‘Sure,’ he said, smoothly, and in a skilful manoeuvre he commandeered Finlay to show him where the car was and the two of them disappeared out of the apartment.
‘Well then,’ said Cassie with a dose of hearty false cheer –Rosalyn wasn’t the only one who could put on a masterly performance!‘This is it, then, a final parting of the ways.’
Rosalyn’s newly plumped-up lips twitched with what might have been a smile, or there again, it might have been a smirk, but since her facial expressions looked like they’d been Botoxed to a standstill, it was anybody’s guess.
‘I so wish our paths had crossed in happier times,’ she said inan irritatingly girlish voice, ‘but I’m sure you’ll agree with me that we’ve been on quite a journey together.’
Cassie cringed and Emily let rip with a loud snort. ‘Some have journeyed further than others,’ she said, her tone unmistakably barbed.
Rosalyn’s eyes narrowed a fraction. ‘Sorry, Ems, what did you say?’
‘I mean that you checked out of the real world a long time ago and swapped it for a parallel universe in which you lie to suit your own selfish needs. You’re a malicious fraud, Rosalyn! You wouldn’t know real love or genuine friendship if it slapped you round the face. You’re a user and you’ve certainly used me.’
As much as it was able, Rosalyn’s face registered shock. ‘Ems, have you completely lost your mind? Or,’ she swung round to glower at Cassie, ‘has your mother been filling your head with her spiteful bitching about me? God, you just can’t help yourself, Cassie, can you?’
‘Don’t you dare talk about my mother that way,’ Emily said before Cassie had a chance to respond. ‘And don’t ever call me Ems again. You don’t have the right to do that!’
Her attention back on Emily, Rosalyn pointed a finger at her. ‘And you don’t have the right to talk to me the way you are. In fact, I’m going to leave right now before you cause me any more distress. I put up with abuse from your dad and I’m not going to take it from either of you.’
‘Yeah,’ said Emily, ‘let’s talk about that abuse, shall we? Or rather, thenon-existentabuse. You made it all up about my dad. And for what? To cast yourself in the role of victim and to gain a few more likes on your socials?’
Looking a lot less sure of herself now, Rosalyn readjusted the Coach bag on her shoulder. ‘I don’t know what’s got into you, Emily,’ she said. ‘But I feel sorry for you that you can’t accept the truth about your dad. But maybe that’s understandable. You’rein denial and want to believe in the man you wanted Drew to be. That’s only natural. And I forgive you.’
‘You can shove your fake forgiveness!’ Emily fired back. ‘The only one in denial is you. Because here are the facts. My dad was planning to leave you. He’d been having an affair for more than a year. Not only that, he’d also discovered Finlay wasn’t even his. You’d passed the child off as my dad’s. You must have been so happy when he died, suddenly all your problems were instantly solved, weren’t they? His death meant that you copped the jackpot, instead of only half of his money if he divorced you.’
Rosalyn swallowed. ‘Where on earth has this nonsense come from?’ she demanded, her eyes switching between Emily and Cassie.
‘From the woman my dad was leaving you for,’ Emily said. ‘I found her on your TikTok account. I had a long and very interesting chat with her last night. She’s furious that you’ve said the things you have about the man she loved. You tried blocking her after she publicly called you out for your lying, you even set your followers on her, but the thing about social media is that nothing ever disappears. There’s always a way to find something if you know how to go about it.’
For the longest moment, Rosalyn didn’t speak, and it was all Cassie could do not to fill in the silence by applauding Emily for bossing it the way she had.
‘Well, la-di-da,’ Rosalyn said at length, ‘who do you think you are, Coleen-bloody-Rooney?’
‘I wish I could take the full credit for uncovering your endless lies,’ Emily said, moving nearer to Cassie and putting an arm around her, ‘but really that honour should go to my mum. She’d figured you out ages ago. I just wish I’d trusted her judgement from the outset. You see, that’s the thing about a mother who truly loves her child, she genuinely only wants the best for them. Something you’ve yet to learn because you don’t knowthe first thing about being a good mother. I pity Finlay and the harm you’ve caused him with your twisted idea of parenting. My dad never punished that boy the way you claimed he did, it was you!’
‘Well, as interesting as this is,’ Rosalyn said with a sigh and adopting an air of boredom, ‘I have the rest of my life to get on with. So, I’ll say goodbye. I see no reason why our paths should cross again.’ She turned away from them to make her way back towards the hallway.
‘Don’t you want to know who Emily spoke to last night?’ asked Cassie, strangely fascinated at the way Rosalyn could affect such indifference to what she’d just been accused of.
‘I don’t need to,’ she responded. ‘Bianca’s always been jealous of me. Just like you, Cassie. She was Drew’s assistant in Dubai and tried her luck numerous times with him. Anything that comes out of her mouth is a lie!’
‘You’d certainly know all about that,’ said Cassie. ‘I’ve never known anyone to lie as much as you do.’
Rosalyn shrugged. ‘Don’t make me laugh, everyone lies every single day, whether it’s to the people they care about or those they despise. Of course, the easiest lies to tell are the ones to the people who love us. They’ll believe anything. Just like you did, Emily. You lapped up the idea of having another family, of having a little brother to love. Perhaps you need to ask yourself why that was, why you were so keen to be part of a make-believe new family. Was your existing one not enough for you?’
Cassie saw Emily falter and swiftly stepped in. ‘You despised us from the day you arrived here, didn’t you?’ she said to Rosalyn. ‘You saw what Emily, Ben and I had, and if you’d had the chance, you’d have happily destroyed it.’
‘Why not?’ Rosalyn replied with another careless shrug. ‘It would have been fun. And so,sosatisfying. After all, a girl has to make her way in the world, doesn’t she? And Cassie, youcertainly landed on your feet when Ben came into your life. You too, Emily. A cushy option all round, I’d say.’
‘Bitch!’cried Emily. Her voice had risen, and she suddenly looked close to tears.
‘Touched a nerve, have I?’ said Rosalyn.
‘It wasn’t true what she said,’ Emily explained a short while later when it was just the three of them in the apartment, as she, Ben and Cassie stood at the window and watched the silver BMW drive away down the long driveway. ‘I didn’t go to Dubai because you weren’t enough of a family for me. It was just Dad I wanted to meet. I was curious. I wanted to see for myself which bits of him, if any, I’d inherited and whether I’d even like him. Because you’re supposed to feel something, aren’t you? Feel some kind of connection because of the genes. Does that make sense?’
‘Yes, of course it does,’ said Cassie. ‘And there was nothing wrong in you wanting to explore what your father was like and wanting to be a part of his life.’
‘Even though you absolutely hated me going to stay with him?’ murmured Emily, turning away from the window. There was no trace of reproach in her voice, only sad regret which tugged at Cassie’s heart.
