“Gran…” Rachel began.Dora shot her a scathing look she wasn’t used to, and she was struck dumb.
“Well, yes,” Kevin said, stuttering.“She—”
“Mama,please,” Mary begged, eyes round with fear, like prey.“Don’t do this.”
Rachel watched her mother, could see the carefully curated preppy veneer beginning to crack.The train wreck was still there, and Dora had poked her enough that the old Mary was showing through.
“Gran—” Rachel found her voice, louder this time, her pulse quickening as she looked from Dora to Mary to Kevin, who was watching Dora now with uncomfortable curiosity.“We’re celebrating tonight, right?”Rachel said, raising her eyebrows at her grandmother.
She’s almost off our hands, Gran.But he won’t want her anymore if you fuck this up.
“I don’t think now’s the time to—”
But Dora just kept on going, ignoring Rachel, which she never did.She only had eyes for Mary now, and they were blazing a painful hatred Rachel had never seen in them before.
“Mary is an absolute disaster, Kevin,” Dora snapped, her voice a leather strap.“I can assure you your affections would be better directed to someone more stable.”
Mary was on her feet now.“No!Do NOT mess this up for me!”she cried, pointing at Dora.Rachel silently agreed.“You havehatedthe idea of me being happy ever since Walter died.Admit it!I’m sick and tired of this shit!Kevin, don’t listen to her.”
“What does Grandpa have to do with this?”Rachel asked.Only then did Mary look at her.
“Not Grandpa,” Mary said.“My brother.Walter Jr.”
“Oh, so you’re finally going to tell her the truth, are you?”Dora shouted.She never yelled.
“What truth?”Rachel demanded of her mother.“Wait,what brother?”
Dora found Rachel’s eyes now.They were bright and hard and brimming with grief.“Mary had a brother.She killed him when he was ten.”
“What?!”Kevin and Rachel both shouted together.Mary was sobbing now.Kevin had risen from his seat.Rachel’s mouth hung open, dry.Her body was cold.
“I didn’t—don’t—” Mary stuttered, eyes darting wildly from Kevin to Dora to Rachel.
Dora threw her napkin on the table and shook her head, eyes on her daughter.“I’ve kept this from Rachel for you, Mary, but my God, I have reached the end of my generosity and I will not allow you to lead this perfectly honest man down your thorny garden path.You’ve ruined enough lives already.”
“What is this?”Kevin whispered, his eyes searching Mary as tears poured down her red face.
“Mama, STOP!”Mary screamed.
“She decided to get stoned while she was babysitting her brother,” Dora told him, her tone caustic but so, so brittle.“And shesayshe fell off the cliff edge.”Dora gasped a little as the words hit the ground, sharp as shattered glass.“You should probably know that, Kevin, if you intend to marry her and let her care for your children.”
“Mary?”Kevin breathed.
“Gran?”Rachel was the only one still sitting, and she felt like a child then, looking up at the adults around her, uncomprehending.Except as her grandmother’s words hung in the air above the table, Rachel’s stomach turned acrid, because she knew it was true.The Christmas stocking.Dora’s obsessive fear of the cliff edge.Her resentment of Mary that sometimes veered into hatred.The induced miscarriages and her insistence that Mary was unfit to care for anything at all…
“Mom,” Rachel pleaded, standing now on unsteady legs.The light above the table shone like an interrogation lamp over them.“It’s true.Isn’t it?”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Mary whispered.
Rachel stared at her, sickened.“Because nothing ever is, is it?”
“Then tell me what happened!”Kevin this time, his voice rising to the ceiling, harsher than Rachel thought him capable of.
“He got too close to the edge,” Mary gasped.“It was an accident!”She clutched at Kevin, but he pulled away.
“Oh, come off it,” Dora shrieked.Rachel had never heard her sound so unhinged.She realized then that this fight had been coming for years.Decades.She had just been in the dark about it.“You always thought he was the favourite, you hated—”
“Well, wasn’t he?!”Mary cried.“Yourgolden boy, the—”
