Shauna’s face grew still. ‘I told you. I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said.

‘Yeah, you do. You wanted her gone and they helped you. Claire vanished, didn’t she, on the night you and my dad got together. She ran for her life. But those bastards had already done the damage, and she was pregnant.’

Shauna’s eyes were like daggers. ‘Yes, she ran off. Nothing to do with me though. She broke up with Josh and just cleared out. That’s all.’ She got to her feet, stalked to one end of the kitchen, then turned and came back to the coffee bar.

He could see she was lying. It was true, what Suki had told him. All of it.

‘Fuck it, you know what I think?’ said Connor. ‘I think that Dad should never have been with you at all. He should have been with Claire Milo, but you derailed his entire life, didn’t you. If he’d been with Claire, if he’d been happy, then he wouldn’t have fucked off to America to book fights, he would have stayed here.’

‘You what?’ roared Shauna. ‘You little shit,’ she said, and came across the kitchen, eyes mad with rage. She snatched up the Magnum and pointed it straight at his chest.

150

150

‘Don’t be bloody silly,’ said Connor, staring down the large black barrel of the gun.

His mother was actually pointing the Magnum at him. She’d really lost it this time.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Calm down and give me the gun, Mum. This is stupid.’

For a moment she glared at him and he thought, Shit, she’s going to do it. She’s actually going to shoot me.

Slowly Shauna’s hand went down. She placed the gun back on the counter between them. Then she slumped down on the bar stool. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ she said in a trembling voice. ‘Look, I need some time alone, OK? Just go, will you. Fuck off, Connor,’ she said. She sounded exhausted.

‘Mum . . .’

‘Leave me alone. Josh betrayed me and you know what? Now both of my kids have too. Just go.’

Connor went.

Shauna sat there afterwards, shaking with fear and anger as she watched the rain dribble down the kitchen windows, listened to it hitting the roof of the house. She wondered what was happening to her life, the life she had always been in such control of but which was now hurtling into chaos. She would never have hurt Connor. Not really. What had she been thinking, turning the gun on him? And oh Christ, what he’d said before, about Jeb coming after him with an axe. What the fuck?

Josh was gone.

Josh hadn’t loved her.