Jack looked at Lucy. ‘She won’t answer my calls either. I’m afraid we … are separating.’
‘I’m not trying to call her. I’m never speaking to her again,’ said Lucy. This was more than a mother–daughter argument.
‘What? Why? Sorry, it’s none of my business, it’s just that I need to talk to her urgently. It’s not the kind of thing we can do over the phone.’
Lucy said, ‘We don’t know where she is. She stayed at the Intercontinental last night, but she checked out this morning.’
‘When did you last speak to her?’
‘Late last night.’
‘Did she fall off the wagon?’
Jack’s face began to crumple. He went to sit with his daughter. Stepdaughter. He looked beyond exhausted. They both did. ‘We don’t know. Did you call your mother?’
‘I spoke to her last night,’ I said. There was another long silence. I realized something big had happened here too.
‘Maybe Ruby is staying with her?’ said Jack.
I thought that was unlikely. Ruby was the last person Mom would want to see, though she must have alerted Ruby that I knew.
‘Look, I’ve obviously walked into something here, and I don’t mean to cause upset. Do you guys have Uber? I’ll get a cab and a hotel room.’
‘No, please stay,’ said Lucy. ‘I want to know what’s going on.’
‘I think I have to speak to you in private, Jack.’
‘Why? I’m an adult and she’smymother.’
‘I know, but it’s …’ I appealed to Jack with my eyes.
‘Lucy, please, leave us alone,’ he said.
‘But –’ she started to object.
He took her hands in his. ‘Please, Lucy. Whatever it is, I’ll explain it to you later, okay?’
She left the room reluctantly. I didn’t say anything until I heard her go up the stairs.
‘It’s about something that happened when we were kids,’ I said to Jack.
‘The rape?’ he said.
I was taken aback. ‘There was no rape,’ I said quietly.
‘Steady on, Erin. We believe rape victims in this house,’ said Jack, immediately defensive.
‘So did I, but Mom admitted it to me last night. Ruby made the whole thing up. My boyfriend spent thirteen years in prison. She lied and Mom covered it up.’
‘What?’ Jack’s face was stricken. ‘No, you can’t be … Jesus Christ.’ He stared at me. ‘Your mother helped Ruby to frame your boyfriend for rape?’ He was incredulous.
‘Yes, but Ruby only told her the truth the night before the sentencing. Ruby had lied to the police and the prosecution, and in court to the whole jury and his defence attorney. She planted DNA evidence … inside her. Milo never had a chance. There are more details but I’m not … Mom thought it was too late to overturn the case then. It would have impacted badly on our family. But after that, we could neverbea family. We imploded anyway.’
There was a long silence while Jack processed the information.
‘You know, she never told me what actually happened, just that she’d been raped by your boyfriend.’ He then looked startled. ‘That’s why she didn’t believe Lulu.’
‘What? I don’t understand.’ It was my turn to look confused.
