Laura meets her gaze and nods.
“And Dominic was my father,” Kiara says. It’s not a question.
“I’m not—” Alex staggers to his feet. “Why are you doing this?” He reaches his hands out toward Laura, pleading with her to retract her words, to offer some alternative explanation.
“Dad,” Kiara says, and then there is an awful moment when Alex’s gaze slides toward me, slipping over my hair and my face, and quickly away again. I feel as though I have swallowed a large, cold pebble. Whatever else Kiara was going to say dries in her throat.
I’m too distracted by my own thoughts to realize Danny is about to speak, and his harsh voice sends a jolt through me.
“So you left us.” He’s speaking to Laura, but he doesn’t look directly at her. “You lethimtake your daughter, and you left me here, and you went home and put it all behind you.”
Laura draws herself up. “I know I can’t say anything to make it better, Danny. Telling you I’m sorry doesn’t help. But Iamsorry, and I’ve been sorry every single day since.”
Danny growls deep in his throat. “My father—” he says.
Laura sways forward slightly. “Your father loved you. From the moment he saw you.”
I can feel the vibration in Danny’s arm next to mine, and Iturn my head and press my face against his shoulder, squeezing his hand.
Alex tries to pull Kiara to her feet, but she shakes her head.
“No. We need to talk about this. Here, now.”
Joel eases himself up as Alex swings toward Laura, and he and Edwin stand on either side of her as Alex lunges forward. She grips the arms of her chair and doesn’t flinch.
“How could you?” Alex spits, looming over her. “Kiara is my daughter. I’m her father. How could you do this to us?”
Slowly, Laura pushes herself up, stepping between Edwin and Joel so that she’s face-to-face with Alex, her dark eyes flashing beneath her bandage.
She lifts her chin to him. “We all did bad things, Alex. You, me, Ruth, Dominic. Just because we haven’t been arrested like Vera doesn’t mean we got away with it.”
Alex’s face slowly crumples. Laura’s posture softens, and she touches his arm lightly.
“We need to put the children first now.” She sighs. “I know that’s what we thought we were doing back then, or at least that’s how we justified it. But we need to concentrate on that now.”
“And if they want nothing to do with you?” Alex asks, his tone surprisingly gentle.
Laura’s gaze drops. “I wouldn’t blame them. I’ve never looked for anything different.”
A silence falls, and I realize Kiara is watching Danny. I squeeze his hand. But he’s frowning at Laura, looking at her directly for the first time.
“So what happened after that?” Danny says. “After Alex left with Kiara? What happened when Dad got home?”
Edwin steadies Laura’s arm as she sinks back into her chair.
Joel settles next to me. “You all right?” he asks quietly. I’m not. But I nod anyway.
Alex hesitates, but Kiara holds her hand out to him, and in the end he sits back down.
“Martin thinks Gran killed them,” Danny says. “Mum.” He acknowledges the wrongness of the word with a tightening of his lips. “And Dad.”
Edwin holds up a hand. “Danny. Don’t. We don’t know anything yet. Martin may well be wrong about all of it...”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Edwin, face facts.” Danny’s tone is harsh. “She was here, with Dad, the morning he died. She was with Mum on the cliffs. She admitted she pushed the stone...”
“No!” Edwin says. He takes a moment to compose himself. He’s always had a much closer bond to Vera than I ever did, and his loyalty to her now is almost more than I can bear.
Danny makes a visible effort to calm himself. He stretches his fingers over his knees and frowns at them, and eventually, he looks up at Laura.
