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Jenna stared, the hurt written all over her face.
‘The tape has to go to the police,’ I repeated.
Jenna’s face twisted. ‘You’re really her daughter?’
I nodded and she turned away, her lips turning down.
I squeezed Jenna’s arm again. ‘You’re protecting Tristan, Jenna. Think about what he did. Is he the older man who’s been coming on to you?’
‘What?’ Rose asked.
Jenna started crying again. ‘There’s something wrong with me.’
‘Don’t say that,’ said Rose.
‘I just…’ Jenna sniffed then her face fixed in a frown. ‘I hate them. Maybe they should all go to prison.’ Then it softened again. ‘Where they can forget about me once and for all.’ She flicked a diamond of broken mirror.
Rose crossed her arms. ‘Jenna goes home, we hand in the tape, and this counts for nothing.’ She gestured at Jenna’s wrist. ‘Yeah, great, justice will be done. But her mum can keep on not seeing her. And how long until we’re back here again?’
Jenna’s face flushed with anger. ‘I don’t know why I should feel so pathetic for wanting… for wanting…’ A sob ran through her.
‘For wanting what?’ I asked.
‘For wanting her family to care about her,’ said Rose.
Christ on a bike. Her uncle raped my mum, and we all have to sit around feeling sorry for Jenna because she doesn’t get enough attention from her shitty family?
‘Have you considered telling your mum how you feel?’ I asked.
Rose shot me a look as sharp and hot as a poker.
I crossed my ankles. ‘Handing in the tape might get her to listen.’
‘I can’t.’ Jenna wouldn’t meet my eye. I wanted to shake her.
Lydia went to look out of the window. ‘Rose is right. You go back there now – what is it? Not even seven? You go home and show your mother your wrist and she tells you it doesn’t look so bad, all “give a smile and get one back” and no questions asked about why you did it, and your grandfather takes you aside and tells you to “stop making a scene” and “this isn’t how we behave, young lady”, right?’
Jenna nodded.
‘And then the police come banging on the door, and even if your mother has to answer to them too… I asked her if she ever felt guilty. Do you know what she did?’ Lydia rubbed at something on the glass. ‘She laughed in my face and walked away.’
Rose snorted. ‘That whole family is getting locked up.’ She bit her lip and hugged Jenna.
The whole family?
Jenna pushed Rose away. ‘I don’t want my mum to go to jail.’
Oh, of course. That’s who she’s trying to keep out of prison.
Rose glared. ‘I do. It’s called emotional neglect, you know, Jenna? What your mum does to you? It’s abuse.’
Lydia pushed her hair from her face and pulled it back into a bun. ‘Listen, I’ve looked into this.’ She glanced at me. ‘Tristan isn’t the only one who broke the law back then. I’ve been thinking about what the consequences should’ve been, for all of us, for a long time. Way before I knew about the tape.
‘Frances lied. She got me and Mina to lie. She hid the tape. But she didn’t know what was on it. She was seventeen. I honestly am not certain she’d go to prison for that.’
‘You really think so?’ Jenna said.
Frances was the one who hid the tape?
