“Todd, he controlled you financially and every other way. You deserve every single penny. ” Those words were supposed to make me feel better about the life insurance money. Instead, they just reminded me of everything I’d lost.
—
CONTENT:
The morning of Theo’s funeral, I sat at the kitchen table with a bacon butty and a cup of tea, trying not to think about the coffin or the reason it existed. I’d already made up my mind not to go. Nobody expected me to. I owed him nothing.
Except I couldn’t stop thinking about the money. The life insurance had come through. Theo had named me as the beneficiary. Every cloud, they said.
I tried to laugh with my family about a road trip, about being Thelma and Louise, but underneath it all I felt sick. Made money out of a dead man. Money that should have gone to his kids. Money that came from a man who’d controlled me and trapped me in the flat, drinking myself into oblivion.
I hadn’t been away. The story about the Lakes was a lie I’d told to cover up the truth: I’d been holed up at home, drowning in self-pity, barely able to look at myself in the mirror. Peter had taught me nothing. Bertie deserved better, and so did Theo.
Only Jodie had listened without judging me. When I was ready to talk, she was there. And somehow, she helped me climb out of the hole I’d dug for myself. So on the morning of the funeral, I got up, had a shower, and told myself I was fine.
I wasn’t about to let some scumbag like Theo bring me down, was I? He’d tried to take everything from me. I’d worked hard for every penny I had, and I wasn’t going to roll over and take it. When I squared up to the man who confronted me at the Rovers, I was all anger.
How dare he try to take what was mine. How dare he make a show of me in front of everyone. “You see that mountain there? Cheered you up,” someone said.
“You waxed lyrical about the long walks and country pubs. ”
I knew they were trying to help. They’d dragged me to the pub, plied me with plonk and pickled eggs, called it a funeral without the deceased. George was family, they said.
They were only looking out for me. It was just what you did. But I was still fuming. I told them maybe one day I could forgive them.
Maybe. Then Danielle arrived. “So-called love of your life is barely cold and you’re up here knocking back the booze and having a laugh,” she snarled. “That wasn’t like that,” I said.
“Congratulations, Todd. You’ve officially got away with murder and you’re getting a massive payout for your trouble. I’d call that a result. ”
“Go home, Danielle.
You’re making a show of yourself. ”
But she wouldn’t stop. She stood there, pointing her finger at me, accusing me of plotting with Summer to kill Theo for the money. She knew what I’d done, she said.
She had my number. “You persuaded Theo to change his life insurance policy, and then you and Summer murdered him for the money,” she said. I laughed. It was crazy.
But then she asked how I knew I was in line for the money. “You must have phoned the insurance company because you thought you were in line for the money,” she said. She was wrong. I’d been with Theo when he took the call.
I’d seen the shock on his face. I hadn’t known a thing. “Shut up, Danielle,” I said. “You don’t even know me.
You’re poisonous, just like him. His toxic little sidekick. ”
She came at me with words, trying to twist everything. But I wasn’t going to stand there and take it.
Not anymore. Later, I found out the police had their eyes on Summer. She’d had so much loss, and now this. When I saw her, she couldn’t stop crying.
Reality was starting to kick in. The evidence was mounting against her. She couldn’t see a way out. She was convinced her whole life was over.
But standing in that pub, face to face with Danielle, I knew one thing for certain: I wasn’t going to let anyone take what was mine. After she left, I made a call. I had to find out the truth about the night Theo died.
—
