Page 73 of Outlier

“Stay out of this, Becky,” said Gareth. “I’ll deal with you in a minute. My fucking son-in-law is going to tell me what the fuck he’s been doing.”

“Gareth, language!” Mum breathed in a scandalised whisper.

“Janet,” Gareth said in a low, dangerous voice. “Why am I paying for a wedding so that a rapist can marry my daughter?”

“I didn’t rape her,” spluttered Darrell. “For fuck’s sake. I barely touched her this time, and last time, I…” his bloody face drained of all colour as he realised what he’d revealed. “Well, I didn’t actually rape her,” he said in a weak voice.

“You’re not even paying for most of the wedding, Gareth,” Mike put in. “I know for a fact that Vicky is paying for the wedding dress, the alcohol, the band, and most of the venue. I’veseenher pay the balance for that stuff.”

“Jesus Christ,” Gareth clipped, still pinning his son-in-law to the wall, but now wearing a broken expression. “I’ll pay you back, cariad,” he said to me, then turned to his daughter, his voice dropping to ice cold. “I told you we couldn’t afford a big wedding. I knew you were lying to me about the costs.”

A mutinous expression crossed Rebecca’s face. “Why should I have to have a shitty reception in a village hall? It’s not fair that she’s got all this money, and we have to scrape around for the bare necessities. We had to put up with her all those years when she was being a bloody weirdo. Why shouldn’t she pay us back now? Her dad will have left her a ton of cash and?—”

“I did not receive a large inheritance from my father,” I said. “And after my father died, I continued the payments he used to make to Mum out of myownmoney.”

Rebecca snorted. “As if the bloody duke wouldn’t have set up a trust fund for you.”

“I only had a small trust fund, which I used for university.”

“How have you got all this money then?”

“She earned it, you spoiled brat,” Mike snapped, then turned back to me. “That’s why earning money is so important to you, isn’t it? You needed it to get away from this lot?”

I shrugged. “Money gives security. I needed to feel…” I trailed off, looking down at my feet.

“You needed to feel safe,” Mike filled in for me. “Did you hear that?” he said to my family. “She needed money to feel safe, fromyou.”

Mum snorted. “You’ve no idea how difficult she was when she?—"

“Janet,” Gareth snapped, cutting her off. “She didn’t bloody well speak. Even when you and our daughter put her down again and again, she didn’t say a word.”

“Because she’s a freak,” spat out Rebecca, her face bright red and furious.

“What did you do to her, young lady?” Gareth said, turning on his daughter. “What did you think she was going to pay you back for?”

Rebecca’s hands bunched into fists at her sides as her face screwed up into an ugly scowl. “This ismyfucking day!” She stamped her foot. “She’s ruining my day, and you’re letting her!”

“Right,” Mike said, pulling me close to him and tucking me under his arm. “I’ve had enough of this shit. Good luck, Gareth—you’re going to need it. Vicky and I are going to make the long overdue, it seems, trip to the police station to report this assault and the previous one.”

“The police aren’t going to be interested in—” started Darrell in a panicked voice, but Mike cut him off.

“Oh, they’ll be interested. Aside from the physical evidence?—”

“What physical evidence?” Mum asked in a high voice.

“The swelling on her face and bruises that are already coming up on her arms.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Mum snapped. “She’s always bruised very easily.”

Mike froze, and it was like all the air was sucked out of the corridor.

“Please, tell me that what you just said doesn’t mean what I think it does?” His tone was so threatening that Mum took a step back towards Gareth. “My God,” Mike breathed in disbelief. “You evil bitch. You put your hands on a child?”

“I-I-I you can’t speak to me this way. Gareth, tell him he can’t?—”

“Shut up, Janet,” Gareth said in what now sounded like a completely defeated tone. “Just pleaseshut up.” He turned to Mike. “Can you take her out of here, please son?”

Mike nodded and started to move past them, with me still held close to his side.