Page 43 of The Lie
‘He raped you?’ he croaked, the word stinging his tongue.
‘No.’ Grace’s voice wobbled. ‘But he might have, if the phone hadn’t rung and I’d managed to push him off and escape.’
‘Oh, my God.’ Finch was horrified, stunned.Romy’s husband?It made his blood run cold. ‘What happened afterwards? Where did you go?’ He was trying to get his head around what his stepdaughter was saying.
‘I was staying with a school friend in town that week.’
‘And your mum?’
‘Mum was here. I didn’t see her till the weekend.’
‘But you told her?’
She bowed her head, looking defeated. ‘No.’
Puzzled, Finch asked, ‘Why ever not?’
‘I was sure she’d say I led him on. Michael was such a star, so charismatic and charming. I’d been saying this to Mum all week so I thought she’d leap to conclusions.’ She fell silent. ‘And I wondered if I had led him on. Or maybe I’d imagined the whole thing, that it wasn’t really so bad. He was just trying it on. Lots of men do that and nobody cares.’ Another pause. ‘He was so well connected, so admired, I knew if I told anyone they’d just think I was a silly girl trying to get some attention.’ Her words had taken on an almost childish tone, as if she were speaking with her teenage voice. ‘MeToo has become such a thing these days. Compared to some, my experience is minor league …’
Grace faltered and fell silent. Finch knew she would have repeated this account over and over to herself through the years as she tried to rationalize – unsuccessfully – what had happened to her. Tried to make light of it, to pretend it was no big deal.
‘You poor, poor girl,’ Finch said, wrapping his arms round the trembling figure. ‘It isn’t minor at all. Keeping it secret all these years must have been hell.’ He looked down at her. ‘So even Sam doesn’t know?’
She shook her head miserably. ‘I’ve never breathed a word to anyone till now. And I don’t see the point in involving him. He’d only be upset. And he might want to make something of it … I couldn’t bear that.’ She raised her head. ‘I will never,evergo to the police, Finch. So don’t even suggest it.’
‘I wasn’t going to,’ he said, although his blood was boiling with fury at the man. He should be made to pay, he thought. He should at least face some sort of public exposure. But the thought of what Grace would have to go through to achieve that end made him cringe.What would Nell have done?he asked himself. His wife’s imagined opinion had been the benchmark for any problem in the past. She’d been so fearless when faced with a difficult situation, tackling it head on, never taking no for an answer.
‘Your mum would definitely have believed you, Gracie. She’d never have thought you were to blame in a situation like that. You were sixteen, for God’s sake.’
Grace looked almost sullen for a second. ‘You don’t know that. I was a bit of a crazy teenager, back then. I loved attention.’ She gave an ironic smile. ‘Not any more.’
‘That’s like saying a girl deserves to be raped because she’s wearing a short skirt and has had a drink or two.’
‘Yeah, I know. But it’s different when it’s you who’s been attacked. It doesn’t seem nearly so black and white then … I don’t know, maybe he was going through a badtime – he was certainly working way too hard. Maybe he just lost it …’
‘Nothing excuses what he did, Gracie. Nothing.’
Suddenly her eyes were pleading. ‘You won’t tell Sam? Please, Finch, he can’t know. I wouldn’t have told you if it wasn’t for Romy.’
Romy …‘Of course I won’t,’ he assured her.
His mind, as soon as he was alone and Grace had gone back to her bedroom, began racing, unwelcome images flashing across his brain. He wondered what he should do with what he’d been told, how best he could help his stepdaughter. She had entrusted him with her biggest secret, her very soul, but just knowing it, Finch felt as if he’d been left balancing on a tightrope across a pitch-black chasm.
Suddenly the suspicion that had plagued him as soon as Grace made her revelation – a suspicion he was trying so desperately to evade – returned to smack him full in the face.Did Romy know? Is that why she left Michael? Has she been covering up for the man all these years?
29
Romy stood at the door of Michael’s bedroom early on Saturday morning. She was itching to get back to Sussex. And intrigued to meet Grace.
His eyes flicked momentarily from the television screen, then back to what he was watching, a twitch around his mouth his only welcome. The room was in curtained darkness, although she had heard the noise of the TV through the wall since dawn. She glanced at the screen. A man lay flat on his back outside what looked like a small but elaborate mausoleum, a dark pool of blood spreading across the marble under his head. As she watched, the shot panned out, music swelled and the screen faded to black.
‘Did he deserve it?’ Romy asked, as Michael finally tore his gaze away from the television, a smile on his face.
‘Oh, definitely. He’d had a child killed, so he had to go. A thoroughgoing bastard.’ He sounded so satisfied that Romy smiled as she watched him pull himself awkwardly up in bed and glance at the bedside clock. ‘You’re early.’
‘I’m off in a minute.’
There was silence as Romy saw Michael’s expression fall. But since his outburst at the beginning of the week, he had not mentioned Finch, or his feelings for Romy, for which she was grateful. But she sensed them nonetheless,simmering hot beneath the surface, whenever she caught him looking at her.
