Breaking Her Rules

Chapter 33

School has me so busy that I barely have time to think about George. It seems that every week there's a maths quiz or a write up for biology or chemistry, and I spend most weeknights studying. While I'd usually take advantage of the weather warming up and spread out my textbooks on the table on the back deck, recently I've been staying in my room. Avoiding Mum and Dad has become a priority. Lately I've been hearing them bickering in their bedroom or the study, usually late at night when they think Dan and I have gone to bed. I wonder if they're arguing about the lies they're telling. I'm sure that either one or both of them is lying about something.

If Dad – no, Thomas Maisonwood, my mother's husband – actually killed George, then I want to know, and I want to get away from these two as soon as possible. It scares me that I've been brought up by two people who have possibly lied about my whole existence. It's terrifying, and I can't ask them about it.

One night when I'm sitting on my bed surrounded by papers about stem cell research, I get a text message from Lucas. It's already dark and I'm already in my pyjamas, but I'm glad for the distraction, so I get dressed and leave the house without letting anyone else know.

I walk to school and up the driveway. It's creepily vacant. The school buildings look ghostly. I walk past the drama studios, but I can't use my usual shortcut through the bottom of the art building because the doors are locked for the night. Instead I climb more stairs and walk through pathways up to the Pantry, where the frangipani trees are bare. Lucas is sitting at a table under a light pole. His hair looks yellow gold in the light.

'Hey,' I sit down across from him. He's got a folder of documents in front of him.

'Hey Maisy,' he says.

'What's up?' I ask.

He seems distracted, looking through files, but eventually he looks back up at me. 'I've figured something out,' he says. 'It's bad.'

'What?' I say. 'Is this about George?'

Lucas nods. 'I got Dunc to get me some reports. I've been researching about George's family. Did you know he was from Sydney?'

'Oh, yeah, Ivan told me,' I say.

'What?' Lucas says. 'Why didn't you tell me? If I had known sooner I would have figured this out earlier!'

'Figured what out?' I ask.

'About George's dad,' Lucas says. 'Look at this.'

He flips over a sheet and hands it to me. I am presented with a photo of a little girl, in a school uniform, smiling awkwardly at the camera. It looks like a school photo, but it's old. Maybe thirty years old. She has dark brown hair and dark skin, and brilliant white teeth.

'Who's this?'

'Look,' Lucas says, pointing out the record attached to the photo. 'Beth Addison.'

'Who is she?'

'George's sister,' Lucas says. 'She was about six when she died. I think George was about eleven.'

'How did she die?'

'Their father. He killed her. He had something wrong with him, and he went crazy and he killed her. He got off on the murder on an insanity plea and he was put into a hospital. George's mum moved to Brisbane with George, and enrolled him in Hilverton College. That's when he met out parents.'

'So what happened to George's dad?' I ask.

'He died, in the late nineties,' Lucas says. 'But not before George went back there. When George's mum died in ninety-three he went to Sydney and saw his father for the first time since his sister died. Well, that's what I'm guessing, anyway.'