She can’t be serious. She carries on and I think she must be.
“We were married until an accident that happened when our little girl was eight. Gabriella got hurt and I blamed myself, he blamed me too. Something got broken that day, and I genuinely thought they would both be better off without me.”
“Gabriella isyourdaughter?”
I picture the beautiful woman on the other side of the door, with her plaited hair and quirky clothes and amazing career as one of the best detectives in the country. Then I try to process what she just said but can’t. Too many questions are now swirling around in my head.
“But that would mean that you knew who Harrison was this whole time?”
“Well done, Carter. I knew you’d get there in the end.”
“But what about Eden—”
“Edenwas just the hired help,” she interrupts. “Harrison has always been a workaholic, and I was training to be a detectiveandtrying to be a mother. So we got a nanny. Eden was only twenty-one when I interviewed her, but she seemed smart and reliable. I’m the one who hired her, so it was all my fault in more ways than one. I thought I could trust her, but she ruined my life and took everything I cared about from me. And I didn’t even know it until six months ago! She made me believe that everything that happened was my fault.
“I only visited the hospital once after the accident. Harrison blamed me, and I felt like staying away was the right thing to do. When Gabriella finally went home, he invited Eden to move in with them to care for her, and I was so stupidly grateful that she did. She and Harrison got married a couple of years later—after he and I divorced—and Eden became Gabriella’s stepmum. I never felt any resentment about that. At the time, I presumed their relationship began after she moved in. I was thankful that my daughter and my ex-husband had someone to care for them. Because I couldn’t. I got it into my head that they deserved someone better than me, and that she was it. But that all changed when I found out the truth.”
“I can’t believeyouwere married toHarrison,” I blurt out.
“Why is that the part that shocks you the most?”
“Because he’s such an arrogant, rude, narcissistic arsehole.”
“Well, I guess opposites attract.”No comment.“He wasn’t always the man he is now. Life changed him. We were happy in the beginning. And after that we were happy enough until Eden came along. We built a life together, a home, a child, a dog—”
“You had a dog with Harrison?”
“I’ve always had dogs. We had two together. Harrison loves dogs as much as I do, there you go, he wasn’t all bad. Harrison isn’t the villain in this story. For years I thought it was me, and that Eden was the hero. But I was wrong. She was a liar. She stole my family from me. She was my husband’s wife—his second wife—and she deserved to die.”
DCI Bird sounds like she’s lost her mind.
I have so many questions, but I ask the one that is loudest.
“Birdy, did you kill Eden Fox?”
“No. I just wish that I did.”
66BIRDY
“I wish I could go back and do things differently,” I tell him.
“I wish you would open this door,” Carter says from inside the tunnel.
“Do you think our paths are already mapped out for us no matter what we do? Or if someoneknewwhen they were going to die, do you think there could be a way to change it?”
“I’m not sure I understand. Perhaps we could talk about it face-to-face?”
“Or is it like the butterfly effect? Might something small change things? Are there always consequences? If I flap my wings hard enough could I still maybe change my daughter’s world so that history doesn’t keep repeating itself? I don’t want her to be abandoned like I was, I want her to be loved. That’s why I had to do what I did. I’m dying, Carter. I’ve got cancer.”
“I know.”
What?
“Nobody knows, so how could you?”
“I saw the drugs in your bag. They’re the same ones my mum takes. What did you do to Eden, Birdy?”
“Eden, Eden, Eden. Why are you so obsessed with that woman?Eden stole my daughter, my husband, my home; she stole my whole life from me. So I decided to steal hers before mine was over. Ten years ago I hired her to take care of my daughter, but instead she started fucking my husband whenever I wasn’t around. I was so busy, and so damn grateful for her help, I didn’t see what was going on right under my nose in my own home. My own bed. It was only when I visited my daughter at The Manor—ten years later—that the truth started to come out. I visited Gabby every day for a week—begged Mary not to tell her father in case he tried to stop me. I’d missed ten years of her life, I didn’t want to miss a moment more. Every day she would whisper a new word. A new clue.”
