At the End of the Garden

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Marie." He acknowledged me. "You know you're not supposed to walk this way."
I barely heard him.
"I was... well," I wracked my brain for a lie, but it wasn't fully functioning. "No-one was here so..."
"You can't just break rules because you know you won't get caught." Victor Quinn said, ironically. "But I won't dwell on it now. I've actually been meaning to have a word with you. Is now a good time, or are you in a rush to get home?"
I wanted to say yes. I was terribly busy. I wasn't. Dad wasn't picking me up for a while and Victor Quinn had a face I didn't want to say no to (not in a nice way).
"Now's a good time." I muttered regretfully.
"Good. Let's walk."
We began walking back down the corridor I just came through, towards his office but we didn't go inside. I wondered if this was one of his tactics. I'd seen other teachers do it with students who were in trouble, walk. Walk so they didn't argue or freak out like a caged animal.
"I was just speaking to Eden." He began. "And we finally had a mature conversation about everything that's happened recently. If we're all on the same page, I'm not opposed to keeping you two apart any longer. You're both still punished, and I don't want to overstep any lines your mother has drawn. But if we can all be sensible you're welcome back in our home after school."
Our home? I didn't think of Eden and Victor's house as their home. It wasn't always welcoming like a home should be but I suppose it was still home to Eden (maybe even to me), but not to Victor.
I nodded through my discomfort. That was good news though. Eden had managed to convince him nothing was going on so the least I could do was continue what he had started. But my mouth was too dry to speak, so Victor Quinn continued.
"I do have to know the real reason you were loitering around my office, though."
I swallowed loudly. That wasn't good. Though in the moment I couldn't work out if he was trying to joke with me. I was a bad liar, which left me unsure about how I could get out of this. (No. I wasn't a bad liar. I'd lied to Sidney. And Eden. Angie. Ren and Michael. And Dad.)
I faked a laugh. "I was actually looking for Miss Claire." His assistant.
"Why?"
"I lost the letter about afterschool lessons from a few weeks ago."
Victor Quinn nodded slowly. I wasn't sure if he believed me or not. "She leaves at three thirty on a Friday. You'll have to ask one of your friends for the time table or wait until Monday."
I nodded again, and muttered a nervous "I will."
"While we're here, I want to clear up a few misunderstands about what happened Wednesday."
That was the night we went into his home office. It felt like forever ago.
"Eden's birth certificate has Evelyn down as his mother, so neither of you would have found any evidence in there." He started. "And regarding a few things Eden said. Evelyn was satisfied with the arrangement, even keeping it from both of you."
"My mum told me..."
"Did she? Well that helps."
It hadn't made sense anyway. Why would Evelyn wait 11 years to take her life over it? What really pushed her to it?"
"Did she also say we planned to tell you both eventually?" He asked. "When you were both old enough?"
"She didn't."
"We may have already told you if... certain things hadn't happened."
Was he talking about Evelyn's death? His glasses blocked my view so I couldn't see his eyes, to see if somewhere in there was sign of mourning in there somewhere. There was a gold chain around his neck, I think it had his wedding ring on it. Had he worn it like this since she died? Had he rushed to take it off his finger? At the end of November three years ago, had he just seen her corpse in the conservatory and just slipped it off? At the end of November this year, Sidney had shown up on my window.
"Still, it isn't something I'd like going around the school. For all of our sakes. I'm sure you're mother's told you this already."
I nodded.
Two weeks before Sidney was at my window, he'd told me he was fostered.
"I understand that this has probably been difficult for you both to digest." He said, probably lying, he probably didn't understand at all.
I nodded.
He told me he was fostered because I found out he would be seeing Ren and Michael at the weekend. For what?
"If you have anymore questions, you're free to ask now?"
I nodded. Another anniversary.
"If it's okay, can I ask..."
"Go ahead."
"What was the real reason Evelyn... took her own life?"
Why did I ask that?
Was I not satisfied with the answer from Fay? (Of course I wasn't). Did I want to hear it from Evelyn's widow, even if he might just lie to me? (Yes.) I need to find a calendar.
Victor Quinn didn't flinch. He looked away briefly (like I do when I'm forging my own lies), then looked back.
"Eden asked the same thing, though he probably had a better understanding already. Evelyn had been seeing doctor about her mental health even before we were married. I'll never know if something pushed her over the edge. Personally, I think, like any other illness, it just got the best of her."
It felt like a lie. A smooth velvet lie from years of knowing. And yet hearing it I wanted to cry. I wanted to believe nothing had happened to make her do it. She just did. That she wasn't being torn apart painfully inside. Instead, she was in a hospital bed, full of painkillers, and going peacefully, like the words 'got the best of her' suggested.
He might have been right, that nothing pushed her to do it. And... I had insubstantial evidence to say otherwise.
We were walking towards the exit. Victor tried to change the subject by saying: "it's dark, I can ask my driver to take you home, unless there's anything else."
"My dad's picking me up."
"That's good to hear."
It went quiet as Victor Quinn opened the door for me. I guess that was supposed to mean the end of our conversation. Me going home without him knowing I'd been in his office and without me having any good evidence to support the awful, terrifying thought that kept running through my head. I walked outside and thanked him.
I was certain he went back inside while I began walking away. That's why I let myself mumble, "maybe it's really just a curse" to myself.
"A curse?" He repeated. He was still in the door way.
He really must be a super human to hear me, or a robot.
"Oh, it's nothing." I muttered, slightly panicked. But his eyes bore into me, there was a slight confusion in them. We had just been talking about his late wife, after all.
I began muttering incoherently, "Oh, well, I was just thinking, there was that girl who died in my year group, not that long before."
"Died?"
Died. I'd said died. Good job Marie. The cold air that swept through me killed me too.
I could have said anything. Like, how the rumour made me say it. The rumour of the ghost. Oh god.
"I really should go. My dad's waiting for me." I said instead, edging backwards.
"I think we should talk about this."
I am such an idiot. But so was anyone who didn't believe she was dead.
Once Victor Quinn stepped out of the school, I couldn't see his face. It wasn't even that dark yet, but the sun was behind the school building, putting a giant shadow over us.
I panicked. "There was a rumour a couple months ago, about her ghost - "
I tried to step back. It would be really suspicious if I suddenly made a run for it, but for some reason my fight or flight was kicking in.
But after years of evolving from rich ancestors, my fight or flight was useless.
There must have been a rock, or my ankle went, or maybe a ghost stuck it's leg out.
I feel onto my arse. It didn't hurt, if anything my hands were more sore from where I caught myself. I grimaced more at the thought of falling onto the floor at sixteen.
Imagine if someone else walked out, and saw me on the floor. But we'd passed one or two people in the hallway inside and no-one since we got out.
Victor Quinn didn't react straight away. Maybe he was laughing at me, or not feeling anything. It took a millisecond for him to really notice I was on the floor.
"Are you alright, what happened?"
"I'm fine, I tripped..." I muttered.
A hand was extended out towards me. Very chivalrous, sort of gentlemanly. I think I've said something like this before, but I'd rather he'd just kick me over instead. His acts of kindness weren't sincere, if he did something awful I'd believe it. And I did.
Cautiously, I took it though. It would be weird if I didn't.
"You were saying about the rumour."
If anything, falling had giving me a chance to calm down.
"They were saying her ghost was haunting the back shed, and comes into the building after - "
He squeezed my hand unreasonably tight.
"-school..."
(That night. Angie and Luka came back to the school to get Angie's coat. Then Luka's never seen again. And all her old friends are listed as scholarship students on Victor Quinn's private computer. His wife kills herself two weeks later. Was she there too?)
"Sir." I said. He hadn't let go.
"Sir!"
It didn't feel like freedom when he released me hand. There I was, despite being allowed to walk, feeling caged all of the sudden.
"Sorry. I don't know what came over - "
"Was it you?"
"What?"
"Did you kill her?!"
His first instinct was to look around, then look back to me like I was something to be afraid of. Wrong.
Just back away, like I was faced with a wild animal.
"Marie. Be quiet."
"No." It was a forced, airy word.
"I said - " He reached for me.
Jumping back was easy. But if I was going to run I had to consider that he was taller - and probably faster - or could just leave it and let my mum deal with me later -
As if I really was thinking all that. Would composed Eden have reacted like this? Would he have used his clever head and looked where he was going when he started to running? Angela would have. Or she would let herself get caught and sort the rest out later. Sidney would have already talked his way out, or wouldn't have freaked and accused Victor Quinn in the first place.
I didn't channel any of those three as I thought maybe I could reach Dad's car. Because I'm an idiot maybe, I ran from him. And even worse, when he called me back - I turned my head. Straight into the wall I went.

Stupid Marie. The worse thing was, it didn't even properly knock me out. But it was enough for me to feel weak and let him carry me. I was conscious the whole journey and all I could think was stupid stupid Marie.

PART 2 END

Another chapter I dragged myself through. It sucks, and I don't really like it, but I need a transition into the next part. If any chapter has a plot hole, it's this one!!

Taking another break, because I'm not even close to the end of part 3 yet (I wanted to rewrite it). I might post the first chapter of the next part, because it's short and sort of like a trailer. But part 3 is the shortest (and the finale!). I've finished for the summer now, so I'm going to aim to only have a two week break, but we'll see.