“What did you do?”
“It’s not important,” she replied evasively. “What matters is that I lost my boy before I ever got the chance to tell him he was m-mine.”
My stomach sank as I listened to her speak, and I felt for her, truly. I couldn’t imagine ever going through something like that, couldn’t bear the thought of living without Zara. Everything suddenly made so much more sense.
“For a long time I believed that if Cai hadn’t driven Jace home, he might still be alive. We might’ve been able to know each other properly …” She trailed off, her features desperate. “Shannon, you have to understand that I no longer hate Jace like I once did. I don’t blame him anymore, but I got in too deep with Samuel, and now, it’s all just a giant mess.”
I pressed my hands against my thighs to stop them from shaking. “Just tell me everything. From the start.”
Margie nodded, swallowing before she continued, “That night in London when Samuel and I first met, I was going to attack Jace after the concert. I had a weapon, and I’d looked up just the right place to strike so he’d …” She trailed off again, and cold horror seeped into my bones. This wasn’t my friend, my Margie. The woman I’d grown close to had once tried to attack Jace, end his life? How was this possible?
“Samuel saw me that night. He spotted me approaching Jace and got in my way, disarmed me. I thought he’d call the police, but instead, he brought me to a restaurant and bought me dinner, and I told him the entire story of why I’d come to hurt Jace. He asked me lots of questions about myself, and I told him all about the qualifications I’d gotten while living in Canada, my career. He seemed very interested in my job, particularly the online security and computer stuff. He told me there was another way, that if I helped him we could hurt Jace even worse.”
“Why did he want to hurt Jace?”
“He didn’t, not really. Jace was just a convenient identity for him. Samuel made his money by luring people into romance scams on the internet, and Dixon was one of his false identities. He’d been doing it for a few years, but he wasn’t as technically savvy as he’d like to be and ended up getting found out back in the U.S. He only started doing the security gig because the money from his previous scams had dried up. He needed a new identity and a famous rockstar was the perfect bait, especially since he had inside information on Jace while working for the band. So, he set me up with an apartment and helped me get a new job in Dublin by faking a few references. After how I left my last job in Canada, I couldn’t use them for a reference,” she said with a slight shudder, and I wanted to ask what exactly had happened when she got fired from her previous job, but she continued, “Samuel said if I could help him cover his tracks online and keep his identity hidden, he could destroy Jace’s career by scamming his fans. Samuel would pocket the money, and I’d get my end of the bargain once Jace’s reputation was ruined. He’d get what he deserved for killing Cai.”
“He never killed him.”
“I know that now,” she whispered, lowering her head. “I was in a very bad mental headspace when I first met Samuel. All I wanted was revenge, but then when I realised he didn’t really care about me, was just using my expertise to help him scam people, I saw the truth. I realised that Jace wasn’t the villain, and he didn’t deserve what we were doing to him. When I tried to back out of the arrangement, Samuel threatened me. He knew how attached I was to you and how much our friendship meant to me. He said he’d expose me, tell you everything I’d done. I couldn’t stand the thought of you discovering the truth, Shannon.”
A tear fell down her cheek, but I refused to soften. She might’ve had a rough life, but that was no reason to do what she’d done, to lie to me for so long.
“If all this is true, and you really changed your mind about Jace, then why did you try to run me over?”
“I never intended to actually do it. I just wanted everything to go back to the way it was. I thought that if I could frighten you enough that you’d rethink your decisions,” she said, like it was perfectly logical and reasonable. “If you could see that letting Jace back into your life meant putting yourself and your daughter in danger, then things could go back to how they were. You’d push Jace away and go back to only communicating through his mother. Then maybe Jace would leave and go on tour, bringing Dixon away with him, and we could go back to being best friends without the threat of you finding out I’d lied.”
“What about the night you tried to hurt Jace? Would you have gone through with it if Dixon wasn’t there to stop you?”
She nodded as a flood of shame broke through. “I just wanted the pain to stop.”
“Jace wasn’t the reason for your pain, Margie.”
I tried to empathise. Having your child taken from you and being forced to pretend to be his sister was one of the worst things a mother could go through, but she could’ve done some real damage in a lot of people’s lives if she’d hurt Jace. Hell, she’d done damage by helping Dixon cover his tracks online with his catfishing scam.
“How many people has Dixon taken money from using Jace’s identity?” I asked, needing to know.
“I’m not sure, at least a dozen. You have to believe that I wanted to stop helping him. It didn’t feel right knowing he was taking money from innocent people, but if I stopped, he’d tell you the truth about me, and I knew you’d never want me in your life once you found out.”
“Do you know how we can contact them? The catfish victims?”
Margie nodded. “He has multiple accounts but I can hack in and get their information.”
“This is so fucked,” Isla muttered, running a hand down her face.
“Would it make you happy?” Margie asked, and she suddenly seemed so childlike. “If I helped you find the victims, would there be a chance that you could forgive me?”
My stomach hollowed at her question because at the back of my mind, I knew there was no way for us to move on from this, not with how she’d lied and especially not after the car incident. Maybe she really did only intend to scare me, make me believe that having Jace around put Zara and me in danger so I’d push him away, but still. The fact that she’d try to control my decisions in such a dangerous and reckless manner was enough to make me never want to see her again.
Instead of answering, I replied, “What I really don’t understand is why you befriended me? Why lie? If I’d known the truth about who you were to Cai, it wouldn’t have stopped me from becoming your friend. I would’ve only empathised and cared for you more.”
“Because I’d started a new life. I couldn’t be Melanie anymore, not after … no, I had to start fresh. When I heard that Jace’s wife had divorced him, I knew he must’ve done something terrible to you. I thought I’d find a kindred spirit, someone who’d been wronged by him, just like I had. We even worked in the same industry; it felt like fate.”
“So, you what? Found out I’d be attending that conference and bought a ticket just to meet me?”
Margie nodded, her eyes falling to the floor. Even this small detail made my skin crawl, to think she’d targeted me in such a way was unsettling, even if all she really wanted was afriend. Friends didn’t lie about their true identity. She’d come here to tell her story, perhaps thinking she could salvage our relationship, but there was no salvaging this. The fact that I’d let her babysit Zara on numerous occasions was terrifying. But I wouldn’t say any of that right now. She was too unpredictable. My heart went out to her for what she’d been through; however, it didn’t excuse her actions, nor did it make me any less terrified that I’d welcomed this woman into my life when I knew nothing about the real her.
I jumped when someone pounded on my front door. Imagining it was Jace, I hurried to answer it, instructing Isla to stay with Margie. But when I opened the door, there were two Gardaí standing here, Viola just behind them.
