Page 62 of One Day and Forever
Zac had been so determined not to intervene, but now his curiosity got the better of him. ‘Dad, the reason I went to see Alice today is because Jill found a box of Mum’s old letters and photos, and in it was a note from Mum, apologising to Alice. But she never sent it. I know I should have asked you about it, but I didn’t want to make your day worse. Do you know what it was about? What was she apologising for?’
‘Only if you’re comfortable saying, Cillian,’ Alice interjected. ‘I don’t want you to feel that you’re breaking confidences.’
His dad gave a rueful shrug. ‘I suppose there’s no harm in telling you now and you deserve an answer. But Alice, I need to warn you that you might find it upsetting.’
Alice urged him on. ‘I’d like to know. I’ve already got an idea of what it was about, so please don’t worry about hurting my feelings. And please don’t think that you could ever say anything about Larry that would be worse than what I experienced with him. It’s a long story for another time, but I was married to him for almost thirty years and I hated every single day of my life with that man. It took me decades to escape him.’
‘I’m sorry, Alice. I wish we’d known that. Morag followed every piece of news about you, and she thought that you were happily married.’
Alice sighed. ‘It was all an act because that’s what he wanted people to believe. He basically threatened that he would take my child away from me if I left, because he didn’t want his political image damaged. People were always very taken in by him, until they saw his true colours.’
Zac handed over everyone’s drinks, then sat back, happy to listen to what he knew was going to be the truth.
‘That makes what I’m about to say easier,’ his dad went on. ‘You see, the truth was that Morag was taken in by him too. More than that, if I’m honest. He took an interest in her – I’m sorry, Alice, but it was when you were already together – and shethought for a while that she had feelings for him too. The wrong kind of feelings. He encouraged her, indulged her, and when you were all away on a trip – for her birthday, I think – she said he’d made a play for her every chance he could get. She didn’t give into him then though. Her moment of weakness was one night, back in Glasgow, when she went to his bar, and he humiliated her in front of everyone, sent her away and told her she was pathetic. He’d just been playing with her all along, manipulating her for fun.’
Zac felt a rage deep in his ribs and wanted to go right back to that scumbag’s house.
‘From that moment, it was like the blinkers came off and she saw who he was,’ his dad was saying now. ‘She was so ashamed. She hated him and she couldn’t face what she’d almost done to you. That’s why she left. I don’t think she ever forgave herself. I hope you can forgive her.’
He noticed the tears pooling in Alice’s eyes as she spoke. ‘I already have, because I fell for Larry’s lies too. I just wish I’d been able to tell her that when she was alive.’
‘Me too,’ his dad said, with a sad smile. ‘The only good thing to come out of it was that I met her the night she’d had the run-in with him. I’d only been in Glasgow a couple of days, and I was walking to my digs when I saw her sobbing in the street. She ended up staying with me that week, because she couldn’t even face her family and I fell hard and fast for her in no time. After that, I didn’t see her for a few weeks, though – she just needed time to get her thoughts straightened out – then one day out of the blue she called me. Asked if we could start again.’
Zac saw his chance to ask the other question that had consumed him since he found the photos that morning. ‘When was that, Dad?’
His dad thought about it. ‘That must have been the March, before we came back to Ireland and got married.’
‘So hang on, you also had a fling in January?’
‘Yeah. Probably too much information, but that was actually when you were conceived. Not that we knew it at the time. But we never actually properly went anywhere until we got together again, so your mum always said our first proper date was in March. We went to the cinema and then up to a wee restaurant called Gino’s in Merchant City for dinner. Best night of my life. Apart from when you were born.’
The relief was both instant and overwhelming. Zac wanted to punch the air. To hug his father. To kiss Alice, who met his eyes now, and he didn’t know which of them was smiling the widest. Before his dad even noticed their reaction, all their attention was taken by the bing-bong of a service announcement.
‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, would all passengers on the following flights please contact the airline customer services desk in the departures lounge.’
The three of them listened as the announcer read off a bunch of flight numbers and destinations.
‘That’s us,’ Zac said, as the Dublin flight was called.
Alice’s London one was next. ‘And that’s me too,’ she added.
The three of them polished off some more of their drinks, before getting up to join the mass of people heading to the door.
‘Doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere tonight,’ Zac said. ‘This has happened to me before.’
With that, he took a step back to let Alice go before him. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have seen the red-haired woman in the furthest corner of the lounge.
The one with a face that he’d thought about countless times over the years.
‘Erm, can I catch up with you? I’ve just seen someone I know and I’d really like to speak to her.’
10 P.M. – MIDNIGHT
32
KARA
Drea was on the warpath. In the last hour, she’d been up and down so many times, people were starting to think she worked here. This time, she came thundering back to the table like a woman on a mission.
