The Faithless - Martina Cole [73]
Gabby was in tears, weeping silently. She felt as if her heart had been ripped from her body, and the only thing inside her was this deep, dark sorrow. She had loved her dad. He had been good to her, and he had loved her, genuinely loved her. Now he was gone. He had killed himself because of her mother, her mother who had never cared for anyone or anybody in her whole life except herself.
‘Get your stuff, Gabriella, you’re coming home with me.’
Mary Callahan looked at her elder daughter and wondered for the thousandth time how she had ever bred this excuse for a woman.
‘Get yourself away, Cynth, you’re not welcome here any more.’
‘I want my daughter, Mum.’
‘Well, you can’t have her. She doesn’t want to go with you.’
Cynthia looked at the woman who had borne her, and who she had loved and hated throughout her life, and she said snidely, ‘Well, we’ll have to see about that, won’t we?’
Shutting the door in her daughter’s face, Mary said sadly, ‘Yes, Cynthia, I suppose we will.’
She put her arm around her granddaughter then and, hugging her, she said kindly, ‘Come on, lovie, I’ll make us a hot chocolate.’
‘I ain’t got to go back there, Nana, have I?’
Mary sighed heavily, then said in all honesty, ‘I hope not, Gabby. I hope not.’
Jack Callahan was sitting drinking his beer; the telly was off, and the room was quieter than Gabby had ever experienced before. It was as if the events of the last few days had wiped out every bit of their energy and their happiness. Her auntie Celeste was back at home with her husband; he had, as always, talked her round. Jonny was sorry, there was no doubt about that, but her dad was dead because of him, and that wasn’t something that could be forgotten overnight. She would never forgive either of them. Her dad had been one of the few people who had ever really cared for her, and she wished now, more than anything, that she had told him just how much he had meant to her. Now her mother was determined to get her back home, and had not shown even the slightest remorse at her husband’s suicide, or acknowledged that she was the cause of it. As always it was about her mother, not anyone else. Her granddad and nana had aged before her eyes, and even James Junior was out of the picture. It felt as if her family had been dismembered, and she didn’t know how to cope with it all.
The only bright spot was Vincent; he had been fantastic. Her granddad said he could come to the house, and that was wonderful. Just being near him, and feeling his love for her, was enough to make her feel she might, just might, get through all this heartache one day.
Her mum was bad, toxic – she destroyed everything she touched, and she didn’t care who she hurt in her quest to get what she wanted. Gabby knew that she had been trying to get her uncle Jonny to go and see her. Phoning the house at all hours, until he had changed the number. It had made her nana and granddad furious. Her granddad said that it was common knowledge now, that the neighbours were having a field day. He also said that, if Jonny Parker had any sense, he would shoot Cynthia Tailor down like a rabid dog, and do them all a favour. She agreed with her granddad about that; she would gladly shoot her mother herself.
That Jonny was back in favour didn’t surprise Gabby. She understood that her grandparents had turned their back on one daughter, but that they could never do it to the other one. Celeste needed her family, and they needed her. It galled her, though, that Jonny Parker had walked away more or less scot-free – that wasn’t right. He was as much to blame for her dad’s death as her mother was.
Her poor dad, that he would kill himself like that! She felt the tears once more. It seemed as though her whole life had suddenly been destroyed, and she didn’t know how to make it better. She would never see her dad’s face again, never hear his voice. While her mother, the main cause of it all, seemed no different than usual. She was acting like her life hadn’t even really been affected. Even today, she didn’t look remotely bothered that her