The Half Sister(101)

Rose makes a strange noise in the back of her throat.

‘You gave us that name, hoping that it would be enough to throw us off the scent. Thinking that we’d run with it, find out she’d died and that would be the end of it.’

Rose looks at her imploringly, silently begging her to understand why.

‘So you knew all along that Jess’s mum was Julia Woods? That Dad’s lover had been murdered?’

A sob catches in Rose’s chest. ‘Yes. I just didn’t want you to find out, and start asking questions that I couldn’t answer.’

‘So what do you know about my mum?’ asks Jess.

‘Not much,’ Rose whimpers. ‘Nothing at all in fact, apart from what happened to her.’

‘And how did you find out about that?’ presses Jess.

‘From the paper, like everyone else,’ offers Rose.

‘So you and Harry never discussed what happened?’

Rose shakes her head emphatically. ‘No, never. I knew that her husband had gone on the run and I assumed he’d taken the baby with him.’

‘So even though you knew your husband was having an affair with a woman who’d been murdered, and thought his child had disappeared with someone other than its father, you never gave it another thought?’

‘Well . . . I . . . . I . . . thought it was over,’ stutters Rose.

‘So you didn’t know that my mother’s husband was cleared of any involvement?’

Rose’s eyes widen. ‘N-no, I didn’t.’

‘It didn’t occur to you to read the newspaper to keep up to date over the years?’ asks Jess sardonically. ‘It’s all there on the internet, Rose.’

Rose remains tight-lipped.

‘And now the police have a new lead, me, and they’re going to be sniffing around you and your family until they find out what really went on.’

Rose looks between Jess, Lauren and Kate, her eyes flitting wildly. ‘I only did it to protect you.’

‘We don’t need protecting,’ cries Lauren. ‘We need the truth. Because the sooner you tell it, the sooner I’ll get my babies back.’ It sounds as if Lauren’s insides are being ripped out. ‘Please, Mum.’

Rose closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. ‘Your dad wasn’t always the person you thought he was.’

Kate looks at her mother contemptuously.

‘He wasn’t always the man that you saw on the outside,’ Rose goes on. ‘He could be manipulative and controlling – that’s what made him so good at his job, but sometimes he’d bring it home with him.’

Kate shakes her head. She can’t remember a single time, not one, when her father wasn’t the most loving, caring person she could possibly imagine.

‘He was never that person,’ she says. ‘He loved us unconditionally.’

‘If everything was going his way,’ says Rose. ‘You only have to ask Lauren what he was capable of when it wasn’t. She knows how he could be.’

Kate looks to Lauren with raised eyebrows. She wonders if her sister is going to be brave enough to tell her truth.

‘Tell her,’ urges Rose, looking at Lauren. ‘Tell her what he made you do.’

‘About the abortion?’ asks Lauren.

Rose nods encouragingly.

‘You want me to say that he gave me no choice, that he manipulated the whole situation, that he called the father of my baby to tell him I’d already had the operation, when I hadn’t?’

‘Exactly,’ says Rose, looking at Kate imploringly. ‘I’m sorry, darling – I can only imagine how hard this must be for you to hear, but that’s the kind of man he could be sometimes.’

‘Except he wasn’t,’ says Lauren, choking back tears. ‘He was never that man. He was your puppet, and when you told him to jump, the only question he ever asked was, how high?’

Rose turns to look at Lauren with a confused expression.

‘I know, Mum,’ says Lauren. ‘I know you were the one behind him, pulling his strings, all the while telling me that I should do whatever I wanted to do.’

Rose shakes her head. ‘No darling, that’s not how it was. See how coercive he was? That’s what he wanted you to think. I only ever wanted you to be happy.’

‘Did you think making Justin walk away from me would make me happy?’ Lauren cries.

‘Of course not, but as much as I tried to reason with your father, sometimes I just couldn’t make him see sense. I didn’t even know that he’d called Justin, not until afterwards, when it was too late.’

Lauren rushes forward towards her mother and Kate’s hand instinctively reaches out and grabs hold of her wrist.

‘You were the instigator!’ Lauren shouts. ‘You didn’t want my mistake to upset the equilibrium of the perfect family you thought you had?’

‘It wasn’t about me,’ says Rose, aghast. ‘You were too young to be tied down with a baby, and with a boy who couldn’t support you. It was the right thing to do for all of us.’

‘Except it sent me off the rails, and your husband into the arms of another woman.’

Rose’s lip quivers and she pulls Noah and Emmy closer to her, as if goading Lauren. ‘Women were your father’s weakness.’