“It’s fine,” Minnie cut in, the edges of her voice as sharp and steely as a razor blade, her smile wide and unmoving as ever. Her eyes flitted towards her parents. “I know that people can be… misled at times. Not believing the truth. Coming to their own conclusions which ultimately make no sense.”
Her words hung still in the air for a moment, falling over the estranged family like spiked snowflakes.
Julie glanced up at Ronnie, swallowed. The sweet, composed demeanour previously fixed onto her perfectly made-up face cracked suddenly. Her brow furrowed. She jabbed a long, wrinkled finger in his direction.
“This is all your fault,” she said coldly. “If she hadn’t gotten all mixed up with you all those years ago…brainwashing her when she was so young and so vulnerable…”
At that, without warning, in just one quick, swift movement, Minnie slapped her mother across the face so hard that a bright red hand mark blazed on the woman’s powdery white cheek. She gasped in shock, the noise of the smack seeming to echo over and over in their ears.
Tears glistened in Minnie’s eyes. “He didn’t brainwash me, Mum. You turned your back on me. You turned your back on your grandson. We were attacked that night, so I stabbed that bastard in defence. Then instead of supporting me, you just wanted to bury your head in the sand. Sweep it all under the carpet. Blame Ron for the murder and abort my unborn baby.”
“Oh, charming!” Zach scoffed, folding his arms tightly over his chest. “Cheers, Grandma.”
“You don’t know the shit we went through,” said Minnie solemnly, shaking her head as dark, tainted memories ran through her mind like a hazy nightmare. “Shit, we went through because we were running. Because we had to.”
“You could have come back,” Julie protested feebly, rubbing her cheek. “We’d have taken you in. No matter what. Even with a baby.”
Her daughter laughed, steely eyes glassy as she stared scathingly up at the woman who had one day been her entire universe. Before they’d entered her old family home, she had wondered if seeing her mother would make all of those old feelings return. In fact, she’d been frightened. Scared that seeing her family would fix the sickness that had been growing and growing inside her for all of these years. Make her a human again. Soft and fragile. Weak and pathetic.
“I’m so glad that we didn’t,” she said truthfully, relishing the sadness that then swam in her mother’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Ross, I think we need to go.”
Before Ross could open his mouth to protest, Paul appeared again in the doorway, his face contorted into a confused frown. Stark panic decorated the edges of his darkened expression whilst his breaths came in short, rapid puffs from his lips as though he had been moving quickly.
“Where’s Annie?”
“What do you mean where is she?”
“I left her in the hallway to play with the other little girl…” said Julie, momentarily distracted from the family drama that was ruining her reunion. “Maybe they went upstairs or in the garden?”
Paul shook his head, “I’ve checked.”
“Maybe Flo took your girl out to see our RV,” suggested Ronnie brightly, glad for an excuse to leave the house. “I’ll go and check. I better check on the dog anyway.” He got up from his chair, his keys jangling in his hand and cold tea left untouched. As he went, he smirked at the wistful gazes of his children, all clearly keen to get the fuck out of the place as well. Much to his annoyance, as he passed him, he became aware of Paul walking along behind him, like a security guard escorting a snot-nosed teenage shoplifter.
“Chill out, mate,” he found himself saying as they formed a sort-of two-man convoy out in the hallway that led back to the front door. “I’m sure Allie is fine.”
“Annie,” snapped Paul, “and forgive me for being concerned.”
Rolling his eyes, Ronnie reached the front door and pulled the handle. He supposed the girl had been adopted, and Paul and Ross had gone through an incredibly long, painful journey to get a baby. Probably why the guy was so overprotective. The thought made Ronnie feel pleased. Ross was okay because he knew that Minnie loved him, but he’d already decided that Paul was a cunt. Images of slashing the bloke’s throat with a jagged shard of glass until blood splattered from his jugular and soaked onto his tongue like melted butter sent a shiver of pleasure down his spine.
Chapter Fifty-one
Summer, 2000
Being screwed was fine.
Obviously, it definitely wasn’t, but Minnie had endured it enough over the last year, so it almost felt like just another part of a routine. Her first instinct, as the disgusting monster who had enslaved her forced himself upon her, was to disassociate. To escape the confines of her own skull and float up into the air, above her own physical body like a ghost hovering above the horrific scene.
But she stopped herself.
Zach’s tiny face crept up into her head.
When she’d snuck in, she’d had no option but to leave the baby in Willa’s car, tucked away in blankets on the back seat. She couldn’t let Steve kill her. She couldn’t leave her son.
So she focused harder than ever. She did her best to ignore the screams of intense pain that reverberated down her arms from her snapped wrists and blinked around at her surroundings. Steve was groaning, slamming himself repeatedly into her, violating her body as if he owned it.
There was only a matter of time before he stopped, and she knew it would be all over. Not just for her, but for Ronnie and Zach as well.
She’d be fucking damned if she went through everything her shit show of a life had thrown at her over the last year, just to lose it all again.
One moment she was gazing up at the ceiling, her brain whirring at a thousand miles
