‘I don’t really remember much. Like you said, I wasn’t there long. Not more than a couple of weeks.’
‘Yes,’ Darcy says. ‘You were there for twelve whole days before you were adopted.Twelve days, whoopee doo.Iwas in and out of Ashlands for years.’
‘You were there?’ I gasp. ‘At Ashlands? At the same time as me? Why didn’t you say something before? Did I do something to upset you back then? Is that what this is about? I can’t remember anyone from America being there.’
‘Oh, for goodness sake, don’t you get it? I’m not really American. My name’s Nicole Woodward and I’m from Bristol,okay.’
I’m sure my jaw has never dropped this low before. ‘Your name isn’t Darcy? You’re not from America?’
‘That’s what I just said, isn’t it? Keep up. And that’s my brother, Callum. He was there for a while, too, until he got fostered long-term… without me.’ She glares across at him and he flinches.
I’m still reeling from her revelation, trying to process the fact that she’s not who I thought she was. That we met when we were kids – even if I don’t have any memory of her from back then. ‘That still doesn’t explain why you have me here now,’ I say. ‘Why you’ve gone out of your way to destroy my life.’
‘Cal and I had been at Ashlands for a few months,’ she says, still talking in her fake American accent, ‘and there was a family that came to visit. This really nice couple with a daughter. They talked to me and Cal for ages. They were interested in us. Really interested. I was actually excited for the first time in my life. They should have been the ones. They should have been our new family. Then they left and I never saw them again. And I found out later that they’d adoptedyou– Miss Perfect. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I saw you cosying up to all the staff with your big innocent eyes, making out that you were some helpless orphan-Annie, like you were so much better than the rest of us. If you hadn’t come along, I would be living your life. They would’ve been my family. Mine and Cal’s.’ Her face is white and strained, her fists clenched against her thighs.
She actually blames me for this. She thinks that as a ten-year-old child I wilfully stole the parents she designated for herself. I mean, yes, I can see how at that age, you would be devastated, but now as an adult surely she can see it was nobody’s fault? Maybe the care home should have taken some of the blame for raising her hopes, but no one else is to blame. Certainly not me.
‘So,’ she continues, ‘I made it my life’s mission to take it all back. To get back the family that should have been mine all along.’
I shake my head in disbelief. ‘You’re an adult now. An adult with a pretty enviable life. Surely you’re past all that?’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ she says. ‘When I set out to do something I always have to finish it. Otherwise, what’s the point of anything?’
I give a shiver at her words, taking a guess at what she means by ‘finish it’. I desperately need to keep her talking, so I can figure out how to get out of here.
‘What does Callum have to say about all this?’ I ask. ‘Does he think the same way as you?’ I look up at her brother. ‘Do you, Callum? Do you think it’s right to punish me for something I had no control over?’
He shifts from one foot to the other, glancing across at his sister, and then back down at me. ‘Nic said you ruined everything for us. She’s my sister. I look out for her. You hurt Nic, I’ll hurt you. She looks out for me, too.’
I realise that Callum isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Nicole must have been using and manipulating him for years.
‘I finally tracked you down to Poole a couple of years ago,’ she continues, shifting her attention back to me. ‘And so I persuaded Mike to leave London and move here. Told him it would be better for Tyler to grow up by the sea, or some such crap. I found out your sister’s kid was in the kindergarten at Cerne Manor. My plan was to get to you through her. Then, imagine my delight when you enrolled Joe at the same school. In the very same class as Tyler. What luck!’
I’m still reeling from what she’s telling me. To have spent the whole of her adult life trying to find me so she could ruin my life is insane.
‘Your life was so perfect,’ I say. ‘Surely you already had everything. You had Mike and Tyler, your beautiful house, your business.’
‘I never loved Mike,’ she says without emotion. ‘He was a means to an end. I needed his money to track you down, to take everything from you.’
‘And Tyler?’ I ask, my skin crawling in revulsion at her revelations. I have to get out of here.Shit, how am I going to get out of here?
‘Tyler is everything to me. He’s the only good thing in my life. I’ve been doing this for him as well as me.’
‘What about his dad? You killed Mike. You killed Tyler’s father. How do you think he’ll feel when he finds out what you did?’
‘He will never find out. Never – do you understand me?’
‘How does ruining my life get you what you want?’ I ask. ‘Sure, it might make you feel good, if that’s how you get off, but apart from that—’
‘It’s simple,’ Darcy says.
I wait for her to elaborate.
‘You stole mine and Callum’s childhood,’ she says. ‘You stole our family, so we’ll take them back. I may not be able to reclaim my childhood, but I will have your parents.’
‘What are you talking about?’ I say, my heart in my throat. But the question is redundant. I know exactly what she’s talking about.
Thirty-Two
