Page 7 of The Good Girl

Chapter Six

After the mother and daughter bonding session, in the lead-up to the party the atmosphere at the Lassiter residence continued to teeter on unbearable.

Family harmony was non-existent. Meals were eaten in staggered silences.

Dinner had been weird. Julia ate on the patio with Dee, the two of them alone at the giant glass table. Molly took a sandwich to her room.

When Julia came down for breakfast, Shane disappeared into the gym. It was the same if she entered a room where Shane was sitting: he muttered something and left. Their avoidance of each other was comically strategic, like chess players caught in an endless stalemate.

It might have made Molly feel smug, once.

The tension, the knowing glances, the petty jabs.

But now, after her mum’s heart-to-heart it only fed her guilt.

The night before, she hadn’t slept a wink, going over what might happen to her family when she was in America.

Her mum had definitely changed and she was suspicious of Shane.

Something was going on, Molly was sure of it and to her own shame, regardless of what she saw and knew, all she could think about was herself.

After the lunch with her mum, she’d gone to her room and prayed, actually got down on her knees by her bed and begged for her secret not to be discovered.

She also swore to herself that if her prayer was answered, once she was at Princeton, she would eradicate Shane from her mind as long as her mum was okay.

In fact, if she could have speeded up time, Molly would be on that plane already waving the past goodbye.

And then there was Dee.

Poor Dee was sat in the crossfire of a silent war, with no clue that life as she knew it was coming to an end.

Molly watched Dee watching her family with anxious eyes, always trying to fill the space with chatter, hoping for laughter, making playlists for the party, offering to help Magda in the kitchen, texting Molly endless memes about sisters and holding on to their bond across the miles.

That Tuesday morning, after breakfast, Molly found Dee in the conservatory, hunched over a pile of fairy light boxes. Her poker straight hair, the same dark brown as Molly’s more wavy locks, hung over her face and when she looked up, her eyes, a touch bluer, were happy to see her.

‘I thought these could go around the cake table,’ Dee said, untangling the wires. ‘If Mum approves.’

Molly sat beside her on the floor. ‘She’ll approve. She’ll probably want them lining the driveway and all the way down to the village, too.’

Dee gave her a tired smile. ‘She’s just trying to make it nice. She wants it to be perfect for you.’

‘I know.’

There was a pause, then Dee added, ‘I’m going to miss you, Molls. It won’t be the same here without you.’

Molly reached out and touched her sister’s arm. ‘You’ll be fine and you know what, I reckon it’s going to make you stronger than you think possible. You just have to believe in yourself, and that you can get by perfectly well without me.’

Dee looked down at the fairy lights again. ‘I won’t. I’m not like you, Molls. And it’s horrible here at the moment.’

Molly wanted to say more, to reassure her, to explain that she should never ever want to be like her. But how could she? How could she explain something that she didn’t dare speak out loud?

Instead, she said, ‘You’ll have Shane. And Mum. It’ll settle down once I’m gone because Mum can focus on their marriage, make things right.’ Molly knew that was a lie and the total opposite was probably on the cards, but it was all she had.

Dee frowned. ‘They don’t even speak, Molls. Half the time I feel like I’m the only one trying. It’s like they can’t stand each other and it’s only a matter of time.’

Molly’s throat tightened. ‘Just have faith, okay? Focus on school. You’ve got your mocks this year, haven’t you? And remember, no matter what happens, you’ll always have Mum. She’ll make sure you’re okay.’

Dee nodded. ‘I guess. But it’s hard to concentrate when you feel like everything’s about to blow up.’

Molly squeezed her hand. ‘I know. I’ve had to block their squabbles out while I did my exams and if I can do it, so can you.

’ Molly cringed at how easily the bullshit was rolling off her tongue because in truth, in between studying she’d spent every moment she got with Shane.

That thought made her feel so bad she swiped it away and changed tack.

‘And anyway, you’re the really clever one in the family and get this, once I’m gone Mum will zoom in on you and make you her next protégé.

You’ll be the star attraction, you lucky thing.

’ Molly tickled Dee’s ribs and was relieved when she broke into fits of giggles, whacking Molly’s hand away, begging her to stop.

Once the laughter had faded, Dee’s face became serious again as she asked, ‘Can I call you whenever I want, though, even do FaceTime every night if I need to? Then I can pretend you’re next door and not so far away.’

Scooting closer to her sister, Molly put her arms around Dee and hugged her tight, pecking her on the head before resting her cheek against her hair. ‘Of course you can. Message me, ring me, bug the hell out of me if it makes you feel better. I’ll be there for you, Dee, I promise.’

They sat like that for a while, holding on to each other tight, soaking up the quiet of the house and a few moments of calm before the storm. The one that despite their bravado and promises, Molly knew was coming.

Later that evening, as the sun dipped low over the garden bathing the lawns in a peachy glow, Molly found her mother pacing the terrace, phone pressed to her ear, expression taut.

‘I know, Nancy. It’s driving me mad, too but we have to be patient.’

A pause.

‘No. No, I don’t think he suspects. But he’s edgy. Watching me. I can feel it. I swear that man is psychic but then again things have never been this bad and I think he knows I’m biding my time now, waiting until Molly’s in the States.’

Molly backed up before her shadow gave her away. Her chest thumped. The edge in her mother’s voice wasn’t panic. It was steely resolve.

‘We’ve come this far so we just have to hang on, then once she’s gone he can do what he wants. And I’m so done with secrets. If she finds out, so be it. Me and you can deal with it together and explain it all to her.’

Molly’s mind was racing as her ears strained so as not to miss a word.

‘Yes, yes I’ll keep in touch. I just wish he wasn’t coming to the party so I could enjoy it with Molly and Dee but there’s no way he’d miss it.

He loves posing around and showing off. I wonder if whoever he’s seeing this time will be there, I mean, let’s face it, it could be any old tart.

I’m starting to think he’s not fussy. God, I hate him so much, Nance. ’

Julia paused by a topiary and plucked at the tiny leaves as she listened to whatever Nancy was saying, nodding and smiling every now and then. ‘I’m just so glad we’re solid again because I couldn’t do this without you, Nance. None of it. You know that, don’t you?’

The doorbell ringing interrupted the conversation. It almost gave Molly a heart attack and sent her racing through the kitchen and up the stairs, leaving her mum to take the Amazon parcel off the driver.

By the time Molly reached her room and closed the door behind her, she was panting for breath and trying to get her thoughts in order.

Staggering over to the bed she threw herself on top, turning onto her back and staring at the ceiling, wondering what the hell her mum and Aunty Nancy were planning.

Something drastic, clearly. A divorce? Kicking Shane out?

And what was this big secret that they both had, definitely something to do with her.

Did Shane know about it? She wasn’t sure but had a feeling he did.

After that, her thoughts spiralled. Her mum and Nancy had been keeping something from her and she needed to know what it was.

There was no way she could keep this inside but she had to, at least until the party was over.

Half of Little Bollington had been invited and it had cost a bomb so she couldn’t kick up a fuss beforehand.

No, she would bide her time, play it smart and then, calmly, on Sunday after the party, sit her mum down and ask her straight out what was going on.

And in the meantime she’d drop some hints to Shane, see if he knew anything.

When she finally drifted off, her dreams were confused and strange. Fireworks exploding over the golf course. Dee running through the house screaming. Shane standing in the swimming pool, fully clothed, watching her like always, with those unreadable, irresistible grey-blue eyes.