17

Katie felt no fear and nothing more than anger as she pushed Grace's pram along the street of her childhood. Knocking the door she was glad to see movement inside the house. As the door swung open Carmel dressed on just a satin robe gasped and made to slam it in her face. Katie laughed and rammed her foot in the doorway preventing her.

            "I don't think so step mother dearest!" She barged past her and into the hallway, "this house is after all 67% mine and as of this morning, up for sale! You can’t lock me out of it...but I can see you thrown out of it!"

Carmel gasped her mouth hanging open, as Katie continued past her in to the house. And at the end of the hallway, sat at the kitchen table paused from eating breakfast was a middle-aged man wearing just a pair of boxer shorts. 

"Who the hell are you?" Katie hissed. Turning to Carmel, she saw her flushed face and knew exactly what had been going on, guilt was spread across her face. "Oh my God! My poor father is barely cold in the ground and you've moved onto your next victim?"

Carmel was getting redder and redder, but Katie was incensed, too devastated to take in the beauty that was her new found power.

"You are truly a despicable woman!" 

The man stood, "I'll...."

"Do not move!" Katie shouted, "You can sit and witness this, because for the first time in fifteen years I WILL have my say!" She turned back to Carmel, "every one of your lies is coming out today! Do you hear me?"

Carmel was unsure how to proceed, in the past she'd used Bill to both inflame and disperse Katie's anger. Now he wasn't there, and Katie was unrestricted and there was nothing she could do to stop her. 

"You lied about me for years, things I was supposed to have said or did. You wormed your way between me and him, and made him choose. God you must've felt smug when he repeatedly sided with you to keep the peace?" She watched Carmel's face, a torrent of emotion raging the loathed woman's features.

"When I came back from Spain, you knew that I and Dan got on, didn't you? You could see the way he looked at me, the way he was near me that he lusted after me if not loved me. Didn't you? So you pulled out that trump card, the one that you'd hung over my Dad all these years, the one that forced him to side with you tie and time again, the ONE thing that he never wanted me to know. That he was Dan's dad. You knew that even if he wasn't Dan's father, the fact that he could've been would be enough to turn me away, was it just the money Carmel? Because you were married to him, I've thought a lot these last few months and I still can't understand what threat I really was?"

And for a moment Katie took pleasure at Carmel losing control, "You were a devious little bitch, I hated you from the moment I met you, you and your perfect mother! It was like a living nightmare, 'Grace liked this', my mother did that'. It got on my nerves Katie and it all got better when you left."

Katie shook her head, sadness engulfing her, "don't you care that he died unhappy, that you broke his heart?"

Carmel laughed ironically, "you broke his heart wonderful daughter, he died knowing that you were rejecting him again."

"No he didn’t! I was there, with him holding his hand as he died, he knew I loved him! What I really want to know it did you even sleep with him?" 

Carmel cackled, "He got drunk one night and I took him home, nothing happened, but he didn't know that!"

Katie was reeling, "oh my God! You are so much more of an evil bitch than I ever realized."

"I’ll second that!" came a voice from behind. The two women guiltily spun around to confront Dan. As he entered the hallway he couldn't take his eyes off his mother. 

"How could you lie to me? Make me have that DNA test....have you any idea how awful the last six months have been? I thought I'd slept with my own sister! I have been physically and morally sick for so long." Katie reached out, touched his arm, wanting to stop him being hurt, she’d never meant for that to happen.

"You slept with her?" she asked with contempt. "How could you?"

Dan was still silenced and couldn't meet Katie's eyes, so she retaliated, "he found it very easy actually Carmel! He loved every second!"

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to face him, "don't be so childish, lowering yourself to that level. I thought you were better than this Katie."

"Do not take the moral high ground with me Daniel; I came here to get answers. She's made my life hell, and I wanted her to finally admit that she's the bad person here. I had no idea you'd be here today, I didn't want to involve you.”

He shook his head, "No you came here to point score. To take this petty feud to another level."

Katie shook her head, reaching for his arm, needing him to understand, "no. I was hoping that I'd get the truth, so I could finally walk away from this house and her, forever. I just needed closure."

"Closure?” She shrieked, “I can't believe my son slept with you...I'm stunned."

Katie almost laughed, "I can’t believe my father slept with YOU! Carmel, you are a joke. You are here less than two months after my father - your husband died, and you have some form of lover in the kitchen, and you've admitted to trapping my poor dad into a twenty three year lie. Do not even think to criticize me."

"A lover in the kitchen? Mother?" Dan stormed past his mother and entered the kitchen, freezing at the sight of a half naked shocked man at the table. He turned to his mother, "what are you doing?"

As his mother tried to find a reasonable answer Katie decided to cut her losses.

"I'm going Dan; the house is on the market. Ramon is dealing with the sale."

He spun around, "why are you being like this? You're not a nasty person!"

She rounded on him, "no but I'm a lonely person Dan, not that you'd care. Do what you want, but we're leaving!" She marched back into the hallway and to the pram with the still sleeping Grace in it.

"I didn't realize you'd brought her," Dan offered, the expression on his face changing as he strode up to the carrycot and peeped over the side.

"No that'll be because you spent too much time thinking the worst of me..." as he cooed at his daughter, Katie continued, "so are you going to tell her?

"That's why I'm here."

Carmel looked up a shocked expression on her face, "Tell me what?" 

Katie turned to Carmel and sighed, suddenly this wasn't as cathartic as she'd imagined, "that this is Dan's baby, and this is the one and only chance you have to see your granddaughter Grace, as there's no way such poison will enter her life."

Carmel staggered, visibly shocked, "Dan?" she turned to him but he was enthralled in gazing at his daughter, all the evidence she needed.

"I'm going Dan. You know where we are......" Katie added quietly.

He looked between his crying mother and her and shook his head, for the first time in his life he didn't know what to do. So he watched her walk away, and for the first time realised how much hurt she had suffered, but he let her go, he let them both go.

            "So let me see her!" Pilar burst in through the front door. She'd been back in Mexico for a week so she'd missed little Grace. As she scooped up the baby, cooing at her gently, she failed to notice Katie still slumped in the corner of the room. After a few moments she looked over at her friend and saw how pale, how drawn she looked. "Hey Katie! What's up? You look terrible!"

Katie smiled sarcastically as Pilar hoisted Grace over her shoulder and crossed the room to sit by her friend. "What is it?" Pilar squeezed her hand.

At that sudden show of affection, Katie felt her hidden traumas and tears come to the surface. As a few heavy tear drops escaped down her cheek, Pilar pulled her into an embrace with her free arm.

"What is it?"

"So much has happened Pilar..."

Stroking her hair, Pilar left her arms around Katie, "Then start at the beginning."

So, between mopping her eyes with handkerchiefs, the whole sorry story came out. Pilar's face displayed every emotion that she felt as she heard the torment her friend had suffered.

"So he isn't your brother?"

Katie shook her head, "that's a huge relief, like you wouldn't believe."

Pilar nodded, "I cannot imagine! But all those months of being pregnant? you had to deal with that?"

She nodded, "I couldn't have got rid of her, I'm so glad I didn't!"

Pilar was still trying to process this amazing story, "I'm glad you told that bitch what for. That is so out of order!"

"I went to her thinking that wiping the floor with her would make me feel better, that this would make me finally avenge all the shit that she's put me through."

Pilar nodded, squeezing her hand, "but you're too nice, and you feel bad?"

Katie shrugged, "That's Grace's only grandparent...shit her only family member besides me and Dan. And then there’s him, I want to hate him for continually defending and choosing her over me. But...you should see him with Grace Pilar, he's already a wonderful father. He was only going home for a few days to get some more clothes and things. Now I've made him hate me more. And why wouldn't he? I'd defend my parents too, if I had the chance."

"If he hadn't been there yesterday, if he was still here what would you want to do?"

She sighed, "He wanted to drop back into where we left it months ago. But he left me, ignored me, hurt me Pilar, but I know that not telling him about Grace really hurt him too."

"Do you love him?"

Did she? She shrugged, "I don't know. I can't stop thinking about him, but is that because he's been forbidden? Or that he's Grace's father?"

"I can't answer that for you querida, but I can say that sometimes things aren't straight forward. If he walks in now, what would you say to him?"

She really wanted someone to help her, tell her the answers to the questions that kept her awake every night, instead she sighed, "I'd want to know how he felt about me, but honestly? I don't trust him; him saying that he wants to be with me isn't enough. I guess he needs to prove he deserves me, he was working hard with Grace....."

Pilar wanted to help her friend so much, but it wasn’t that easy, "How did you leave it with him?"

"I walked out; he stayed to speak to his mother."

"When's he due to come back?"

Katie took Grace from Pilar; the baby had fallen asleep over her shoulder, "a few days. I don't know."

"Take it day by day, don't rush into anything, ok? You deserve passion, devotion, electric shocks and lights; don't settle for something that fits in. Promise?"