My head is all over the place. I can barely concentrate on anything but the weight of the gun in my hand and how much easier it would be if I just turned it on myself.

Chapter Eighty

‘I knew she wouldn’t just leave me,’ Angela said, tears streaming down her face.

Adrian moved closer still. This time she noticed and swung the gun back round to him, which made him feel strangely better than when it was pointing at Imogen.

‘What are you talking about? He’s not your husband?’ Imogen said.

‘I never married him, I can’t. He’s my biological father. My mother was called Angela Corrigan. I’m not the Angela Corrigan on the marriage certificate. My full name is Catherine Angela Corrigan. Not that anyone really checks them, anyway. When we moved here everyone made funny eyes about the age difference, but no one said anything.’

‘Because no one cares about you but me,’ Reece said.

‘Shut your mouth,’ Adrian hissed at Reece. He turned to Angela again. ‘When did it start? When did he first …?’

‘I am not sure exactly. I don’t remember when. A few years before my mother died – three maybe. I remember finally telling my mother and she was so upset. Then she was gone. She left me a note saying how she never wanted to see me again. I wasn’t as close to my mother as I was to him. Daddy’s special girl, they always called me. I didn’t understand until I got older how wrong everything was, until my friends at school talked about boys and things like that. Even though I knew it didn’t feel right, what we were doing, I thought it was just normal in every family.’

‘You were just a kid, you didn’t do anything wrong,’ Adrian said.

‘I thought she left. I thought she hated me.’

‘She threatened to take you away from me. I couldn’t lose you, Angela. You’re mine.’

Angela turned to Reece.

‘So, she confronted you? Is that what happened? You bought me that greenhouse, told me it was to make me feel better, when really it was just an unmarked grave.’

As Adrian tried to process this information, Reece struggled to his feet; the wound on his arm was barely bleeding. Before Adrian had time to move, Corrigan lunged for Angela, knocking the gun from her hand. The gun went off as it fell to the floor. Adrian felt the bullet whizz past his ear.

Instinctively, Adrian clutched at the side of his head and pulled his hand away. No blood. Adrian looked behind him at the hole in the plasterboard – three inches to the left and the bullet would have hit his head. The way he felt at the moment, he wasn’t entirely sure if he was relieved or not.