Page 80 of Chase

“Matilda, what you did to your sister after Theo left was unforgiveable,” Nonna now turns on her, not giving her a break from the onslaught of judgment. Not that she deserves doesn’t it. “You are a bully, Matilda Chase, and you need to grow up. Your mother should have taught you some manners from a much earlier age!”

“I don’t need to listen to this--” Tilly begins to stand, but Gary pulls her back down, and holds her to his side. “Gary!”

“These are your grandmother’s last words for her family, you can at least be respectful of that, Matilda.”

His words seem to silence her, so we all turn back to Nonna who, for once, is giving everyone the hell they deserved.

“Craig,” she sighs, casting her eyes to the floor as though she can’t even bring herself to look at him in, “you have disappointed me the most, son. You cheated on your wife with your brother’s wife, you neglected to deal with your children, but worst of all, you left your own flesh and blood to be cared for by a monster.”

“What the hell is she talking about?!” Alex pipes up, looking at Craig as if he should be able to silence her accusatory words.

“Izzy, my darling, this is your story to tell so if you want to stop an old woman from letting lose all your secrets, then say the word and we can turn this off now. But, if you want an old woman to take that burden away from you and do what she should have done a long time ago, which is speak up for you, then let me.”

“Izzy?” I ask her with a whisper. Her eyes are full of unshed tears but after a moment or two’s silence, she finally nods her head in agreement.

“Izzy and Theo came to visit me a few days ago and what transpired has shaken me to my very core. I’m ashamed for not being there for her when she needed me most. Alas, she was too afraid to tell me or anyone. You all accused her of lying when she tried to tell you the first time, when she had the police lecture her for wasting their time, so she kept quiet, letting it happen to her again. She wrote Theo a letter, being too ashamed to use spoken words to tell him what happened when you, Craig, you left her to the wolves. I still have it, my darling, and I’m going to read it for you. The words are yours but I’m lending you my voice.”

And then she does. She reads the letter. All of it. By thetime she comes to Izzy’s signature at the end, Nonna’s frail face is streaked with tears, matching those on Izzy’s cheeks. Even though one of them is gone, they cry together all the while everyone sits with horrified expressions on their faces.

“Oh my God!” Mom cries, unable to hold herself back any longer. She practically flies over to kneel in front of her daughter, clutching hold of her hands as though she is desperately trying to take all of Izzy’s pain into herself. “My darling girl, I’m so sorry. Oh God!”

“Fuck!” Dad gasps, now looking at his brother with utter disgust.

“Oh, for God’s sake, she’s a compulsive liar!” Alex cries out. “She’s a filthy liar and she’s still lying, can’t you all see that?! Where’s Ethan? What have you done now, Isobel?!”

“This can’t be true, it can’t be!” Tilly says with an expression that says she knows that it can be, she just doesn’t want to admit it.

“So, now that you all know, it’s time for me to say goodbye. I’m sure my words have set a cat amongst the pigeons, but I can’t pretend like I care. This final message was to make things right, no matter the cost.”

“Shut up! Just shut up, you wicked old bag!” Alex screams at Nonna’s face on the TV screen.

“Izzy, my darling, take what I’ve given you and do with it what you wish, but promise me one thing,” she says, smiling just for her though her tears, “you take Theo and your lovely Stella, and you live! Take life by the balls and live every moment to its fullest. You all deserve it. And Theo? Look after my darling girl, you deserve her too!”

The screen goes dark, its blackness leaving everyone to sit in a kind of stupor, no longer sure of what to do next.

“She’s lying, she’s lying!” Alex suddenly comes lunging toward Izzy with a murderous glare, her hands getting ready to grip hold of her dress. “Tell them, you filthy liar, tell them!”

Before she reaches her, Mom stands up, blocking Izzy from the mad woman’s onslaught, then slaps the living shit out of her. Of course, you may well be wondering where I was when this happened, I was already in action, plugging in my own memory stick which shows them the CCTV evidence from the other night. I don’t announce it, I just let it play, right from the moment Ethan attacked Izzy and pretty much admitted to everything.

“You were telling the truth?” Craig says like a fucking moron. “Oh my God, you were telling the truth! Isobel, I didn’t know, I thought--”

“That’s right, you bastard, you didn’t think, you let your wife do it for you,” Frankie spits at him. “I left her in your care; I thought you would protect her, give her what I couldn’t, and you let this happen! And what’s worse, when she came to you for help, you accused her of lying and let it happen again!”

“He’s my boy, that can’t be…he’s my boy…” Alex has broken into some sort of hysterical mess, right at the same time as her daughter begins whimpering inside of Gary’s arms.

“Theo?” Izzy finally says to me, ignoring the chaos going on all around her. I push past everyone and go straight to her, telling her I will give her whatever she needs with just my eyes. “I think I want to go now.”

“Of course, baby.” I kiss her forehead and then help her to stand. “Whatever you want. It’s just us now.”

“Isobel?” Craig says with a broken voice, looking at her with desperation.

“I don’t want to see any of you ever again,” she says to the people she grew up with, the people who all abused in some way or another. “Frankie, Wyatt, perhaps in time, when we’re in America, we can talk. But right now, I just want my real family.” She then turns to me face me and takes hold of my hand. “You’re my family, Theo, you and Stella. Alex, Craig, Tilly, you won’t hear from me…ever. Gary, goodbye.”

“I’m sorry, Izzy,” Tilly says with a sob in her throat, “I’m so sorry.”

“Perhaps you are, but it’s too late. I just want to forget and start again.”

And then I lead her out, vowing to never let her go.

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