CHAPTER SIXTEEN

1989

When I got back to Ireland, Maca was waiting to meet me at the airport with Milo and a car. He had a baseball cap on backwards over his long hair and a pair of aviator glasses.

“Rock star much?” I asked, totally taking the piss out of the quintessential band member outfit of the white T-shirt, jeans, leather jacket, and beads around his neck.

“Fuck you.” Came his reply.

It was the first time he had spoken directly to me since the disastrous Sunday afternoon visit to my parents’ place.

“Yeah, and I missed your smiling face too, brother... a whole lot.” I said, holding my hand out to shake his as I did. He stared at my hand for a few moments, taking it, but then pulled me in so we bumped chests and he slapped me on the back a few times. You know, the way real men do.

“How is she? Did she get my flowers? Is she feeling better? Did she talk to you?”  He fired his questions at me one after the other.

“Ladies.” Milo called from the other side of the bonnet of the big four wheel drive he was leaning on. “You have to be at the television studios for this lunchtime chat show you’re scheduled to appear on by eleven. Can you have your shag and make up session in the back of the vehicle while I drive, please? I have to get back to the hotel and pick up the rest of the girls.”

We both flipped him the middle finger, but climbed into the back of the SUV anyway.

“So?” Maca asked as soon as we were in. He took off his hat and glasses and raked his hand through his hair. I was instantly distracted by the new ink I could see below the V-neck of his T-shirt.

“You get a new tat?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He pulled his T-shirt away from his skin to give me a better view.

“I’ve been thinking about it for ages and someone had recommended a bloke in Dublin, so I called him when we got here Monday and he fit me in yesterday afternoon.”

I took in the lettering around his neck and recognised the words instantly.

‘There’s no one else. There never was. It’s still only ever you.’

It was taken from our biggest selling single to date, ‘With You,’ and he had written it for Georgia. Obviously he was still totally unaware that she was seeing someone else and there was no way I was gonna be the one to cause him any more heartache. My thoughtlessness had done plenty damage over the years, and I wasn’t about to add to that.

“Cool. Looks good.”

“Cheers. Now answer my questions ... how’s she doing?”

“You gonna cover your whole body in tats dedicated to my sister?”

He already had a G over his heart that matched the necklace he had given her one Christmas, years ago. I’d noticed last night that she still wore that necklace, but there was no way I was gonna tell him that and give him any kind of hope that she still cared.

“Maybe. What’s it to you?”

“I couldn’t give a fuck, but a future Mrs. McCarthy might have a problem with it.”

He turned and looked at me, biting down on the corner of his bottom lip as he did. “You just don’t get it, do you? Read what’s written on my neck, mate. The only Mrs. Maca there will ever be is her. We will get back together. One of these days, it’ll happen.” He let out a long breath and shook his head.

“Now answer my questions. How the fuck is she?”

I let out a long breath of my own and looked out the window at the passing traffic for a few seconds.

“She’s doing better. She’s been a mess all week, but she was happy to see me and we had a bit of a talk and agreed to put an end to all the shit that’s gone on.”

His eyes widened at that news.

“Yeah?” he asked with a smile. “I’m pleased for ya, dude, I really am.”

My stomach felt a little uneasy. I really didn’t want to fill him with false hope. I knew that he would think that if George could bring herself to talk to me, then she might be on her way to talking to him.

“Did she say anything ... ya know? Did she mention me at all?” He asked quietly and I caught Milo’s eyes looking at me through the rear view mirror. I shook my head slowly.

“Na, mate. I’m sorry, but she’d just had a bit of a breakdown after seeing you for the first time in almost four years. I wasn’t about to bring up your name if she didn’t.” I told him honestly.

He put his hat back on. “Fair enough. I get it, dude, I really do.” Despite his words, I could hear the disappointment in his voice and I couldn’t miss the way his throat moved as he swallowed his emotions down.

“Baby steps, mate. Talking to me is a massive leap for her, and once she’s back on her feet and feeling a little more stable, I promise—I swear to you that I will do all that I can to put everything right between the two of you.”

He nodded his head slowly. “I’ll give her a bit of time, but we need to get our shit sorted before the wedding.”

Len and Jimmie’s wedding was happening in June. When they’d first got engaged, a wedding in two years seemed forever away, but we were down to weeks. Bailey was best man. Myself, Maca, and the rest of the boys from the band were groomsmen, whatever that meant. My knowledge regarding wedding etiquette was as lacking then as it is now. All I knew was that Georgia and Maca would both be a part of the wedding and so, like he had just said, they really needed to get their shit together before the big day.

“It’ll get sorted, Mac. She’s doing better and she’s already told Jim that she doesn’t want anything to spoil the day for her and Len, but this is George. Let her go at her own pace. You know what she’s like if you push her.”

The rest of our stay in Ireland went well, and Maca was definitely in a better place when we got home than when we left.

We had a quiet few months scheduled as Len had wanted time off both before and after the wedding.

Maca and I spent a few weeks writing before taking a week in Ibiza, and then we sailed with a couple of producer friends of ours on their boat around the Balearic Islands, off the coast of Spain. 

We landed back in England on a rainy May Thursday, just around lunchtime. We had promised to call around to Len and Jimmie’s place that night and so just stopped quickly at our place to shower and change our clothes. We were both tired after three weeks of partying and sailing in the sun, and our day of travelling. We almost called and cancelled, but the promise of a home cooked meal from Jimmie meant that wasn’t an option, so we made the effort, both of us unaware that the decision to drag our tired arses over to my brothers that evening would ultimately change both of our lives forever.

Dinner was great. Jimmie was an excellent cook and after the roast beef with all the trimmings, we had homemade apple crumble and custard for dessert.

I’d gotten over my issues with Jim and Len being together years ago. I viewed her as nothing more than a sister and I couldn’t have been happier for her and my brother. They were so good together, that the way they looked at each other, even had me wondering if maybe, one day, I might want what they had.

We sat around the dinner table, enjoying a few wines and then more than a few bourbons as we told stories of our recent trip away.

This holiday had been a little subdued compared to our usual trips. We’d partied and clubbed the first week, but Maca hadn’t done more than chat to a few girls and had no interest when a girl called Elanora from Italy or France, or wherever, had asked if she could come back to our hotel and fuck us both. Luckily, we had separate rooms and I’d gone back with her, along with a Swedish, Dutch, or wherever it is they make tall blonde girls that talk like the chef off the Muppets and are called Anna, Arrna or Hannah. They stayed for two days. By the third, I could barely walk and needed them to go.

The following couple of weeks, we’d spent fishing, snorkelling, and sunbathing while sailing on Max and Nicole’s boat. They had just had their third baby so there was no partying on board. Most of the places we docked at night were quiet little fishing villages. Nic was happy to cook most evenings, as it was hard work taking three kids, including a newborn out to dinner. A few times she sent Max out with us, telling us to go get drunk, which being the good boys that we were, we obviously obeyed. One night, we ended up staging an impromptu concert at a little bar in Palma on the island of Majorca. It was a place where the locals drank, but we had been instantly recognised and the singer from the band that was playing, invited us up on stage to sing a few songs. We didn’t get down for over two hours and it was the happiest I had seen Maca in what felt like forever. 

We helped Jimmie load the dishwasher and clear up the kitchen before taking our drinks and sitting on the big comfy sofa’s they’d just purchased. I was only half listening to Len go on about how they were custom made when the ring of the front doorbell came. Keen to get away from the riveting sofa conversation, Maca jumped up with an, “I’ll get it,” before I could get a breath out. He winked at me as he headed for the door, probably the first person ever to hope that he was gonna find a large religious cult on the doorstep, looking to spend hours trying to convert him.

“So yeah, if you’re ever looking, I can put you onto this bloke in San Antonio, Texas.” Len was telling me. I nodded and smiled, feigning interest before knocking back my drink. Imported cowhide? Shoot me now, cowboy.

I added ice from the bucket on the coffee table and started to top up both mine and Len’s drinks when I thought I heard a woman cry.

“What was that?” Len asked me.

“Dunno, sounded like someone crying.”

We were quiet for a minute, both of us trying to listen over the top of The Jam’s ‘Butterfly Collector.’ He looked around for the remote to the state of the art—for 1989—sound system that he’d had installed.

“Is that crying?” That was what I’d just said.

“I don’t know Len, go and have a look.” I suggested. He could do anything, as long as it wasn’t talking to me about furniture.

“Where’s Jim anyway?” I asked him, hoping that he would at least want to go in search of his wife to be.

Curiosity eventually got the better of him and he stood, walking out into the hallway.

“Fuck... Jimmie!” I hear him call out a few seconds later. I stand up and retrieve the remote from the dining table where we had left it earlier. Transvision Vamp’s Wendy James starts belting out ‘Baby I Don’t Care’ and my dick gives a little twitch of approval as I remember the video I’d seen of her singing it, wearing a basque, long gloves, and not a lot else. 

“Shit.”

That was my sister’s voice I heard as I stepped out into the hallway. Len was standing just ahead of me. I looked around him to see Maca sitting on the floor, his arms wrapped around my sister who was sitting in his lap and looking up at him. Jimmie was on her knees beside them.

“Who would want to hurt us like that? Who?”

George looked up at Maca and asked through her tears.

What the fuck’s happened?

“What the fuck, George? What’s wrong?” I started to move towards them, a million and one thoughts rushing through my brain. No one spoke. The only sounds were my sister’s sniffs and sobs.

“Will somebody please tell me what the fuck is going on?”

Jimmie was crying too and goose bumps prickled my skin. Something bad happened ... my mum, my dad, Bailey? I can’t move. I opened my mouth to again ask for answers, but nothing came out.

All my mind was acknowledging was the fact that Maca was holding my sister in his lap. After all these years, all this time apart, they were finally here, together.

It was all gonna be okay. Life was gonna go back to the way it should always have been.

“The letters, Jim?” Maca questioned. “All the letters. You told me that she got them.”

Jimmie looked past me to Lennon, then back to Maca. I’m totally lost as to what is going on.

“She did.” She said to him, then turned her gaze to George. “You did.” The tone of her voice made it sound like she was almost pleading with her to confirm what she was saying. “Your mum said that they upset you so much, that we weren’t to talk about them.”

Georgia’s mouth opened and closed at least three times. It was almost comical to watch, except there was nothing at all funny about what was unfolding.

“No, no, Jim.” My sister shook her head. “I never knew. I never saw a single letter.”

“What?” Maca,, Jimmie, and Len, all seem to say at once.

George looked wide-eyed at all of us in turn. I’m not sure if she thought that we all thought she was lying, but she continued to confirm her story. “She told me that Sean phoned for a couple of weeks and that my dad threatened him; that he’d then stopped calling and that was it.” Her eyes moved between each of us again. She looked small and fragile sitting in Maca’s arms. He was bigger built than the last time they were together, and she was skinnier—a lot skinnier—and I was only just realising it then.

“Georgia, I swear to God, I called your house four or five times a day. I begged them to let me talk to you. I wrote letter after letter, begging you to see me.” I was witness to his side of the story and knew for sure that everything he was telling her was the truth.

So what the fuck happened? Why did G not get any of his letters? There had to be a simple explanation to this because my mum and Dad would never lie about that shit. They knew what they were both going through, what they’d continued to go through.

I started to feel a little dizzy and light headed as fear unfurled in my belly. Something wasn’t making sense.

Everyone was quite for a while, all of them probably trying to work out how the fuck this has happened. None of us wanting to think the worst; that it could’ve been done deliberately.

“G?” Maca said quietly. “I love you, babe, but your arse is fuckin bony and mine is going numb.”

“Fuck, I need a drink. Shit’s gonna go down if Mother’s done this on purpose,” Lennon said from beside me.

“No shit,” I replied, following him back to where we had left our bourbons.

We sit down on the much talked about sofas and each drain our glasses. Len tops them up this time. “I can’t believe this,” he stated.

“It’s gotta be something simple. Mum’s not a spiteful person. She was pissed off with Maca, but she’d never go out of her way to keep them apart.” I said, unsure of who I was trying to convince more. My eyes met Len’s and he looked as concerned as I felt. “Would she?” I questioned him.

“I have no fuckin clue, mate.” He took a sip of his drink. “I feel like I don’t know anything right now.”

My mind starts to race with thoughts of something strange that happened last year. My mum had asked me to keep the address of where we were living from Georgia, which was odd because she still wouldn’t talk to me at the time anyway. Then she’d flipped out when Georgia had apparently found it out. She’d said at the time that my sister had been behaving a little erratically, and that she had been asking for our address. She was worried that Georgia was gonna turn up and cause a scene and it could all end up in the papers. I’d shrugged it off at the time. I assumed my mum was over reacting to something G may or may not have said, but what if it had just been another way of keeping Maca and G apart?

I had an uneasy feeling in my belly and my chest as I watched Maca carry my sister into the room and sit her in his lap when he sat down of the sofa. The sensation wasn’t caused by watching those two together—that was great to see—it was the thought that my mum could’ve done something really horrible.

I moved to the armchair to give them some room as Len passed them both a drink.

I wanted to smile every time I looked at them together but I was feeling sick with nerves that life might be about to come crashing down all around us again.

Georgia was rambling on about the fact that this must all be some kind of mistake, that our mum knew the mess they were both in and that there was no way that she’d deliberately keep them apart.

“You okay, big brother Marley?” George asked.

No, I’m not, really. I’ve finally got my family all back together and it was suddenly looking like it could fall apart again. I didn’t want to tell George what else I knew, but I wasn’t lying to her. I wasn’t losing her again, especially if she and Maca were gonna work things out.

“Gotta say, little sister Georgia that I’m with you. Mum just wouldn’t do that ... surely mum wouldn’t do that?”

Please don’t let my mum have done that.

I shook my head and continued. “I don’t know if I’m overthinking things, but now that I’m thinking about it, she has gone out of her way over the years to stop you two from having any kind of contact.”

There’d been a few occasions when she’d called me to make sure that I knew Maca wasn’t invited to whatever family gathering or function we were attending if George was also gonna be there. I always assumed it was because she was worried about how George would react to seeing Maca, but now I was worried that there was something else going on.

“I just thought it was to protect you, George, and then after that Sunday the other month...” I trailed off as I watched Maca pull her tighter into him. I think on the memory of that shitty day, yet another one where I fucked up, big time.

I cleared my throat and carried on, “... After the way you reacted that Sunday, I thought that she’d done the right thing.”

My heart rate accelerated and my hands felt clammy. I’d stood on a stage in front of thousands of people. I’d performed live on television shows with audiences of millions, but I’d never felt as nervous as I did right then. However, my next sentence could’ve had the possibility of blowing my family apart. I felt sick and absolutely gutted at what I was about to do, but I didn’t see that I had any other choice.

“I thought she was being a bit irrational when she told me not to give you our address, and then how pissed off she got when you found it out anyway. It makes me think now that she may have had her own agenda—that maybe there was more to it than protecting you? What if it was more about hiding what she’d done? I don’t know, I’m just surmising...” I trailed off again when I took in the look on Georgia’s face. She frowned, her mouth opening and closing again as she shook her head no.

“I don’t understand, Marls?” I didn’t hear much else for a few seconds after that, realisation crawling up my spine. Could I have unknowingly played an even bigger part in my sister and best friend’s misery over the past four years than I thought?

“Ours, mine and Maca’s. She told me not to give you our address. She said that she was worried that you’d start stalking him.”

I feel like such a dick. I should’ve thought about this more at the time. I should’ve spoken to Jimmie. George may have been a little fucked up over their break up, but stalking? Yeah, that just wasn’t her thing. Maca, yeah. Knowing how he felt about her, I could’ve seen him going there, but not George.

Georgia’s expression had gone from shocked to angry as she looked around the room at each of us. “Marley, I have no fucking idea where your place is, and I had no idea that you and Sean lived together.” She took a deep breath in through her nose, as if she was trying to calm herself down.

“Fucking hell.” Len silently mouthed to me from beside where Maca was still sitting with my sister in his lap. His arms were wrapped around her like he had no plans of letting her go, ever.

The room was silent as we all tried to get our heads around what was going on.

“George, did you never go to the boys’ place and try and get past the reception area?” Jimmie asked in a calm, even voice. “Did you not go there and scream abuse at the doorman and try and kick the doors in when they threw you outside?”

I’d actually forgotten my mum telling us about that. Obviously, the drugs and alcohol I’d consumed over the years had taken more of a toll on my memory than I thought. Perhaps my mum did have valid reasons for protecting George, and then I look at my sister’s face and I knew in an instant that she was telling the truth, and whatever Jimmie had been told was a lie.

“Are you all deaf or just fucking mad? I have no idea where Marley lives, and I had no idea that Sean lived with him. No fucking idea.”

Georgia’s face crumbled for a minute and I thought she was about to cry. “Where is this coming from? Who told all of you that I had been there causing trouble?”

Her mouth was turned down and her bottom lip trembled a few times, but she held back the tears.

Jimmie looked around at each of us before shrugging her shoulders and saying, “Your mum, George. Your mum told us.”

“Oh babe,” Maca said as he kissed G’s temple. She drew in a few deep breaths before letting out a loud sob.

“Why Sean?” She looked from him, to around the room at each of us. “Why would she do that to me? Why would she do that to us?”

I wish I knew. I wish I’d had an answer to give my little sister. She’d been hurt so much already. I was just thankful that Maca was there that night, that they were together and he was the one holding her and telling her that no matter what, they’d always have each other.

Over the next few hours, an elaborate story of lies and deceit unfolded in Jimmie and Len’s house. My parents and eldest brother turn up and George had to be held back as she unleashed what she knew on my mum. I was torn, totally torn in half as I watched my mum shake while Georgia confronted her.

And when she held her head in her hands, I wanted to tell George to stop shouting at her. She’s my mum. She may have made an almighty fuck up, but she’s my mum and she shouldn’t be spoken to like that.

I’d been in her shoes. I had a fucking good idea of how shitty she must’ve been feeling right then.

“Did you do it?” My sister screamed.

“What’s going on, George?” My dad finally asked. I’m surprised he’d stayed so quiet for so long. “Bern?” He turned to my mum who still had her head in her hands.

My mum looked up and right at my sister. She knocked back the drink Len had just passed to her and said very quietly and with complete conviction, “I did what I thought was right.”

Georgia flew from where she was sitting in Maca’s lap, but he and Bailey caught her before she reached her.

“How could you? How fucking could you?” she screamed, still fighting to get away from Maca and my brother.

“That’s enough, Georgia.” My dad shouted, but it didn’t slow her down.

Georgia must’ve been all of seven stone soaking wet, but the anger that propelled her forward scared the crap out of me. Bailey and Maca struggled to hold onto her.

My dad looked at my sister like she’d finally lost the plot and in that moment, I knew she wasn’t far from it. The last time I’d seen her that angry was when she’d ripped a handful of Haley Whites hair out at a concert we did at the back of a pub about five or six years ago.

“Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?” My dad asked again.

“Did you know? Were you part of it?” G turned her anger towards my dad, but I knew that he was clueless as to what had happened.

“No.” My mum shouted in his defence.

“Part of what, George? I ain’t got a Scooby what you’re on about, love.”

“Did you keep Sean’s calls and letters hidden away from me? Did you pack them all in a box and send them back to him with a note, supposedly from me, saying ‘Do not contact me again?’” Georgia took in a few shaky breaths. She wiped her tears and her nose on the back of her hand and it was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that she better not let mum catch her doing that.

“Did you tell everyone that I’d been to Marley’s, and that I tried to smash my way in? Did you? Or was it just your lying, deceitful, spiteful wife?” George spat out.

“Bern?” My dad stares wide-eyed at my mum, as shocked as the rest of us at what he was hearing.

“It wasn’t like that.” My mum finally looked up at my sister. “At first I wanted you to get back with him ... I wanted the two of you back together. But you were so broken, George, and you needed time. I couldn’t let you talk to him. Whatever you may think now, you just weren’t strong enough. And in the beginning, you refused point blank to have anything to do with him anyway.”

Len topped up the glasses of everyone that was drinking bourbon. George took Maca’s glass from him and downed the contents.

“I’m your mum, George, it’s my job to keep you safe.” She had a pleading edge to her voice. She wanted my sister to try and see things from her point of view. I knew my sister well enough to know that she wouldn’t. I couldn’t, so why would she?

“You’d only sent a few letters when I decided to let you talk to her on the phone. I was gonna wait until you were back on tour. I thought the distance would keep her safe.” She told Maca.

Her shoulders sagged and she closed her eyes for a long moment, shaking her head no.

“Then one day, while George was at school doing the last of her exams, a girl knocks on the door. I had no idea who she was.” She said it like she was ashamed, like she should’ve known who the girl was, before looking down into her lap again. The whole room was silent as we watched my mum stare at her perfectly manicured nails.

“Anyway, it was you she wanted to talk to, George. She said that she needed you to know that Sean had been two-timing you for years with her. She claimed that he had only stayed with you because he was worried about being kicked out of the band if it ever came out, but now that the band was making it big, he’d planned on leaving you anyway and that they were going to make a new life together.”

Maca was shaking his head ... I was shaking my head.

“Na, no way,” Len said.

“What girl? Who was she?” Maca questioned my mum.

“Sean.” My mum said his name, using a sort of exasperated tone. The way she used to say our names when she was about done with our bad behaviour. I found it a bit condescending. Maca wasn’t a kid. He was a grown arsed bloke who’d been treated like shit, by her.

“You’d just broken my daughter’s heart into a million pieces. You weren’t exactly my favourite person at that time. I didn’t ... I just believed what she told me. I didn’t check her story out with Marley, Len, or Jimmie because I was scared of causing trouble with the band. Everything was just taking off for you, so I simply stayed quiet.”

Jimmie looked at me, her eyes wide. ‘No way,’ she mouthed while shaking her head, but I didn’t know what it was she was getting at.

“You seemed to be getting a little better at handling the break up, George, and I didn’t want Sean’s letters setting you back, so I set up a post office box and had all your post delivered there. I thought that they’d stop coming eventually, or at least slow down, but they didn’t. They just kept coming; letters, cards, parcels.”

“That’s because I fucking loved her. I missed her. I’ve never stopped, not for a single moment.” Maca snaps out at her. She just looks back down into her lap again.

Georgia appears to be in a trance, oblivious now to what’s being said.

“In the end, I packed everything into a box and sent it all back to Sean with a note, supposedly from you, George, saying please don’t contact me again.”

Georgia’s eyes slowly looked up to meet my mums, and I thought for a moment that she was gonna launch herself at her again. Her stare was hard, angry, and cold. I felt more than a little guilty that I didn’t actually feel bad that she was looking at her that way.

“I didn’t hear from the girl again until you boys converted the old warehouse and moved in together.”

I looked across to Maca, but his eyes were firmly on my mum.

“She phoned up and said that she’d heard through some friends that Georgia had been asking around for the address. She said that she was concerned that George had found out about them being together and was worried for her own safety.”

“This is un-fucking-believable,” Maca said quietly.

“You were doing so well, George. You’d got your confidence back and was smiling again. I just thought it would be easier to tell everyone not to tell you where the boys were living. I was just trying to do the right thing...” She trailed off once more.

My dad reached across and took my mums hand, his actions causing yet another lump to form in my throat. When you’re growing up, your parents are only ever that, ‘Mum and Dad.’ You don’t think of them as husband and wife, a couple, and definitely not lovers, but as you get older, you appreciate what they are to each other—that once upon a time, they were young and in love.

I love my wife even more now than I did when I first admitted that fact to myself. I fancy her more too and know that no matter what, I would have her back. There’s nothing she could ever do to make me doubt her. She’s my lover, wife, and best friend, and there’s no one that could ever replace her in my world, nor would I want there to be. I’m pretty sure that’s how things were for my parents too. My dad would support my mum whether he thought she’d fucked up or not, and that was exactly how it should be.

“You should have said something ... you should have said something, Bern.”

“To who, Frank? If I’d told you and Bailey, you’d probably have gone after Sean. And if I’d said anything to Marley, Lennon, or Jimmie, it could’ve caused trouble for the band.” She told him.

“What about me? Did you never consider talking to me?” George asked her.

“No, George. In all honesty, I didn’t.” She sounded adamant that she made the right call, but I wasn’t so sure.

“You’d been fragile for so long. There was no way I’d chance setting you back. You’d been so badly broken by what you thought went on in that hotel, that I was terrified that if you found out Sean had been two-timing you for years, it might just kill you. I’m your mother, it’s my job to protect you at all costs.”

“Well, you fucked right up on that score, didn’t you.” Georgia bit out. “All you’ve managed to do is cause me untold misery these past four years.” I watched as George took Bailey’s glass from his hand and tipped the contents down her throat. She didn’t even drink bourbon, but she was giving it a good go tonight.

“What I’m failing to understand is this story about George going to the boys’ place, trying to get in and causing a scene. What’s that all about?” Jimmie asked my mum.

“Well, that’s when alarm bells should’ve started to ring.” She replied.

“No shit, Sherlock.” Bailey whispered loudly.

“Do you remember, Jim, when that magazine did that big feature on your wedding, and in the interview, the reporter asked if it was gonna be awkward having Georgia and Sean there together?” We all nodded. Jimmie had been a nervous wreck. She and Len were quite often photographed out with the band, but they were never stalked individually the way that Maca and I were. They were never front and centre of the attention the press paid us, and Jim was worried that by doing the interview and allowing photos of them to be used for the feature, that would all change.

“Well, this Mandy, the girl that claimed she was Maca’s secret girlfriend, called me and said that Georgia had found out where the boys lived and had gone to their place and tried to get past security. They’d threatened to call the police, but she’d convinced them not to and explained that George was Marley’s sister. She said that Georgia was obviously in need of psychiatric help, and that Sean wanted her kept away from him, including at the wedding.”

Shit, I vaguely remember my mum calling me and banging on about that. I was severely hungover and had two birds—twins, if I recall—in bed with me. I actually couldn’t get my mum off the phone quick enough and the call was instantly forgotten. 

My brain was in overdrive ... Mandy? I know we’ve fucked around with a lot of birds over the years, but I don’t remember a Mandy.

“I swear to God, this has nothing to do with me. I don’t know any birds called Mandy.” Maca states, all the while looking at me for backup.

I think I mumbled something along the lines of, “No, no Mandy,” all the while shaking my head and thinking, ‘Do we know a Mandy?’

My mum was talking, but the words weren’t getting in as I tried to think of anyone we’d banged over the years that had stalkerish tendencies, but I came up blank. Well, apart from—

My mouth dropped open. My eyes caught Jimmie’s, and much like mine, her mouth was hanging open.

Oh shit.

“When Marley and Sean came to the house with those girls, all you kept repeating, Georgia, was ‘how could he? She looks just like her.’ I eventually realised that it was the girl you had the problem with, not Sean.”

I felt like I was drowning; choking and suffocating, all while suffering a coronary. I wanted my mum to shut up. I didn’t want her to tell George who it was behind this. She’d blame me. I started the ball rolling by inviting the crazy bitch back to our hotel room. I’d just got my sister back in my life, now I was about to lose her again and possibly my best mate too.

“I made them for you, George.” My mum’s voice broke into my panicked thoughts. “Every piece of news on the boys, I kept and put it in a scrapbook in the hopes that one day, you’d be able to look at it.”

My mum wiped a tear from under each of her eyes and I think in that moment, we were all torn. Even George looked sorry for my mum, and then her expression changed. My sister was a clever girl, and her brain was beginning to put the pieces together. I knew in that instant that my sister had started to think exactly along the same lines as I was. I watched as she covered her mouth with her hand. Her wide eyes swung from mine to Jimmie’s, and then back to my mum. I felt like all the oxygen had been sucked from the room, and we were all just barely managing to breathe.

“I kept the good stuff and the bad stuff.” My mum continued with the words that I dreaded, that would potentially isolate me from my family once again.

“All of the newspaper pictures and articles, even old song lyrics. I kept them. I sat and went through them all until I found what I was looking for.” My mum looked at my dad, tears rolling down her face as he held her hand tightly. “That’s when I realised I’d made an almighty fuck up.” She sobbed out.

“Oh no. No, no, no,” George begged out loud, shaking her head as if it would stop my mum’s words from being true.

Jimmie was shaking her head in much the same way as George was. She stared at Maca, but realisation hadn’t hit him yet.

Len’s eyes landed on mine as he whispered, “No fucking way.”

My dad and Bailey just looked confused.

Jimmie and George locked eyes. “Whorely?” Jimmie half questioned, half stated.

“It was the girl from the rape charge,” my mum said quietly.

Maca was up and on his feet before anyone could grab him. I lurched forward, fearing that he was gonna slap or shake my mum, but it was my sister he turned to.

“No, no fucking way. I have not clapped eyes on that girl since that day. There is not and never was, anything between me and her, G, never. I swear on my life.”

Fuck.

Maca was in meltdown mode. I was ready to jump in and back him up one hundred and ten percent when my sister shocked the shit out of me by saying, “I know, I know. I believe you.”

The entire room was silent. Even Bailey looked stunned.

Maca sat back down next to George and took her hand. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side as she wrapped her free arm across her front, like she was trying to hold herself together.

“Fuck,” she said on an exhale, sounding like she still couldn’t quite believe all of the shit.

“That girl really does hate me. She’s gone all out to ruin my life and keep us apart for all this time.”

“Either that, or she’s just a fucking nutter.” Bailey finally spoke.

“I need a drink.” Georgia said.

Drink? I needed that, and possibly every drug in town.

Haley White ... Haley fucking White.

What a conniving little bitch she was. I was stunned, I was angry, and so fucking relieved that nobody seemed to be blaming me for what she’d done.