Deep Water by Mark Ayre (best big ereader TXT) 📕

Ollie. "I wanted to save her. She wasn't dead when you arrived, she could have been okay, and I begged you, but you didn't listen. You never listen."

"Your temper, darling, it's too much. You should rein it in."

"You know all about my temper, don't you?" Ollie spat. “It’s your weapon. You used it when I was six, and you wanted my dad gone, and you used it the night Aurora died. Those things you wanted me to say to Grandma, that Jacob tried to drive Aurora and me apart, that he drove me to depression, it isn’t true, but you made me think it was. I told you about Jacob, and you twisted it like you always twist it. You made me feel like Aurora betrayed me, that she was trying to hurt me. She wasn’t trying to hurt me, and Jacob had no malicious intentions towards me. They’d fallen in love. That was all. They’d fallen in love."

"Oh, take some responsibility," said Angel, rising.

"I am," screamed Ollie. "It was my fault. I should never have let you get in my head, but you're my mum. Why couldn't you protect me from my anger? Why couldn't you listen to what I needed and save her?"

Angel met her son's gaze with a look of such contempt that the boy flinched.

Despite everything Ollie had said, Angel's evident disgust was breaking his heart.

"It's not about you," she told him. Then turned to the bar while waving a hand in Alice's direction. "I've changed my mind. Keep him. Here's hoping one day you piss him off, and he brains you like he did Aurora."

Without another glance at her son, Angel stepped into the bar. She was doing an excellent job of walking like a woman in no hurry, with no concerns. Still, Abbie could sense Angel's fear as she stepped with a little too much haste towards the kitchen.

The plan was no doubt to leave the house and not return until she was sure she could have her revenge, if ever. Once in the bar, she stopped. At first, Abbie couldn't tell why. Then three figures moved through the door from the kitchen.

Angel wanted to say something witty, but the words jammed in her throat. She looked at Alex on the left of the trio, Tony on the right, then to the battered and bruised girl in the middle.

Alice's gun slipped from between her fingers as her hands went to her mouth, and tears spilt from her eyes.

"You're alive," said Angel, forcing a smile. "Lovely to see you, Ariana.”

Thirty-Five

Ariana's face was pale and pained. Anger twisted some life into it. Where Tony and Alex held her up, she shoved their hands off and took an unsupported step towards Angel. Her eyes burned with tears and fury. Abbie saw she was building up to speak.

Then Ollie rushed through the bar door and threw his arms around her.

"You're alive,' he said. "Oh my God, you're alive. I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry. I shouldn't have let mum do it. I should have forced her out the way so grandma could call the coast guard. I—"

“Right, okay,” said Ariana, fury giving way to bemusement at her nephew’s reaction to her reappearance. “You know I’m Ariana, not Aurora, yeah?"

Alice was unmoving, her hands still over her mouth. Gun in hand, Abbie approached the barroom.

The truth will set you free.

"Your dad never put a railing out here," she said to Ariana, "even when he had little kids. He couldn't allow something as boring as health and safety to ruin the beauty of the view."

Everyone stared at Abbie.

"What?" said Ariana.

"We have some work to do on our relationship, by the way, if I'm to forgive you," said Abbie. "But I can see you aren't ready for that, so let's keep on point—Morris: the kind of man who won't allow safety to ruin the experience. You told me before you tried to kill me that he regularly cheating on your mother. Do you think he used protection?"

Alex gasped; Ariana looked furious; Angel's grip tightened on her gun.

Behind Abbie, Alice had dropped her hands from her face and rushed to Abbie's back.

"What the hell did you say?"

“If you didn't know, Alice, I'm sorry. Maybe it's not true, but let us for a second assume Ariana knows something we don’t. Morris is a cheat. Does he use protection? He should, but I'd theorise not," Abbie said, answering her own question. "What does that mean? Simple. A man who has frequent affairs and refuses to use protection is, eventually, going to have an accident."

Stunned silence.

Abbie said, "I don't mean he wet himself. Not even an STI, though that's possible. Sorry Ariana, Alice, you don't want to think about that."

More stunned silence.

Abbie looked to Ollie on the floor.

“You said you were six when your dad died. So a decade ago. When you told me originally, I assumed you were older, and that's my bad. Alice, when did your husband die?"

Alice didn't answer. Couldn't answer.

"Fell off his boat, didn't he? Died in suspicious circumstances. The police believed he was murdered, and you were to blame. You thought it was a drunken accident. You were both wrong. Well, the police were half-right. He was murdered."

"Stop this," said Alice.

But Abbie couldn't. "Ariana, when Ollie talks about Aurora, he always calls her his sister. Sometimes he corrects himself to say she was like a sister, and everyone assumes that's what he means anyway." Abbie looked to Ollie on the floor. "But that isn't what you mean, is it? Why else would you be so relieved to see Ariana back from the dead? She's an awful person. No offence."

But Ariana couldn't talk. She was staring at Angel. Everyone was staring at Angel.

Abbie looked at Alice. “Morris supported Angel through her pregnancy when Ollie’s father did a runner. You never knew who the father was, though, did you? And Morris was brilliant with your grandson. That’s what you said. Ariana believes that Morris preferred Ollie to her. Why would she have