Page 60 of It Will Always Be You
And beside him—Jen. A much younger Jen, barely more than a girl herself, with a swollen belly and vacant eyes.
“Oh my God,” I gasp. The words feel foreign, like someone else is saying them. My legs buckle, and I grab the back of the nearest chair to stay upright.
“I know,” Donna says, her voice softening. “She was so young—too young.”
“No, Donna… it’s not that.” My voice breaks. “I know that man.”
She goes still, brows knitting together. “Youwhat?”
I can’t answer.
I push away from the table, panic clawing at my chest. Pacing the length of the room like a caged animal, I fight the rising tide of nausea. Every beat of my heart feels like it’s thudding against something hollow.
The past is no longer buried—it’s clawing its way up, screaming.
“Helen—breathe,” Donna says urgently. “Come on, you’ve got to breathe. Don’t you dare pass out on me. If you make me tell Jonathan I broke you, he’ll kill me. Then Jack will kill him. And then the kids will kill all of us. Is that what you want?”
A breathless laugh escapes me despite the tremor in my hands. I collapse onto the couch beside her, head in my hands. My lungs feel like they’ve been wrapped in barbed wire.
“He was Freya’s owner,” I whisper.
Silencecrashes between us. Donna goes completely still.
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Jesus, Helen…” she breathes, her voice low and stunned. “This is going to change everything.”
“I know.”
“We have to tell them.”
“Have you told Jack?”
“Not yet. I wasn’t sure you’d believe me until you saw it. But now... God, Helen. What if Ciaran doesn’t know who she really is? What if none of them do? That photo... It’s damning. Doesn’t matter what the truth behind it is—it’s enough to burn everything to the ground.”
“Ciaran needs to know,” I murmur, each word a lead weight in my mouth. “And Lily... what if she has no idea? What if she’s just collateral in all this?”
“That’s what scares me most,” Donna admits. “She’s just a kid. But she’s tied to this now—by blood, by proximity. And if Jen’s up to something, it might already be too late.”
“I’ll talk to him tonight.”
After she leaves, I pull myself together and head to Cora’s house—desperate for a moment of normalcy, some kind of emotional anchor.
Lily opens the door, beaming, with April perched happily on her hip. She greets me with a laugh, her cheeks flushed, completely unaware of the inferno that’s coming.
I try to match her energy. I really do. But my mind keeps spinning.
Does she know what her mother’s done? Is that why she’s afraid of her? Or is she just another girl who’s never had a real chance?
I look at her—so young, so warm—and all I can do is hope.
Hope that when the truth comes out, she isn’t the one who pays for it.
Because if I’ve learned anything... it’s that the sins of the parent have a long reach.
And too often, it’s the children who bleed.
