Page 127 of The Half Sister

‘Youwere the instigator!’ Lauren shouts. ‘You didn’t wantmymistake to upset the equilibrium of the perfect family you thought you had?’

‘It wasn’t aboutme,’ 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 forallof us.’

‘Except it sentmeoff the rails, and yourhusbandinto 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.’

‘Don’t you dare!’ hisses Kate. ‘Don’t you dare try and justify your actions by blaming him. All he ever wanted to do was help people.’

Rose laughs bitterly. ‘Oh yes, he was very good at helping people, especially women whose husbands were beating them up. Your father liked to play the martyr and be on hand for his clients when they came out of hospital.’

‘Are you referring to my mother?’ asks Jess.

Kate had almost forgotten she was there.

Rose looks at Jess – her eyes silently sayingyes.

‘So, youdidknow my mother?’ says Jess.

‘I knewofyour mother,’ says Rose, correcting her.

‘Who are you lying for?’ asks Jess. ‘Your husband or yourself?’

‘Your father was going to leave us to be with Julia,’ says Rose, looking directly at Kate. ‘He wanted to be with her and the baby and there was nothing I could do to make him see sense.’

If it were possible for blood to freeze, Kate imagines this is what it would feel like. ‘He would never have left us!’ she shouts. ‘You know he wouldn’t!’

‘Thisis why I didn’t want to tell you anything,’ cries Rose. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you. I was only ever trying to protect you from knowing what your father was really like. But the reality was that he and Julia were going to make a new life together in London, with the baby.’ She throws Jess a disdainful look.

‘So what happened?’ presses Jess, when it looks like Rose has offered all that she’s going to.

‘Th-that was it,’ stutters Rose. ‘Your mother was killed and I presumed it was by her husband who found out what she was planning to do.’

Kate looks at her mother paralysed with fear on the floor. She can’t tell whether it’s because Jess is holding her grandson hostage, or she knows she’s sitting on a ticking timebomb.

‘The police are going to be crawling all over this now,’ says Jess. ‘And I’ll make sure that they don’t rest until they find out who killed my mother. So if there’s anything you’re not telling me...’ Jess raises the knife, her eyes never leaving Rose.

‘Okay, okay!’ calls out Rose, closing her eyes and shaking her head, as if trying to dislodge a deeply buried memory. ‘Harry packed his bags and said he was leaving – I pleaded with him not to go, but his mind was made up. When he got to Julia’s, she said she couldn’t do it – that her husband had found out and threatened to kill her and the baby if she went.’

Tears fall onto Rose’s cheek and Noah turns to look at his nana, momentarily forgetting the hostile situation he finds himself in. ‘What’s wrong, Nana?’ he asks, innocently, dabbing at her cheek with the sleeve of his top.

‘Please Jess, let me take him,’ says Lauren, falling onto her knees. ‘None of this is the children’s fault.’

‘Go on!’ barks Jess, ignoring her.

‘They rowed,’ says Rose, ‘and there was a scuffle. Harry said that she lost her footing and fell, hitting her head as she went down.’

A stunned silence descends on the room.

‘Howcouldyou!’ cries Kate. ‘How could you make up such wicked lies?’ It feels as if there’s an obstruction in her airways. She closes her eyes and forces herself to breathe in for three, and out for three.

Rose’s chest heaves as she sobs. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, but it was an accident – he never meant for it to happen.’

‘So why didn’t he just call the police?’ asks Jess, almost robotically. ‘If it was an accident.’

‘Howcouldhe?’ cries Rose. ‘He was a highly regarded lawyer. Imagine the investigation that would have had to be done. He could have lost everything: his job, his family and, if they didn’t believe him, his liberty.’

‘They’d know if it was accidental,’ says Jess. ‘An accident is an accident, but murder is murder.’

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