The Dollhouse

Chapter 34

"WOULD it kill you two to share anything with me? Keeping your secrets between the pair of you, because foolish little Lydia might lose her pretty head!"

I was super pissed off.

The plot thickened by the day, and I was sick of being the last one to know everything. Violet had seen Daddy there? To be honest, I wasn't too shocked by the proclamation - he'd fit in the atmosphere perfectly, with all the white-collar men with a knack for bad habits.

"What makes you so entitled to this information?" Violet shot back, not taking kindly to a scolding. Rudy hung back with reluctance.

"Why? Maybe because he's my father too!"

"Oh, poor you," Violet's nasty side had been provoked. "I try my hardest to protect you from all the bad shit in the world, letting you believe everything's just a story. But the reality is, Lydia, people are horrid! At least you have the luxury of not remembering how rough our childhood used to be! Mom and Dad used to fight and fight - and Arabella wasn't the only one, oh no - until she slept with her editor as revenge. So don't act so offended... you're not even old enough to remember."

I was brought up short. It was a fact I had never even considered - my memories of the divorce were foggy, fragmented - but Violet was two years older.

She would have witnessed the worst of it.

The journey to Red's considered a waste, we formed immediate plans to go the Club ourselves. Even Rudy was on board, concocting his famous dose calculated to knock out one loathing stepmother and her straight-laced brother.

So with Father Edgar and Arabella tucked up in their beds after a late-night cup of tea, we got ready.

Violet helped me doll me up. With a cigarette dangling from her mouth, she applied various cosmetics to my face, half of which I couldn't name. The occasional puff of smoke caused my eyes to stream, which earned an irritated sigh from Violet.

My skin itched. A knot of nervousness had formed in my gut.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you the other day," my sister said.

"It's fine," I replied. "I didn't think."

"Wear this," she thrust one of her dresses into my arms. It was a soft magnolia color, shoulder-showing, soft fabric. "You'll look wonderful."

"It doesn't matter what I look like. We're not exactly going to have fun, are we?"

"Well, why not? Kill two birds with one stone."

I wish I could say that I was used to it. Deception, a family of liars and sneaks - but my tired reflection just stared blankly back at me from the mirror. I had accumulated a kind of ageing fatigue to my youthful features over time. I hadn't bothered question Rudy about the wallet. Half of me didn't care.

I was exhausted by everyone's complicated ways.

"The car's here," Violet pulled me down the stairs. She wore a shapely white dress that seemed unfamiliar. "God, it's a blessing your dumb friends agreed to come."

She looked like a stranger to me, then. Turning her head to check my expression, her curls bounced; and for one microsecond, there was melancholy behind her eyes. Then, in one flicker, it was gone. How could someone possess such a knack of making one feel so special, then ruin it with one single glance?

She was a hollow person, Violet - a mixture of caring and cruelty. And I didn't know her at all, really.

"Hi!" Betsy cried across the lawn, winding down the car window. I could see Lorna in the front seat - I'd forgotten she had her license. Nick was crammed in the back, and slid over obligingly as Violet opened the door.