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“Stay calm Lucy, or I’ll be forced to have you escorted out. Do you understand?” She just rolls her eyes at his order, acting like a child.
“I it would be best if she is taken to another room?” James looks to me, then to Piers.
“Don’t ask me.” He huffs out, my mum died when I was a toddler, she’s nothing to me.” I feel a sadness for Piers, an empathy that I never had before. All this time I was so jealous of him having my dad, the life I longed for, turns out I had our mother. Neither of us had the life we should have.
“I’ll keep my mouth shut, while you tell your tragic little tale James, just get on with it.” She laughs. “True love, gone wrong. This is one for the books children, pay close attention!” Her voice sing songs.
Fear sneaks up my spine that this unstable person before me is my mum, guilt weighs heavy on my shoulders that I didn’t realize she was getting so bad. When I was a kid, I always though her mood swings were like a game. The older I got, I realized what was going on. The substance abuse was only heightening her manic disorder. At some point, I focused solely on revenge and in ignoring all the signs, I failed her.
“Get her out!” James orders! “This is my one shot to tell this, to get it right, to lay it all to rest, I don’t need her antics making things any worse off than they are.” His voice booms as the guard order her from the chair.
She kicks and screams, “Spoiler alert, the girl dies in the end!”
“GET OUT!” James yells so loud I’m afraid he’s going to have another spell.
The guard drags her from the room, as her feet thrash around and she swipes at the air, clawing.
Barrington follows after. “I know what to do.”
“Easy!” I jump to my feet. “What are you doing?”
“Getting her the help I should have a long time ago. A place here, in the city.”
“But—” I argue.
“Don’t, just let her go.” A hand is griping my shoulder and I turn to see Piers. I nod and he gives my shoulder a squeeze. “You need to hear this, mate, we all do.”
Silence falls over the room as James Black tells the story of how it all started.
“Many years ago there were a group of mates, two lads and a girl. Peter, Wendy and myself. As we grew, so did the friendships. Eventually love developed between one of the lads and the girl, as you might have guesses, Peter and Wendy.” James looks away, as if remembering.
“I was angry and heartbroken, because you see I too had fallen for Wendy, but her heart belonged to Peter. Things became awkward between the three of us. Very much like you Willow, Piers and Scarlett. I’m sad to say our story didn’t work out as well as things are going for the lot of you now.”
It hurts to hear about a time when Scarlett had feelings for Piers, but I put aside my jealousy, not wanting to let it ruin me the way it obviously ruined James.
He continues, “I wanted her more than anything, and being the spoiled brat that I was, as the heir to a London shipping empire, I was used to getting what I wanted. Piers was a penniless orphan, how could he compete with me? Peter had something that I didn’t, a pure heart, Wendy couldn’t be bought.
She was unimpressed by lavish gifts, she cared nothing for the promise of titles, mansions or holidays overseas. Wendy’s family had money of their own, so it was nothing to her. Love, loyalty and adventure, those were things that made Wendy’s eyes light up. There was none more loyal and adventurous, more pure of heart, then Peter. I knew the only way to get Wendy, was to get rid of Peter.”
Piers shifts in his chair, and his knuckles turned white as he grips the table.
“I know what you’re thinking, Piers. I didn’t have anything to do with your father’s accident. I did however have something to do with your dad ending up with Lucille.”
“I tried telling Wendy’s parents that Peter wasn’t good enough for her. They were proud people of good breeding, who only wanted the best for their daughter, her mother was a romantic at heart, but her father demanded more. I helped him get a job on one of the boats at my father’s shipyard, convinced him that would impress the Darling’s. I needed something more. So I convinced Lucille, who worked at a pub to help me. She had expressed interest in Peter lots of times, but he never would, he was faithful to Wendy.”
James eyes clench shut as he pauses for a moment.
“The perfect opportunity came when Wendy and Peter quarreled over her finding out he was homeless. She didn’t care, but he did. He was a proud young man, he wanted her to see him for what he could be, not what he was. And she did, but they quarreled anyhow.
On the night before he was to ship out, he got drunk with me and helped him find a warm bed for the night. Lucille’s bed. Early the next morning, I sent Wendy to say her goodbye’s to him, convinced her it would be the last chance, she showed up and found them in bed together. He was still passed out, never even saw her. She ran away and I was there with open arms.”
Piers gets up from the table and begins to pace. My stomach clenches knowing the blood of these two, scheming people, who ruined innocent lives, pumps through my veins.
“Keep going.” Piers orders, walking back and forth. My hand falls over into Scarlett’s lap and our fingers lock.
“I know how it sounds, trust me. It gets worse before it gets better.” The tension builds in the room.
“I didn’t know how it all would go, but Willow waited for Peter to come back home, I think she would have given him another chance, until Lucy ended up pregnant. Wendy was crushed. And I knew to claim Wendy’s heart for my own, it had to be broken by Peter. So I did whatever I had to do, to make that happen. I was the choice that her family wanted, but Peter was a choice in her heart wanted. It didn’t matter because being the honorable man that he was, when Peter came home and found Lucille was expecting, he did the honorable thing and married her.”
