Page 67 of The Gin Sisters' Promise

‘Oh, we’re all so very smart now.’ Myles’s voice dipped in a menacing tone that resurrected memories in Iris that until now she’d managed to bury so well she’d forgotten that side of him. ‘Well, what if I was to say I’m going to talk to my solicitor and make sure that I take half ofeverythingthat my not so saintly wife has been hiding from me?’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’ Iris managed to keep her voice even.

‘Oh, don’t you? You see, Iris, I’m not as stupid as you might think. I saw your plane ticket at the top of your bag at that dippy mediation session. It didn’t take a lot to figure out where you were planning on running to and when I arrived here, the first person to greet me couldn’t wait to pass on his condolence at the loss of my father-in-law.’ He shook his head as if he’d just figured out the mystery of the Bermuda triangle.

‘You think for one moment you’re going to get a look-in to our family’s life’s work?’ Georgie moved towards him again and this time there was no sidestepping her. ‘Listen to me, Myles Cutler. You’ve done enough damage to last us a lifetime, and it’s like this. First off, there is no inheritance. Our father has tied up the lot in so many conditions it’s going to take forever to sort it all out and even if he hadn’t, we’d throw every last stick of it into the ocean before any of us would see you get your hands on one penny.’ She was almost spitting the words into his face. ‘So, I’m telling you one last time, either you get out of Ballycove this minute and we don’t hear one more word from you, or it won’t be Iris and her solicitor you’ll be dealing with. It’ll be me and I’ll be going after you with the intention of leaving you with less than nothing, and mark my words, you’ll be begging me to take your last penny from you by the time I’m finished.’

‘You can’t—’

‘Oh, can’t I?’ She laughed; a strange scary sound that Iris figured came from a place within her sister that was almost spent, although Myles Cutler didn’t know that. ‘I’ll contact every news station executive in London for a start. Do you know how much money my firm spends on advertising every year, Myles? That’s effectively your wages I’m talking about. I’ll make sure you never work again.’

‘I never planned on things turning out this way.’ But he wasn’t talking to Iris now; he was sobbing the words at Georgie. ‘It wasn’t like that. Tell her, Iris.’ He couldn’t make eye contact with Iris, as Georgie and now Nola were standing between them. He didn’t realise it, but Aiden Barry stood square behind him as well. Aiden was a tree of a man compared to Myles, who looked like little more than a lonesome weed in the wind before him.

‘You never planned it?’ Iris moved forward. Suddenly she felt as if the years of sadness and emptiness and uncertainty propelled her along the hallway, so she was standing facing Myles not as they would have been six months earlier, but rather with a new perspective she’d never had before. They stood for a long moment, inches away from each other, but it seemed suddenly as if they’d travelled many thousands of miles apart. And in that instant of looking into his face, Iris recognised the distance for what it was. She had become a different person, a stronger person, a woman who was no longer dependant on a man for her happiness, but was ready to make something of her life on her own terms.

She felt a surge of anger rise up in her for the years she’d wasted on this pathetic scrap of a man. ‘You never planned to take the best years of my life from me and then throw them back in my face – is that what you’re telling me?’ She took a deep breath, because there were things she should have said before and she’d never had the courage. ‘You never planned to do me out of having a family of my own? And worse, put such a wedge between me and my sisters that I’ve missed out on them too? You’ve spent our entire marriage lying to me. You lied to me about Nola, poisonous lies when that evening was all down to you. I see now that Nola would never have betrayed me like that, but you? And even Georgie, you spent years criticising her for the success you couldn’t even begin to hold a candle to and instead, you lived off my earnings and squandered your own.’

‘Oh, so they’re perfect now, I suppose? Well, you were the one who turned your back on them, I never made you…’ But he trailed off, his voice shaking with temper but mostly with defeat. ‘I always said we needed to keep our feet in the door of this place…’ He looked up now at Soldier Hill House. For a moment, it seemed to Iris as if he was seeing it for the first time, or maybe he realised he was looking at it for the last time.

‘None of that matters now.’ Georgie stepped forward again. ‘The fact is, she’s finally seen through you.’

‘I’ll never forgive you, Myles.’ But even as she said the words, Iris knew she was already beginning to heal. Being here, with her sisters, with so much to look forward to, a child of her own, a good life – she knew, carrying bitterness in her heart would only keep repaying a debt to Myles that she’d never really owed him to begin with.

‘And you think I’m going to lose sleep over that?’ He sneered at her. ‘It’ll be a lot easier to sleep when I have my head on a pillow feathered by the sale of this place, that’s for sure.’

‘I don’t bloody think so.’ Iris stepped forward, right into his face. ‘This place has never been on the table for you, Myles. Our father saw to that.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes. And even if he didn’t…’ Iris stopped for a moment ‘…I’d throw away my share to make sure you don’t get a penny.’

‘You wouldn’t—’

‘Now, if you want to get what is rightfully yours, you need to agree to half of everything we accumulated during our marriage. I’m not going to go after you for any more, even though we both know I could.’

‘How do you mean?’ He took a step backwards, stumbling on the step and landing on the next one down with a wobble.

‘Seriously? Do I need to remind you who paid every bill that came through the door? Who bought the car and paid the insurance? Who cooked and cleaned and generally held things together – while you flitted about London from one woman to the next probably, when you were supposed to be earning a decent wage.’ She was standing over him now, looking down on him, something that had never happened in their marriage.

‘I…’ He cleared his throat. ‘I just want out of it. That’s all,’ he stammered; his bluster was evaporating and Iris had a feeling that whatever he’d come here for, whatever he thought he’d get out of her, he knew now that with her sisters united behind her, he had no choice but to take what she was willing to give.

‘You run along now,’ Nola said. ‘Before Iris changes her mind and decides to make things really awkward for you – or worse, you get on Georgie’s nerves too much.’

‘You’re nothing but a shower of sour old crones, the lot of you,’ Myles shouted as he made his way to turn around, but he walked straight into Aiden, causing him to shriek before sidestepping him and picking his way as quickly and carefully as he could back down the avenue, cursing and stumbling.

‘I’m not sure,’ Georgie said, ‘but I think that’s the last we’ll be seeing of Myles Cutler.’

‘Well, thank goodness for that,’ Iris said, and they watched as he disappeared into the darkening night.

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