Keeping her eyes on the bottom of the road, she sees the press as they hover, waiting for one or more of the family to appear so they can take pictures and spread them all over the internet and in their tabloids. Sliding her sunglasses back into place, she tries to stop the tears from spilling over again.
‘Uncle Gav, what’s going to happen now?’ she asks. He’s been quiet since they left the house just moments before. What’s going on inside his head?
‘I don’t know, Carla. I do know one thing, though, what they did is sick. I can’t believe this is happening.’ He brakes hard when a man jumps in front of the car, the light on his camera flashing several times. ‘Urgh, for fuck sake, mate!’
Carla flinches at the sound of her uncle so angry. She’s never seen him like this. Never. He’s always been the level-headed one. Business first and foremost, that’s what he used to say to her when she was little and she asked him why he never had a girlfriend or children of his own.
Gavin manoeuvres the car around the crowd at the bottom of the road and drives through the gate before swinging left onto the street, then accelerating hard. His eyes are glazed, staring out at the road. Her mum and gran had betrayed him, made him think they had no faith or belief that he was a good person.
‘Are you okay?’ Carla asks. He shakes his head but doesn’t meet her eye.
‘Are you?’ he asks, turning the car onto the main road leading out of the city.
She hasn’t processed what’s happened yet. Not properly. This time yesterday, everything in her life had been fine. Now she’s lost just about everything. Watching that footage of her mum, Kate. Hearing Kate’s voice, seeing her face when she said that it was her dad who attacked her… She shakes her head.
‘We’ll be okay, you know. If we stick together, we’ll be fine,’ Gav says, taking the turn-off for the motorway then picking up speed.
Would they? Would they ever be okay after this? Her dad was a rapist, her mum a murderer. She’s gained two sisters in just the last two hours. How could anyone be okay after discovering all that at once?
‘I don’t know, Gav. I don’t think I will.’