I look from one to the other. “Come on, spill.”
Greta’s eyes meet mine. “Nika is part of the group that was bullying Maeve at school.”
“Oh.” I wonder briefly how Greta knows more than I do about who was bullying our niece, but she’s always been extra close to Leesa’s elder daughter. The first grandchild, though there were no grandparents to meet her, so Greta took that mantle. Aunt, godmother, stand-in grandparent, all in one.
Leesa nods. “I didn’t tell you because I knew Nika was in your form class and, no offense, but I didn’t think you’d manage to stay neutral.”
“Too right, I’d have given her detention every time she so much asmovedin class.”
“That’sexactlywhy I didn’t tell you.”
This makes no sense. “Why are you protecting Nika Geary?”
“I was protectingyou. You wouldn’t have been able to stay impartial and then you’d have ended up in trouble.” She bites her lip. “Hopefully nobody will think your message last night was a deliberate attempt to target Nika…because of Maeve, I mean…”
“Most people won’t know Maeve is my niece or about the bullying. It’s fine.”
It probably isn’t fine. Then again, if Nika was involved in targeting Maeve, I don’t feel so bad about calling her “bratty.”
“Maeve’s doing OK now, right?” I ask.
“I don’t know. I don’t think she’d tell me if she wasn’t.”
“Aoife would tell you,” I reassure her. “Like last time?”
My niece Aoife, Leesa’s younger daughter, is thirteen going on thirty. She’s no nonsense in a way you don’t always see with thirteen-year-olds, which doesn’t necessarily win her friends, but she doesn’t seem to care. Long may it last, I always think, wishing I could have been more like that at her age. It was Aoife who realized what was happening to her older sister and told Leesa about it.
“Yeah,” Leesa says without any conviction at all.
I hit the kettle to make more tea and that’s when it happens—a Google Alert pops up in my email:
Google Alert—“Susan O’Donnell”
Murder in Oakpark,SusanO’Donnell dead
Blood rushes to my ears and the room sways. I reach for the counter to steady myself.What the hell is this?The words swim as I try to focus on the next line:
The woman found dead in Oakpark this morning is a secondary school teacher who sent a defamatory message last night that went viral. Her name is Susan O’Donnell.
6
Susan
Wednesday
“Oh my god.”
“What is it?” Leesa asks, standing. Greta stands too.
I turn the phone to show them. Greta frowns and Leesa’s eyes widen.
“It’s not true, right, Iamhere in front of you?” My attempted laugh is shaky. There’s something very chilling about reading of your own death even when you’re clearly very much alive.
“You’re here.” Leesa puts a hand on my arm. “But how the hell did something like that end up online? Is someone trying to troll you?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“It’s real.”
