Page 95 of Love ad Lib
‘Estelle, Connor and I were six. Leo was two and Willow was a baby.’
‘Jesus Christ. What happened?’
He rubbed his forehead. ‘Dad was running his sex parties, but they were wild and there were loads of drugs.’
Her mouth dropped open, and he raised his hands.
‘We were in a separate section of the house with Mammy and never saw any of it. But that didn’t matter. One of the newspapers organised a campaign against him. After about a month of the letters arriving, our parents took us into the town centre one Saturday afternoon and burnt them all. Apparently the police had already started an investigation, so when they were called out, they arrested Mom, Dad and Mammy and took us into emergency care.’
She pressed her hand against her chest, her heart thudding. ‘That must have been terrifying.’
He nodded. ‘My whole life, I’ve never been as scared as I was then. It was like the worst possible night terror, only it was real. Willow was only a few weeks old and screaming like she was being attacked. Leo was howling and wet himself with fear. Connor and Estelle followed the lead of our parents and fought like animals. I just stood there, frozen, as everything I loved was ripped apart.’
‘How long were you...’
‘A week.’
Libby reached across the low tree root and squeezed Henry’s hand. ‘I’m so sorry.’
He nodded. ‘Me too. Don’t get me wrong, my parents drive me insane, but we were never at risk. We didn’t even know about the parties until we were taken away.’
‘What happened then?’
‘They carried on, but with risk assessments, better security, a no drugs policy, and us shipped off to Gram-Gram’s.’
He stroked the back of her hand as he looked down the hill again.
‘That’s when school became an issue. Dad believes in equality, so sent us to the local primary. Other kids gave us shit because of what their parents had told them. We could handle it because the school only had one class for each year, so Estelle, Connor and I were together with Finn and Jack. It changed though when we got to secondary.’
He paused, the silence filled with the trills of birdsong. She waited, her heart breaking for him.
‘Foxbrooke is small, but the secondary school is huge. It takes kids from all villages in the area and has an eight-form entry each year. Our parents asked for us to be put together, but they split us up anyway. Connor and Estelle were fighters and fitted in better than I did, and Finn and Jack could distance themselves from us during school hours. I just shut down.’
‘What happened?’
‘Dad was adamant we needed to be state educated so we didn’t end up like his sister and her family, so I begged Mom to pay for me to go to private school.’
‘Was it any better there?’
He shrugged. ‘A little, but difficult in other ways.’
‘Did Estelle and Connor stay at the local school?’
Henry nodded. ‘Estelle didn’t ask to leave, and I don’t think Connor felt like he could ask Mom for the money because she wasn’t his biological parent.’
‘Did you ever talk to them about it?’
He shook his head. ‘Sometimes, in families, you can’t talk about the biggest things of all.’
‘What about Leo, Willow, Summer?’
Henry let out a breath. ‘Like Connor, they’re not biologically Mom’s kids, and Mammy doesn’t earn any money of her own so couldn’t pay for them even if she wanted to. As far as I know, Leo and Willow never asked to move.’
‘And Summer?’
‘I paid for her to go to private school.’
‘How?’
