Bully

Chapter 25

I heard my alarm sounding from the room across the hallway but I was already awake. In fact I had been all night. Learning that Gillian Mac was grandmother had stirred a memory - not of her, I hadn't even known I had another relative until yesterday. No, instead it had stirred a memory of when all of this had first started, and I had discovered a box of photos underneath my father's bed when looking for a gun.

I sat hunched over the box, letting my alarm ring out as I was lost in a trance with the photographs. I mustn't have been any older than three in any of the photos. That was when my life was the same as any other ordinary persons. Back when I had a loving family, a comfortable house and a simple life. That was before all this started. Before my father discovered my mother's biggest secret. It was before I grew up in a house of hatred. Ultimately, it was before my uncle had died at my own hands.

My finger traced over a photo of a young me, grinning happily as I dug a spade into the sand. Behind me my mother lay on a towel, soaking up the sunlight whilst the sea ebbed for out in the background. My father was there too, looking young and cheerful. An expression I had long forgotten he had. He was smiling, looking at the pair of us with doting eyes.

How had it all turned so pear-shaped? There was only one answer and one cause - my uncle. If it wasn't for him we'd still have that life. I wouldn't be in the mess, and instead my greatest worry would be keeping up a good set of grades for my mother and father to be proud of.

I leafed through another photo, one of Christmas time. A smile upturned my lips as I saw the snow had settled on the windowsill. I loved the snow, it was so pure and clean and it turned everything it touched into a beautiful masterpiece. Sometimes I liked to think the snow could change me, that it could purify me and cancel my sinful crimes in which I had committed.

I must have been three at the time, as I stood on chubby legs with a wide smile that only consisted of a few teeth. My mother was smiling brightly, coaxing me to walk over to her with a bar of chocolate. My father was in the background, a small box nestled between his fingers. I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering what it was. He looked kind of nervous. However no matter how much I squinted, I couldn't tell what the box may contain.

Suddenly another thought struck me - who'd been taking the photo? In most of the pictures I had seen, all three of us had been in them. That means there must have been someone else there, taking the photos.

I turned the photo over, expecting a small description like the others had. However I got more than I bargain for, as the whole of the back of the photograph had been scrawled across in a neat font. It was a letter, addressed to my father.

Stephen,

This Christmas was one of my worst. Young Aaron should have been a blessing to this family. I remember when you all treat him like a little prince. But then I ruined it all, didn't I? I couldn't sit back and let you marry Kate when I knew what she did. I thought it was for the best, but maybe I was wrong. I know Kate hated herself for it, and would be eternally faithful to you but I couldn't let you be in the dark about it for the rest of your life. Please see it from my point of view Stephen; I was only looking out for you.

- Mum xxx

I flipped the photo back over in shock, my eyes darting to the little box in my father's hands... it was a ring. He was going to propose to my mother that Christmas day. We were going to be a real family. And from what I had gathered, his mother had ruined it all. She had told the secret that had ruined all of our lives.