She knew I was onto her. The credit card statements, the lies, the fake sincerity. I watched her leave for work, and I followed her, my heart hammering in my chest. I had to know where she was really going.
It wasn’t a wild goose chase. I saw her meet him, that bloke Ross. My own sister, and she’d been lying to my face for weeks. Meanwhile, Tyrone was still reeling from the news that his real dad, Steve, had been found.
The girls had orchestrated it all, a secret DNA test and a fake message. He didn’t want to see the man, didn’t want the complication. He said he’d managed fine for forty years without a dad. But then Steve showed up, and it all came out.
Cassie knew him. Years ago, they’d had a fling, and she’d taken out a credit card in his name. That was her secret. That was why she’d been so twitchy.
She confessed to a spending addiction, an illness, she called it. I felt the floor drop from under me. All this time, the fake smiles, the “I love you’s,” it was all a lie to cover up her thieving. I gave her a chance to explain herself at the house meeting.
I laid it all out, the stolen identity, the credit card in my name that arrived that morning. She sat there, sniveling, trying to blame it on trauma and dopamine. But then the questions started. Was it just me?
Or had she done it to Glenda too? The look on her face told me everything. Of course she had. I asked her if she’d taken anything out in Tyrone’s name.
She said no. But the way she hesitated, the way she couldn’t meet my eyes, I knew there was more. I asked about the others, and she just started crying harder. I told her I wouldn’t inform the authorities, but I couldn’t just forgive her.
She had to earn that. I wanted to know the full extent of it, minuted, so there were no more surprises. Then Tyrone dropped his own bombshell about his new life. Ross had asked him to play golf.
He was trying to be a dad. And I had to smile and pretend I was happy for him, even though a part of me was screaming that this was all happening too fast. Later, I tried to talk to him, to tell him to be careful with Ross. He told me to mind my own business, to get my own life sorted before poking my nose into his.
I felt the anger bubble up inside me. He had no idea what I was going through. I’d just found out my own mother was a thief, and he was worried about a round of golf with a man we barely knew. Maria was suspicious, too.
She saw me talking to the detective, wanting to know more about the investigation into Theo’s death. She knew I was hiding something. And then Gary, her bloke, he was lying through his teeth as well. I saw the panic in his eyes when the police came asking questions again.
They were all lying. Everyone was lying. I was sick of it. So when Maria asked me again what I knew, I told her the truth.
I told her Gary was a liar. She didn’t want to believe me, but I couldn’t stop myself. The words just came out. Gary was furious.
He cornered me, demanding to know what I’d said. I told him the truth: she was better off knowing he was hiding something from her than living a lie. And then I said it. I told him I hoped they did arrest him.
Because I couldn’t make him tell the truth, but maybe they could. The look on his face was pure shock. I’d finally said the one thing he never expected to hear. I turned and walked away, my heart pounding.
I didn’t know what I’d just started, but I knew there was no going back.
