screaming at her mother now. ‘You let me believe for all those years that it was me who killed him. That you’d gone to prison for me.’
‘You started the fire, Danielle. You have to accept some responsibility.’
‘How could you, Mum? How could you let me live with that guilt? I was still a child.’
Danielle scratches at her arm and I see a nasty new burn and a criss-cross of scars on her wrist. She was punishing herself. I see that now. She was so filled with self-loathing. She’d always blamed herself. But really she’d wanted someone else to blame. Me. Once again I can’t help feeling sorry for her. But then I think of all the things she’s done to hurt me.
‘I couldn’t tell you I’d killed your father, could I? You’d never have forgiven me. Better for you to think I was going down instead of you. What was the use of you thinking badly of me?’
Virginia flicks the lighter and I shiver as I watch the tiny flame appear. The acrid smell of petrol fills my nostrils and I look behind her into the hallway and see a dark petrol slick running down the cream carpet towards the staircase.
‘Why are you in my house?’ I whisper. But I know the answer. She wants to burn it down, with me inside. She burnt her husband to death and now she wants me to go the same way.
‘Why do you think? After fifteen years in prison, serving time because you slept with my husband, I come out to find out you’ve befriended my daughter. The daughter I’ve been thinking of every day for fifteen years, the daughter I couldn’t wait to be a mother to again. It was all too late. She was already under your spell.’
‘You were never going to be my mother again,’ Danielle says. ‘Not after what you did to my father.’
‘You’d never have found out if you hadn’t met her.’ She jabs her finger towards me.
Danielle looks at the lighter and then the petrol. ‘I’m not friends with Beth, Mum,’ Danielle says urgently. ‘I never was.’
‘You won’t be for much longer,’ she says. ‘She’s ruined my relationship with you. You were all I had left. If I can’t have you, then she certainly can’t. Do you know what I’ve spent my years fantasising about when I was in prison? Not that Nick hadn’t died. No. That she’d died with him. She’s cost me my freedom.’
‘Mum—’ Danielle glances from her mother to me and then back again. ‘Don’t do anything stupid. You’re out of jail now. You don’t want to end up back there.’ I feel a flicker of hope. Danielle doesn’t want me to die, even if her mother does.
‘Don’t I? What is there for me here? I thought I was coming out to see you, to be a part of your life again, but you’ve forced me out of your home. What’s left for me? At least I had a roof over my head in prison. At least I had friends. People I could trust. Not like my own daughter, who doesn’t even want me living with her.’
‘Mum, it’s not like that. You know that. I have to think of the baby now.’
Virginia smiles, a glint in her eye. ‘You do need to think of the baby, and get out of here right now before I set fire to the place.’
I watch Danielle’s hand go to her stomach protectively. I start to stand. I need to get past Virginia. I need to get out. I know she’s going to kill me. She’s got nothing to lose.
Danielle starts to move away towards the stairs, and I follow behind. I need to make a run for it, as soon as there’s an opportunity. As soon as Virginia’s distracted.
Virginia turns to me and holds a hand out to stop me passing. ‘Not you.’ I push past her hand and start to run, adrenaline pumping through me. But as my foot hits the ground it sticks to the petrol and then slides out from underneath me. I land with a thud. Virginia is smiling above me. She picks up a petrol can from the floor and tips the remainder over me. It sticks to my hair, my shirt, my jeans. She holds the cigarette lighter up, showing me the flame.
‘Stay where you are.’
‘Mum––’ Danielle pleads.
Virginia lowers the lighter towards the floor. ‘Get out, Danielle, while you can. I’m losing patience.’
Danielle hurries down the stairs and I hear the front