.
George claps his hand to his forehead. ‘Sorry. I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s just… I could do without it, Darcy. If this interview goes well, I’m on the cusp of being offered the job, and Opal could go off on one and completely ruin it for me.’
‘I know your job is important to you, but you seem to have lost sight of everything else… stuff that’s far more important than work – our kids’ safety!’
‘The children aren’t at risk. I don’t know how many times I need to tell you that.’
‘Is that why you didn’t report the incident at the lodge park to the manager?’
A beat of silence, and I swear the room temperature drops a degree.
‘What are you talking about?’ He stares at me, baffled.
Now I’ve no choice but to come clean. Even though I feel my actions are thoroughly reasonable, I still feel a bit of a weasel for not telling him what I intended doing.
‘I rang the police to ask advice about the situation,’ I say.
‘Please tell me you’re joking.’
But this is no joking matter. I feel a resolve growing inside. I did the right thing, despite what George says.
‘I rang the non-emergency number, that’s all. You won’t discuss the situation and I’m beside myself, constantly on edge and watchful of the kids.’
‘And what happened? Absolutely nothing, I expect. They weren’t interested when I approached them, I already told you that.’
‘They said we need to keep an incident log. It makes sense when you think about it.’
He stares at the wall and doesn’t comment, but I’m undaunted.
‘So I thought it might be a good idea to ask the lodge park manager to send over an email confirming your report of an intruder.’ I’m trying to keep my voice level, but his continued lack of response is getting to me. ‘I spoke to Mr Romano, the manager you said you reported it to, and he told me he was on annual leave at the time. Plus there’s no record of the incident on the park’s computer system.’
He turns and looks at me then, his eyes full of disappointment.
‘And so your instant conclusion was that I’m a liar, is that it?’ He looks down at his hands, clasped in front of him between his knees, and shakes his head slowly.
‘What was I supposed to think?’ I cry out. ‘You won’t discuss Opal with me, you don’t seem to care that our children might be in danger. I’m at the end of my tether with it all.’
I’m suddenly both afraid of losing him but determined to push him on the issue, whatever the outcome might be.
His reaction is calm and considered.
‘I asked to speak to Mr Romano because his picture was up in reception as the general manager. And I did speak to a man, but I never thought to ask, “Are you Mr Romano?” I was worrying about getting back to the lodge to make sure you were all safe. I’m sorry if you think I misled you.’
‘I… It’s just he said there was no record of it on the computer, and—’
‘The place was in chaos when I got over there!’ George objects. ‘Santa Claus outside on his sleigh waiting to get the all-clear, elves and reindeer hanging around the place… They didn’t know whether they were coming or going.’
I press my lips together. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious. But George has put his point over well. Maybe there is a chance his chat with the manager was overlooked.
‘I understand it’s a massive dilemma for you, George, hoping Opal will just give up so your career isn’t affected, but this has gone on for too long. Things have escalated and I think it’s a good time to take her power away.’ I keep my voice level, trying to appeal to his logical nature. ‘Look, I know this will probably sound crazy to you, but have you considered coming clean about the operation?’
‘What operation? What are you talking about?’ He stands up quickly.
I stare at him steadily. ‘The operation where you made an error of judgement and a man died?’ I say, deadpan. ‘I thought that’s what she was holding over you?’
He’s pacing up and down. I’ve never seen him this flustered. ‘I don’t know, Darcy. I can’t think straight at the moment.’
‘Is there something else, George? Something you’re not telling me? Because I—’
‘No!’ He spins around and faces me, his eyes wild. ‘There’s nothing else, I swear. Just leave it, can’t you?’
I stand up. ‘No, actually. I can’t leave it. I care too much about my boys and I care too much about Romy, too. You’ve lost sight of what’s important here, George. It’s time to stand up to her.’
‘Don’t lecture me about what’s important. I’ve spent my whole life standing up to people who’ve tried to put me down from as far back as my schooldays, and now it seems you’ve joined their ranks.’
‘What? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m on your side… our side!’
‘Are you, Darcy? Are you really?’ He stands still and whips around to glare at me. ‘Maybe you have secrets of your own.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ My armpits flood with perspiration. My heart feels like a battering ram in my chest as I push away the stuff that fills my head.
He stands there silently for a moment, as if he’s deciding whether to answer me or not.
‘I suppose what I’m saying is that sometimes it feels like you’re playing a part on the outside.’ He fixes me with a look. ‘As if you’re not quite the same person on the inside.’
Before I can reply, he strides across the room and slams the door behind him.
I sit aghast, staring out of the window. And I don’t move when George gets into his car and zooms off, scattering gravel everywhere.
The most shocking thing to me is that I think he might know about the one thing I’m so desperate to keep hidden. But how?
Forty-Five
They’d been laughing so hard playing the board game that Kane had ended up having a coughing fit. Harrison waited to make sure his brother didn’t need his inhaler. When he was sure he was OK, he left the room.
‘Stay here, I’ll go get us some juice,’ Harrison said.
They were having a great
time here at Grandma and Grandad’s house. It felt like being at home now, seeing as their old home, where his dad had lived with them, had been left behind.
George’s house was really nice and the garden was even bigger than his grandparents’. George had put in some really cool goalposts to make them feel welcome, which had been kind of him, but it still didn’t feel like it was their garden.
Maria looked after them quite a bit now. She was kind and easy to fool; she didn’t seem to mind how much television they watched and didn’t impose a thirty-minute gaming slot like their mum did. She spent a lot of time doing crafts with Romy.
Harrison felt certain something weird had happened between the adults, but nobody discussed it with them. In a way, it felt like he and his brother had been forgotten about.
Even his bedroom felt as if it belonged to someone else, but his mum had said it would make a big difference when it was decorated the way he wanted it.
Some things had gotten better, though, since they’d moved in with George and Romy.
For one thing, his mum didn’t sit for hours staring at her laptop now. Harrison had peeked over her shoulder a couple of times, and it was always the same woman’s photos she was staring at.
She went out more and smiled more and had started teaching more yoga classes, which seemed to make her happy. He was glad. He wanted his mum to be happy.
As he neared the bottom of the stairs, he heard lowered voices coming from the kitchen. Instinctively he lightened his footfall and crept down the rest of the way quietly.
One thing he’d learned was that when adults tucked themselves away and lowered their voices, they were usually talking about something that wasn’t meant for the ears of kids.
Which obviously meant it was going to be interesting.
He sidestepped the giveaway creaking middle bit of the third step from the bottom, and finally his socked feet reached the smooth polished floorboards of the hallway.
Padding up to the kitchen door, which was ajar, Harrison stopped to listen. He could hear the faint sound of the ride-on mower, which meant his grandad was still up at the top end of the garden, so there was little risk of being caught eavesdropping here.
He relaxed a little and leaned his head on the door frame, listening to Grandma and Aunt Steph’s hoarse whispers.
‘But I know she thinks the world of those boys,’ he heard his grandma say. Her voice sounded sad.
‘I know, but that’s not the issue, Mum. The concern is how competent she is to look after them.’ That was Aunt Steph. ‘She’s clearly still in denial and I doubt that’s going to change now. We haven’t helped matters, playing along with her delusion all this time.’
‘I told you, if it means seeing the kids, I’ll keep doing it.’
Harrison frowned. It sounded like they were talking about him and Kane, but who was in denial? And competent to look after the kids… what did that even mean?
‘George seems like a lovely man; she’s struck gold there. Perhaps he’ll have a positive influence on her.’ Grandma again, still sounding troubled.
‘Maybe, but he isn’t their father, is he? We’re their flesh and blood, the closest thing to Joel they’ve got left. It’s down to us to protect his memory.’
They were talking about George, his mum and even their dad. It felt to Harrison like his mum should be here, included in the conversation.
Aunt Steph sounded like she didn’t really like George, and that gave Harrison a strange sort of satisfaction, because even though George had been kind and welcoming to them, it was true what she said: he wasn’t their dad. He never would be.
But he got a slight tummy ache when he thought they might be saying bad things about his mum.
Harrison couldn’t be sure they were, because they were talking in that weird code that adults sometimes used amongst themselves. They seemed to just understand each other without saying everything in full detail. It was a bit like a riddle.
He heard his Aunt Steph sigh.
‘Anyway, you’re meeting Dani for coffee tomorrow morning. I think that might be the best way to sort the whole sorry mess out. And when Darcy comes over for lunch, we’ll tell her then.’
Danny… who was he? Aunt Steph’s boyfriend was called Dave. What if… Harrison frowned. It was all getting too confusing but Harrison thought he might mention what he’d overheard to his mum. She had a right to know they’d been whispering about her, right?
He heard feet shuffling in the kitchen and dashed back to the stairs.
When the door opened and Aunt Steph came out, he was just jumping off the bottom step.
‘I’ve come to get juice,’ he said hurriedly.
‘Everything OK, champ?’ She grinned, high-fiving him as he passed.
‘Yes thanks, Aunt Steph,’ he said, more brightly than he felt. ‘Everything is fine.’
Forty-Six
As agreed with Steph, I drive over to Brenda’s house for lunch. I park up and reach the front door, and I’m surprised when it opens and Leonard appears.
‘Oh, hello.’ I smile. ‘I thought you were playing golf today.’
Leonard’s attempt as a smile falls short and his lips stretch into a grimace.
‘We’ve had… there’s been a change of plan,’ he mumbles, tapping his fingertips on the door frame.
‘Is everything all right, Leonard?’ The more I look at him, the more jumpy I see he is. There are dark shadows under his eyes, and he looks a bit of a strange colour.
‘Everything is fine. I’ve got this, Dad.’ Steph appears from behind him. ‘Come through, Darcy.’
Something’s wrong. Steph’s acting a bit formal and Leonard’s just being plain weird. As Steph closes the front door, I walk into the kitchen to find Brenda standing by the open window, drawing in great breaths of cold air. To top it all, when Steph returns from the hallway, I see that Dave is with her. It’s a full house. Unheard of.
‘What’s this? Some kind of family meeting?’ I laugh, although I feel a bit miffed. It’s not the casual girlie lunch Steph told me it was going to be. Anyway, there’s no sign of any food and the kitchen table isn’t set.
Nobody else joins in with my light-hearted banter.
‘We’ve been concerned about you for a long time now, Darcy,’ Steph begins, obviously the appointed spokesperson. ‘But it seems now that things are getting worse.’
‘We’re all worried about Kane and Harrison,’ Dave pipes up, earning himself a hard stare from Steph, which he appears to ignore. ‘They seem quieter than usual, and we wondered if you meeting George and moving in with him so fast has been the best thing for them in the circumstances.’
I look at him, incredulous. This man, who barely shifts his gaze from the television if I pop round to Steph’s, has said more words to me in the last five seconds than he usually does in a whole month.
‘I never realised you took so much interest in the boys, Dave. I’m impressed.’
His face reddens and he opens his mouth to say something else.
‘Dave. Don’t,’ Steph says through her teeth.
I look at them then, in turn. ‘You’re actually all worried? You don’t think they’re well-adjusted enough to cope with me having a new relationship?’
They all have the grace to look away from my laser stare.
‘You think I’ve just torn them from their old home without properly discussing their feelings on the matter?’
‘Is it true the children were nearly abducted at Christmas by someone lurking in the woods near your lodge?’ Brenda’s voice is strained, and she moves away from the window and sits down heavily on a small wooden stool in the corner of the kitchen. ‘Harrison told us all about it. Apparently there was some woman hanging around. He even thought he’d seen someone watching him in the school playground. Is all this true, Darcy?’
‘Sounds like stalking to me,’ Steph remarks.
My heart begins to pound. George and I have obviously been speaking far too openly in front of the boys. I
feel sick at the thought that Opal might have been at their school, though. Why on earth didn’t Harrison say anything to me?
‘The lodge park management assured us nothing was amiss, and the park had full security.’ I’m trying to strike a balance between being affronted and reassuring them, but it’s not working. My words sound forced and an octave too high. ‘There was no evidence to suggest someone was targeting our kids.’
‘Well, Harrison still sounded nervous about it,’ Brenda says, and I kick myself for not having sat down properly and talked to him about it. ‘He says that all kinds of strange things have been happening. That you received some flowers that George dumped in the bin, and that you told George some woman had accosted you outside a café.’
I’ve underestimated Harrison’s ability to understand stuff that’s happening. He’s nearly eleven years old, not a baby any more. I should have explained things to him so he wasn’t unnerved; it might have avoided a situation like this.
‘Right, well if you’ve all finished passing judgement, I’ll get off.’ I turn around to leave, but Dave blocks my exit. ‘Excuse me,’ I say icily.
‘Take this with you then.’ He pushes a thick white envelope towards me. I stare at it, bemused.
‘Take it!’ Steph glowers.
They’re closing in on me like pack rats. I feel my chest tighten, and my breathing becomes faster, shallower.
I realise Leonard is standing back from the others and hasn’t said a word.
‘Leonard,’ I say, my voice rising. ‘What the hell is this?’
‘Just take it, Darcy,’ he says, sounding worn out. ‘It’s for the best.’
Dave waves the envelope in front of me again, and then Steph snatches it from him and shoves it into my open handbag.
‘We’re applying for custody of the boys, permanently this time,’ Brenda says, gently, almost regretfully. ‘You’re not in a fit state to take care of them, Darcy.’
‘What?’ I laugh, but inside I feel like my insides have just liquidated.
‘We know what you’ve been up to, stalking Daniela online and even going to her house when Joel died! All these years you’ve been an obsessive stalker yourself.’ Brenda shakes her head and I turn to glare at Steph, but she won’t meet my eyes. ‘And now there’s some crazy woman shadowing the family. This can’t be good for the boys. You must see that.’
