Page 4 of After the Accident
I shouldn’t say this, but there are times when I couldn’t bear to look at the twins. I know they’re my nieces, but, sometimes, being with them makes everything that happened before that feel so real. I’ll be fine and then I’ll hear one of them laughing and I’m back on the side of the road. It’s not their fault, I know that.
Julius:Amy and Chloe only wanted to eat ice cream. I was trying to distract them.
Emma:I gave Dad his food and he said something about the hotel’s paella being the best in the world. I wasn’t really listening because I could still hear the twins laughing. It took me out of everything for a moment. The next thing I remember is Dad banging his ring on the side of his wine glass.
Claire:I never realised that signet ring would play such a part in my life.
Emma:It’s an emerald signet ring that he always wears. Dad clinked his glass loudly enough to make everyone on the table stop talking and then he stood up. I didn’t realise how much wine he’d had, but he was already slurring his words when he spoke.
He said that we were there to celebrate his and Mum’s thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, plus Mum’s sixtieth birthday. They both wanted everyone there and they saw Daniel and Liz as family. I suppose I wondered why Mum and Dad were paying for everything if that was the case – but it was their money and I didn’t worry too much.
I can’t remember what was next, but he rambled for a while and then finished by saying: ‘Let’s eat, drink and be merry.’ He then made ading-ding-dingwith his ring on the glass again before he toasted the table.
Daniel:It was a good moment. Geoff always knew how to rouse the troops.
Emma:After that, Daniel pulled out a cigar and said he was off for a smoke. Dad looked to Mum, but she raised an eyebrow, which made it clear what she thought. Dad said ‘maybe later’ and then Daniel went off on his own.
Claire:Everything felt so much calmer after Daniel left the table.
Emma:It was only a minute or so and then Julius came across to sit in Daniel’s chair. Mum said she was so happy to have the girls with us on the island. I actually felt a bit emotional hearing that. She probably thought it was the last time we’d all be together in such a place.
Julius looked towards them at the other end of the table and then said that it almost didn’t happen. Simone didn’t want to swap weekends with him, and the girls were due to be with her. It felt like a very deliberate thing to say, if that makes sense. Like he wasn’t just talking about that week. He wanted Mum to know that Simone had always been the unreasonable one and it wasn’t his fault they’d broken up.
Julius:What kind of woman would deny someone a final holiday with their grandkids? That’s what Simone was like.
Extract of a letter received from Tite, Tite and Gaze Solicitors, on behalf of Simone McGinley:Allegations that my client tried to prevent her daughters from holidaying on Galanikos are a calculated, malicious and provable untruth.
Emma:That whole conversation was so weird.Julius said something about everything he did being for the girls. I can’t remember the exact words, but it felt as if he’d rehearsed it. You know when somebody’s heard something in a movie and they’re trying to recite it back?
Perhaps it was only me who thought that? Mum took his hand across the table and thanked him for being there. It felt like a moment between them, even though I wasn’t sure it was real.
Then Dad beckoned over a waiter and ordered two more bottles of wine. Start as you mean to go on, and all that.
Chapter Three
THE SHOW OFF
Emma:I’m not sure how it happened, but the men all disappeared.
Claire:I looked around the table and suddenly realised all the men had gone.
Emma:The twins were sitting next to Mum by this point and I didn’t know where Julius had gone. Liz was still busy complaining about a lack of signal on her phone, while Claire was taking the chance to actually eat something after Victor had disappeared. The twins were amusing themselves, so I finally took the opportunity to ask Mum why we’d specifically returned to Galanikos.
Claire:I’d literally never heard of that island before Victor told me we were invited on a family holiday. I was really confused when I found out it wasn’tVictor’s family holiday.
Vic said his dad’s business partner used to visit Galanikos every year. There was Geoff and Bethan – plus their two grown-up kids: Julius and Emma. Julius was separated but he had twin girls. That was six of them, so that’s a family, isn’t it? I could just about understand Geoff and Bethan thinking of Daniel and Liz as family, given they worked together so closely. What I never really understood was why Vic and I got to go along.
Emma:Mum said we’d had loads of good times on the island before Alan died.
Claire:We were just about to take off when Vic said that someone had died on the island nine years before and that was why everyone stopped going. If we’d been getting on better, I’d have probably asked a few more questions. You talk about red flags and they’re all there. I think I was seduced by the words ‘free holiday’ and ‘all-inclusive’. It was a bit late by then anyway.
Emma:Mum said the island was her favourite place and that she might not get a chance to return. They’d given her about eighteen months to live at that point – although she never said that specifically. Perhaps it was the truth, but, even then, I thought that it was probably Dad who wanted to go back.
I remember one Christmas before I went to prison. Julius was still with Simone and I suppose everyone was happier. We’d all gone to Mum and Dad’s house – and it was Dad who was talking about how great it would be to go back to Galanikos one day. I don’t think Mum said anything about it.
Julius:I don’t know whose idea it was to visit Galanikos specifically. It wasn’t mine. Did someone say it was?
Emma:Mum has this way of shutting down when there’s a subject she doesn’t want to talk about. If she’s into something, she’ll look you in the eye and, even if she doesn’t say anything, you can tell that she wants to know more. If she’s said or heard enough, she’ll look away and it feels like you’re a naughty child being sent out of class.
