What on earth was wrong with these people?
My throat went dry, and I couldn’t get rid of the sick, bewildered feeling in my stomach. I heard them leave and waited a few moments before I climbed out of the dumbwaiter. I hurried into the kitchen and through to the living room. All the guests had gathered in the large room as Noah stood by the mantelpiece holding a glass. He clinked it with a fork to garner everybody’s attention, and a hush fell.
My gaze landed on Vee, who stood in the corner with a distressed, fearful look in her eyes. I was about to go to her when Noah started to speak.
“I’d like to thank you all for coming tonight,” he began. “This gathering marks the 10th anniversary of my father, Victor Dylan’s, passing. I’d also like to especially thank his close friends, Enda Riordan, Matt O’Hare, Lydia McBride and John and Theresa Hawkins, for their help in organising this remembrance. The five of you meant a great deal to Victor. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say he wouldn’t have been the man he was without you. Many of you who live in town remember Victor fondly as a man who was never short of laughter and good cheer. He was the life and soul of the party, and we all know he liked to throw his fair share of those.”
There was a pause followed by gentle, nostalgic laughter. My attention drifted to a small commotion in the middle of the room. Sylvia was trying to wheel her way through the guests, her eyes furious but also panicked. Noah noticed her, too, a vicious smile gracing his lips as he continued, “Victor was my father, but the man you knew wasn’t the same man I knew. No wait, that’s not entirely true. His close friends knew Victor well. They knew exactly what kind of person he was, and now I’d like to share with the rest of you what kind of person he was, too. They say that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Well, the same could be said for Victor’s friends, though I’m not too sure about the “good” part.” Silence pervaded the room as his gaze swept over the crowd. Enda, Lydia, Matt and Hawkins all looked varying degrees of panicked or ill. Theresa’s blue eyes narrowed to slits as she stared bloody murder at him. Everyone else’s attention was on Noah, intrigue in the air as they waited for what he had to say.
“I’d like to tell you a story,” he went on. “A story about a mother, a father, a son and a death.”
My skin grew clammy, my heart beating way too fast, like I was on the verge of a panic attack. Oh, no, I recognised this feeling. The lights overhead started to flicker on and off, intermittently plunging the room into darkness, but it seemed I was the only one to notice. Everyone else was focused on Noah, but I could no longer hear him speak. My ears felt like I was underwater as I leaned back and grabbed hold of the wall to steady myself.
It wasn’t much use, because I collapsed anyway, and my vision was plunged into darkness …
I came awake in a room both familiar and not. It was the living room at Ard na Mara, the same one I’d just been standing in while Noah made his speech. But this was a time gone by. A young Sylvia sat on an armchair, while an even younger Vee sat on the sofa, crying her eyes out. Victor paced by the fireplace. None of them appeared to be able to see me.
“I can’t believe you let this happen. You’ll have to get rid of it,” Sylvia spat, her words full of vitriol as she cast her eyes on Vee. It was shocking to see her like this, not only because she was young and healthy, but because she seemed so hateful. Vee had been telling the truth about her mother after all.
“It’s too late to get rid of it,” Victor said coldly. “She’ll have the baby. We’ll tell everyone she’s attending a boarding school abroad for a few months until it’s born. Then we’ll raise it as our own.”
Vee’s teary eyes looked up. “You’re going to send me away?”
Victor shook his head. “No, you’ll stay here. You’ll simply be forbidden to leave the house.”
“I can’t stay indoors for three whole months,” she protested.
Sylvia stood, fuming down at her. “You should’ve thought about that while you were keeping this baby a secret from us. I knew there was something odd about all those baggy clothes you were wearing.”
“Jesus Christ,” Vee wailed. “Are you even hearing yourself right now?”
“I’m hearing myself just fine, young lady.”