A Mother's Mistake by K.T. Marshall

Author:K.T. Marshall [Marshall, K.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-21T22:00:00+00:00

31

REBECCA

I couldn’t go straight to Mum’s, I needed to clear my head. Devorgilla Bridge isn’t far from the prison, so that’s where I headed first.

Standing on the bridge, I rested my chin on my folded arms and stared at the water below. The last time I was there, Evan had been about eight years old. He read us the history of the bridge straight from the tourist brochure. It was built in the thirteenth century and something to do with a flood was about all I could remember. I could hear his eight year old voice and see his blonde curls. I wished he was there. ‘Come on, Mum, it’s only a bridge,’ he’d be saying, and I would ruffle his hair and tell him, ‘You used to love this bridge.’ And he’d tell me, ‘Don’t mess the hair.’

I couldn’t control my tears. I leaned over and let them fall into the river below. I cried until I was numb. The conversation I had just had with Patterson was replaying over and over in my mind and I wondered if all criminals say that they’re innocent.

And the connection between Patterson, Billy McIvor and Caroline’s husband took me by surprise. Why hadn’t she mentioned this?

My mobile was ringing and when I looked at it, I could see it was Ray so I answered. ‘Hey, did you get to your mum’s ok?’ he asked.

‘I’m...I’m not there yet. I’ve stopped over a few times for coffee. I’m at Devorgilla bridge trying to clear my head. I think I’m going to come home. I’ll stay at Mum’s for dinner then head back tonight.’

‘Are you sure? It’s a long drive,’ he said.

I could hear the distant sound of our front door bell.

‘Who’s that?’ I asked.

‘It’s no-one,’ he replied and told me to wait a minute. Ray is a terrible liar. He can’t seem to grasp the concept that it’s not just the words you say, it’s the way you say them. He was at the door but hadn’t taken the phone with him, but I could still hear him telling whoever it was to come in.

‘Yeah, it feels strange, you not being here,’ he said as he put the phone back to his ear. ‘I’m glad you’re coming home.’ He sounded sincere again.

‘Who have you just let in the house?’ I asked.

‘No-one, it was the post man,’ he answered and I knew he was lying.

‘Ok, well I’ll be home around nine or ten o’clock,’ I said before hanging up. I couldn’t believe he lied so blatantly to me, like I was stupid. I instantly regretted not challenging him there and then. Hiding the loan application from me was one thing. He even managed to make me feel guilty about overreacting about it. But at that very moment, there was someone in my house that Ray did not want me to know about.

I had lied to him too and tried to rationalise my reasons for doing so. There was going to be a reasonable explanation, or at least, I owed him the chance to explain himself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.