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THREE DAYS LATER

Lottie sat with a dejected Gordon Collins in the show home kitchen. He’d moved in temporarily with Brenda Morgan’s blessing, as he was now homeless.

‘I was duped by Charlie. Taken in by her.’ He ran his hand through his hair, then grimaced with pain. The skin grafts on his bandaged hands were still healing. ‘I didn’t understand it, all those years ago, but I’ve read up about her type since. She was only sixteen, but she was on a mission to escape her life, her stepfather. He ran Cuan back then and she claimed he was violent towards her, but perhaps that was another lie, and I was her escape route. I was damaged, struggling with my addiction, easy prey. I’m not excusing my actions of thirty years ago, but I understand them more clearly with the passing of time.’

‘Explain,’ Lottie said.

‘Things really began to unravel behind the scenes when I took John Morgan under my wing last year. I think Charlie saw me giving him something I never gave her. Respect and time. She was insanely jealous of him. And of me. She had manipulated me into acquiring and then giving her the old rectory house. She inveigled money from me to get into the estate agent business and forced me to give her the contract for selling my flagship housing project. She threatened to expose my actions of thirty years ago. She even installed her stepbrother, Thomas, at Cuan to spy on Irene Dunbar.’ Collins took a long drink of water before continuing.

‘Irene was a young secretary at Cuan back then. She joined forces with us after the facility partially burned down. She helped Diana with the baby’s adoption. We had to be careful, and when Charlie returned to Ragmullin, I believed that she was working her way back into our lives in order to control us all over again. As if her actions three decades ago wasn’t control enough. She wanted to destroy us all.’

‘Did you realise what had happened with Aneta?’

‘I’d assumed she’d gone back to Poland, but now I know better. Charlie took Aneta as a slave because that was her ultimate control over another human being, next to killing them. She took great pleasure in telling me how she’d mistreated and murdered her. She didn’t see her as her own daughter, only mine. And I had to be punished. Plus, she was insanely jealous of my mentorship of John. Her cruelty had to be shared to bring me down further.’

‘How long were you in contact with Aneta?’

‘I couldn’t tell you too much before. I was terrified you’d go straight to Charlie and then she would target my daughters. When her adoptive mother died, Aneta found her original birth cert and some old papers. She tracked me down and I kept in contact with her. I sent her money. We talked on the phone. Long conversations. I told her about my girls, sent her photos, and we discussed my marriage troubles. She was interested in my life; a good listener.’ He looked wistfully out the window. ‘I spoke to her about John, and how he was going into rehab. I emailed her his photo because she seemed interested. She must have had it printed, as you found a copy. Why did she do that, I wonder? Maybe she wanted to bond with me through him, but I honestly don’t know.’

‘Why did she come to Ireland?’

‘She wanted to know who her birth mother was. I kept putting her off and didn’t realise she was here until that event Irene ran at Cuan. And then Aneta disappeared. Like I said, I assumed she’d gone home. I continued to send her an allowance but heard nothing further from her.’

‘Why didn’t Charlie target your ex-wife or daughters?’

‘They could have been next on her list. Who knows how her warped brain works.’

‘I’m trying to understand why Aneta went to work at Cuan,’ Lottie said. ‘She had an old group photo, which was taken around thirty years ago on the steps of the facility. Do you know when it was taken, and why?’

‘That was the night of the fire. The night that led to all our lives being scorched for ever more.’