Selling the Drama (46 page)

She shook her head. "Help me back up into
the chair. I feel like an idiot on the floor here."

He helped her stand, holding her tightly in
case she was not as steady on her feet as she believed herself to
be. He hovered as she sat, watching for any further signs of
faintness.

"Stop hovering. I'm fine now. It was just a
shock. Sit down." She glared at him, gesturing to the seat beside
her. He obeyed her and waited her out, preferring to respond to her
lead, rather than initiate any questions she might have.

"He told you about Jenna, didn't he?"

Toby nodded.

"The whole story?" Iris probed.

"The whole story," Toby replied. "It was all
very enlightening." The bitterness was vile, the reminder of how
close to his father he really was. He had no desire to get into
that with her though. He had no desire to get into it at all, not
ever.

"I'm sorry."

"What for?"

She shrugged. "I expect finding out about my
relationship with your father would have been a shock. I'm sorry
you found out. It wasn't necessary."

Toby looked at her carefully, not quite
following her. "It wasn't necessary he tell me, or that I ever find
out?"

"Both." She shook her head then, a bitter
smile twisting her face. "So typical of him, to try and distract
you with that rather than give you the opportunity to talk to him
about his own actions."

"He didn't distract me from anything. I
still questioned him on his actions. We need to address one issue
here at a time though. I need to tell Charlotte about Jenna. I want
Jenna to know. This is a ridiculous secret to have and I'm not
sitting on it." He had thought about this a lot. And all of his
thoughts pointed to one thing only: Jenna deserved more than this
lie. "I refuse to lie about this," he reiterated firmly.

Iris sighed deeply, emitting a shaky laugh.
"So righteous," she said, with no small measure of sarcasm thrown
in to the comment.

"Don't give me that shit." He stood up and
paced to the window, pressing his head against the glass, taking
comfort from the cool pane against his building agitation. Whirling
to face her, he pointed angrily. "This is eating me up! Knowing
this shit and keeping it to myself. I can't sleep! I can hardly
eat. I feel sick all the time. I'm telling you first as a courtesy,
but I'm not keeping a lid on it for you."

Iris regarded him coolly, that lofty
expression of hers that he had come to know so well, firmly in
place now. "Then tell them both yourself. You tell Jenna. Because
I'm not."

"You think I'm not serious?" Toby advanced
on her. "You can't bluff me. I will tell her if you don't. You
should know better than to try this shit out on me."

"Is she young?"

Toby looked at Iris in confusion. "Who?"

"The new wife."

He sighed with weariness then, slumping back
down into his seat beside her. It was so typical of Iris, to brush
Jenna aside in favour of her own concerns. "Yes," he replied.
"About Charlotte's age."

Iris said nothing, but her cheeks coloured,
a flush that spread rapidly down her throat and across her
chest.

"The boys are a bit younger than
Ashley."

"And he's definitely married to her?"

Toby nodded. "He told me has a second
identity."

"Yes, I know he has."

"What?"

"It's complicated. His second identity is
the one he used to marry me. He'll be using his birth name
now."

Toby just stared at Iris, his suspicions
growing. After a long silence, he leaned forward. "Is your marriage
to him legal?"

"Yes."

"You can't have two legal identities, Iris.
One of them has to be false."

"He changed his birth name legally. Before
we got married. His marriage to her is the one that is false, not
mine."

Toby nodded then. "Alright. Did you suspect
he might be using his other name?"

"What do you think?" Iris laughed again,
shaking her head at the same time.

"You haven't asked me if I found out why he
left," Toby pointed out.

"Why would I ask you something I already
know the answer to?"

It was Toby who shook his head this time. He
glared at her then, anger coursing through him at the duplicity of
it all. They were both as bad as each other. "You led me to believe
you came to get me because of my mother."

"I did."

"Not entirely."

"It was part of the reason. You are my
godson. She chose that for us. I would have honoured that no matter
who your father was."

"I don't believe anything you say
anymore."

Iris looked at him sadly, tears shining in
her eyes. "That makes me very sorry." She paused, as though
composing herself, collecting her thoughts for greater
articulation. "Toby, no matter what Royce has told you, I took you
in because you needed a home and I loved your mother. I won't deny
that I was infatuated with your father at one point in my life. But
that's all it was, an infatuation, and it passed. Royce was the one
who couldn't get over it. I don't understand him. I tried and
tried, but I could never make him see it was nothing. You reminded
me of your father, but I think you reminded Royce more."

Toby looked at her, a thickness settling
into his throat. "What he did to you…what he asked you to do. It's
just the same as what I expected of Charlotte. I hate that. I hate
knowing it and wearing it within me. It makes it all so much worse,
to know he did the same thing to you. I'm no different. I am him,
just scratch the surface, and I'm driven by the same
motivations."

Iris reached out, cupping his face tenderly.
"You are nothing like him. You are more. So much more." She stroked
his face with her thumb, catching a rogue tear.

"I am still so ashamed of having done that
to her." He leaned into her hand, seeking her assurance, her
comfort, her unquestioning support of him.

"Surely you see how that differentiates you?
He never gave me another thought. He never cared. You are nothing
like him!" Iris dropped her hand from his cheek, leaning forward to
kiss him on the forehead.

Toby closed his eyes briefly, willing
himself to calm down. When he opened them, Iris was sitting back in
her seat, her hands folded neatly on her lap, her face
controlled.

"I wish you wouldn't tell Jenna. My parents
were good to her. She doesn't need to know anything different."

"I have to."

Iris nodded. "Fair enough."

"What are you going to do about Royce?"

She smiled then, a self-satisfied smirk that
set Toby on edge. "Make him answer for what he's done."

"He may go to prison," Toby pointed out,
trying to discourage her, for Charlotte's sake. "He could get the
maximum penalty. That's a year, Iris. He knowingly committed
bigamy, he has no defence. Is that really what you want?"

"Maybe it's what I need. Why should he get
to live his life out there all over again? I was his wife! I am his
wife! Me!" She pounded on her chest with her fist, her face furious
now, her eyes shining fiercely. "I am his wife. He does not get to
walk away from that!"

"What about Charlotte?"

Iris stood and looked down at him. "She has
you. And her children. She'll get over it." She turned away from
him then, walking briskly to the door.

Toby buried his head in his hands.

As soon as Toby got home, Charlotte advanced
on him. "I need to show you something." She pulled out her phone,
opening to the photo gallery.

He walked past her, tossing his bag and
jacket down onto one of the dining room chairs. "Can you wait a
minute? I need to talk to you about something really important and
I don't want any distractions."

Charlotte looked up at him, phone poised in
her hand. She frowned at his tone, taking in his dishevelled
appearance. "What's wrong?"

He stared at her, seemingly lost for words
now that he had her undivided attention. Her phone rang. She looked
down at the display, her mother's face flashing at her. "It's Mum.
Can I just get this first?"

"No!" He lunged towards her, pulling the
phone out of her hand and turning it off, burying it deep into his
pocket. "I don't want you to talk to her right now. You need to
listen to me." He took a deep breath, and when he spoke next,
Charlotte was certain she had not heard him correctly.

"What did you say?"

"I found your father."

She smiled, tears welling and falling down
her cheeks. "I can't believe this! Where is he? Is he alright?"

Toby's face look devastated. "Charlotte,
stop."

She looked at him, confused at his
expression. He should be happy about his, after all this time, her
father was okay, they knew where he was, she would get to see him
again, introduce him to their children. They could be a family once
more.

Toby approached her, his hands coming to
rest on her shoulders, his face now close to hers. "Charlotte, I
can see what you're thinking, and you need to stop. He hasn't been
freed from some hostage situation. I found him accidently. In the
place he had chosen to hide himself. He has no intention of coming
back."

She shook her head, not wanting to hear
this, not wanting to accept it, even though she knew deep down that
what he was saying was the truth. A truth she had always known.
"How did you find him?" she whispered, rubbing at her chest
involuntarily. There was a pain invading her middle, taking her
over.

"I saw him when I was in Mount Isa for
work."

Charlotte sucked in a sharp breath. "That
was ages ago! You've known all this time and you're only telling me
now?"

"Charlotte, it was complicated-"

"Complicated?" She pulled out of his grasp,
backing up, needing to put some distance between them. "What's
complicated about telling me you found my father?! It should have
been the very first thing you said to me when you walked in the
door! I can't believe it wasn't! How could you do this to me?"

"It's not that simple."

"Yes it is!"

"You don't understand!"

"No, I don't. I don't understand at all how
you could keep something like this from me! I can't even begin to
fathom your motivations. It's ridiculous, how you do this. You just
make all these decisions for me, all the time! I am so sick and
tired of doing this with you!" She turned away from him, furious,
hurt, devastated, all at once. Betrayed.

"I wanted to protect you," Toby pleaded.

"From my own father?" she spat out, keeping
her back to him.

"He married someone out there. Started a new
family. He has a new name. A whole new life."

Charlotte spun around, disbelief moving
through her, sickness rising. She gripped the back of the couch
nearby to steady herself, and looked over at Toby, seeing the
truth, and how much it hurt him to say it, all over his face.

"I'm sorry. I only wanted to protect you. I
only ever take over like that when I want to protect you. I don't
do it to control you. I just want to look after you. I didn't know
how to tell you, I swear, I wasn't trying to lie to you. I just
couldn't tell you straight away, and then it was too late, the
timing was wrong with everything else that was happening." He held
his hands out in front of him, pleading with her.

"He replaced us?" Charlotte looked at Toby,
tears now obscuring her vision.

He walked up to her, reaching out to cup her
face, pressing his lips hard to her forehead. "He's an idiot."

She crumpled against him, burying her face
into his shirt. "Have you told Mum?"

"Yeah. This afternoon. I needed to tell her
first, because there's something else you need to know, and I
wanted to make sure she understood that I was going to tell you
everything."

"What? What more could there be?" Charlotte
looked up at Toby, still clinging to his shirt, now wet from her
tears.

"This isn't bad, but it's significant." He
paused and looked down into her eyes. "Jenna is your sister."

Charlotte frowned, her mind going
immediately to the calculations, measuring the age difference
between her mother and Jenna, then Jenna and herself. "Wow, that's
young. Okay. I guess I understand why she gave her to Grandma and
Grandpa. But, Jenna? She doesn't know?"

Toby shook his head. "Iris doesn't want her
to know. I told her I was going to tell her anyway. Charlotte,
Jenna's father," he paused again then, a frown creasing his face
once more. "She is my sister also."

Charlotte stared at him. "What?"

"Turns out everybody knew everyone back in
the day. And your father and my father grew up together. Anyway,
long story short, my dad knocked up your mum when she was only
fourteen, gave her a heap of cash and sent her on her way to get an
abortion, your dad didn't like that so he kept in touch. You can
see where I'm headed." He looked at her then, his eyes wide, his
flippant tone not matching his expression.

She pulled him against her, pressing her
lips to his throat. "I see where you're headed. Or rather, where
you've already arrived. It's not the same, Toby. You are not the
same."

He scoffed at that. "You think?"

Charlotte tightened her grip on him. "Yeah.
I more than think. I know. So get your head out of that space. You
have to try and stop talking yourself into thinking that you're so
much like him. You aren't him. You stuffed up with Ashley at the
beginning, that's true enough, but that doesn't make you the same
as him."

"That's pretty much what your mum said."

"Good. She knows better than me about this,
given that it happened to her. So believe her." She paused then,
considering all that he had told her since walking in the door. "Is
Jenna's parentage a reason why my dad left?"

Toby sighed then, limping over to the couch.
"He used me as an excuse. Some bullshit story about your mother
pining over my father and losing it when I moved out to go to
uni."