Marley (Carnage #3)

by Lesley Jones

  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 questi
oned, 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.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  1989

  The following night we went to one of our favourite Indian restaurants. We were regulars back in the day and had even held meetings there when things first started to take off for us.

  Maca and George had stayed at Jimmie and Len’s the night before. After my parents had left and things had calmed down a little bit, Bailey had mentioned in front of Maca that George had been seeing someone. We’d shut him down as quickly as we could, and then the lot of us had proceeded to get pleasantly stoned.