Page 93 of Outlier

I stared at Margot for a long moment.

“You never neglected your duty,” I told her.

I didn’t address the surveillance stuff – I wouldn’t have been able to stop her doing what she wanted anyway. Logically, I should be outraged. But I knew that when it came to people she cared about, Margot wasveryinvasive. To be on the receiving end of her overbearing attention and her bossiness was actually… nice. It was one of the reasons that I forgave her for what she did with Mike.

At least she’d cared enough to blackmail someone into dating me.

Wow. I was coming to realise that feeling like I was a burden on everyone my entire life may have messed me up, just a little.

Margot put her teacup back on its saucer, and then gracefully set the cup and saucer on the small table next to her, before she reached across to me, pausing until I nodded, and her hand enclosed mine. Her grip was firm, and her hand dry, so I could tolerate it better than I expected.

“Yes, I did,” she said softly. “And it won’t happen again. You’re a part of this family, and that means me being… now, what is it the young people say? Ah yes,right up in your grill.”

I wasn’t much into slang, but I was quite sure that the young people of Margot’s acquaintance said no such thing.

“Now,” she continued, releasing my hand and leaning back in her chair. “We need to discuss Mike.”

I stiffened. “Margot?—”

“Firstly, I’m going to say sorry. I’m an interfering old bat, and it always backfires on me. Just ask your brother.”

“You meant well. And, had you not intervened, Mike would never have?—”

“Absolute rubbish!” she cut me off. “That boy couldn’t take his eyes off you long before I gave him a little push.”

I blinked, then shook my head. “You’re remembering it wrong. I was the one stalking Mike, not the other way around.”

Margot started laughing. “Mike Mayweather has always watched you, Vicky. Even as children, he could never look away. Back then, the more you ignored him, the grumpier he got.”

“I didn’t ignore him.”

“No, I know you didn’t, but Mike didn’t understand why you wouldn’t speak to him. Your mother…” Margot broke off to clench her jaw.

She’d picked her teacup back up, and her knuckles were white from how hard she was holding the handle. She cleared her throat, closed her eyes briefly and then continued.

“Your bloody mother didn’t agree to any assessments or in ‘labelling you’, as she put it, so there was no good explanation we could give to people like Mike. I’m sorry I didn’t do something, Vicky. You should have been supported at school. You should have had access to specialist services. I let you down.”

“It wasn’t your responsib?—”

“You were a child under my care. Okay, so maybe that was only for two weeks a year, and maybe I didn’t have parental responsibility, but I could have done more.”

“I’m not your daughter,” I said in a small voice, and her expression softened.

“You’re a sister to my children, darling. That makes you my daughter by default. Back then, I’m afraid my pride was hurt by your father. But quite frankly, fuck your father. Who cares if he was shagging around? I was well rid of him anyway by the time you came to stay with us. My pride and your father were never the important things. You kids were important, and in those first precious two weeks after you arrived as a tiny six-year-old, I let Ollie look after you when I should have been the one doing it.”

“Honestly, I?—”

“No. I won’t hear any more on the subject. I was wrong, and that’s that. And what I did with Mike was wrong too, but you’re just going to have to get over that, because there’s no time to waste now. If we don’t act quickly, Mike’s going to make a huge mistake, and I’llneverbe able to forgive myself.”

I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t ask about Mike, that I wouldn’t let myself go back down that road. I knew it wasn’t healthy for me, but…

“What’s Mike done?”

Chapter 30

Your grovel game needs some serious work

Mike