The Girl Who Lied by Sue Fortin

Author:Sue Fortin
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780008194840
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

I look at him. I know he’s not going to like what I’m about to tell him. Not after the secret he shared with me about his mother. Briefly, I wonder whether I can make up something. Tell him a lie. But what would that achieve? Nothing. He’s trusted me. I have to trust him with what I can.

‘When I was sixteen and going out with Niall Marshall, I fell pregnant,’ I say, measuring each word. ‘It was in the spring, my last year at high school. Niall’s last year in the sixth form. He was going off to university in the September.’

‘That was before I came to live with Joe,’ says Kerry. ‘Was the pregnancy common knowledge?’

‘No. Not at all,’ I reply. ‘And that was the way our parents made sure it stayed.’

‘I’m not with you,’ says Kerry. ‘So your parents knew? What, did you tell them?’

‘Niall’s mum found out. She was a GP at the time. I went to see a nurse, but Diana must have got wind of my visit or seen me at the surgery and, I guess, started poking around, and it wasn’t long before she found out.’

Kerry lets out a long, low whistle. ‘I bet she was pleased.’

‘You could say that.’

‘So, what happened?’

Skip jumps up onto the sofa between us and I’m thankful for the momentary hiatus in the conversation before I continue. ‘Our parents decided it was best if I had a termination. Diana went ahead and organised it.’

‘Just like that?’

I snap my eyes up at him. There’s a hint of distaste in his tone.

‘Yes, as a matter of fact. Just like that.’

‘What, you went along with it?’

‘Don’t judge me, Kerry,’ I warn. ‘You know nothing about what it was like. What my dad was like. What Diana was like. I was only a kid myself. So was Niall, to all intents and purposes.’

‘Okay, okay.’ Kerry raises his hands in defence. ‘How did she manage to sort out an abortion?’

‘She paid for me to go to a clinic in England.’ I stroke Skip’s ears as he wriggles further into the cushions and rests his head on my feet.

‘And that’s your secret? That’s what Roisin has on you?’ says Kerry.

‘Mostly.’

‘What does that mean?’ Kerry puts his cup onto the table. ‘There’s more?’

‘I never had a termination. Niall and I decided to run away. We had all these plans of setting up home. He’d get a job and go to college in the evening. All that sort of thing. Crazy, naive and wistful teenage dreams…’ I know that now. I’ve known it for a long time. Our plan would never have worked, never in a million years. It was based on false hope and a romantic vision of life. ‘The night we took off, we were in Niall’s car. We had an accident.’ It’s so hard to say this out loud; I’ve never had to before. Never had to explain to someone else what happened. Everyone in the village knew. They had heard it from the Marshalls.

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.