Celeste was in her nana’s arms now, and she followed her granddad out of the house, wondering what this night would bring them all, and aware that it wouldn’t be anything good, that much was for sure. It never was with her mother. She was sending her away to school in the middle of nowhere so she couldn’t be with Vincent, and all the time she was having an affair with her uncle Jonny!

Gabby still couldn’t believe what she had seen, still couldn’t get over her father’s reaction. Her poor dad, her poor, poor dad. She was crying again, and she hoped that her mum was dead on the floor when they got back home. She wanted her dead so badly. If she died she couldn’t hurt them any more.

Even James Junior might be in with a chance if she was gone, because her mother infected everyone and everything around her, and she destroyed anyone who stood in her way, just as she beat down anyone who disagreed with her.

Gabby hated her, even more than before if that was possible. Her mother had more or less called her a whore today, smugly telling her she was going away to school, where there would be no boys. Well, she herself would know what a whore was – no one could know better. In fact, she was worse than a whore, because she had done the dirty on her own sister, and that was something only the lowest of the low could be capable of.

Gabby hoped her dad killed her, she hoped he had killed them both. They deserved it, the pair of them.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

‘Oh, shut up, Cynthia. Shut the fuck up!’ Jack Callahan was disgusted with them, both Cynthia and Jonny, and it showed. He looked at his son-in-law and, sneering, he said, ‘Where’s Jimmy gone?’

Jonny had the grace to look shamefaced and that placated Jack a little bit. Even his son-in-law’s fearsome reputation wasn’t cutting any ice with him this night. He thought these two before him were lower than the lowest, they were carrion to him now. If he never saw either of them again it would be too soon.

‘I don’t know, Dad.’