Page 2 of The Happy Family

Tonight.

So I will.

I leave my bedroom, the cramped one I’ve been forced into as I rent this place with my parents while their house is rebuilt after the fire, and creep past the room where they sleep. My mum and dad have been through a lot over this past year like I have, and I’m sure there is plenty to come after I expose Luna. So I leave them to get their rest. I pass their bedroom and go downstairs as quietly as I can and then leave the house, allowing them to sleep and achieve what little peace they can before they wake up to the nightmare that I am currently engulfed in.

I put on my coat and shoes but there is one more thing I need before I leave. I see my father’s car keys lying on the kitchen counter and scoop them up, feeling as if I’m touching some kind of forbidden fruit because I know I should not be in possession of car keys. I am banned from driving. I would be breaking the law if I got behind the wheel of a car. That’s why my father has been chauffeuring me around everywhere recently. But not anymore. Tonight, I am driving and I’m doing so because I don’t want to waste a second in getting to my old house and getting Luna out of there as quickly as possible.

I step outside and feel a chill run down my spine. It could be the cold weather at this late hour of the day, or it could be the apprehension of what I am about to head towards.

A storm. A danger. A woman who has stopped at nothing to ruin my life.

But I’m about to meet that foe head-on.

I unlock my father’s car and get in behind the wheel, starting the engine and thinking about the last time I had the freedom of the road at my fingertips. It was the morning over a year ago when I drove my children to school, the same morning a police car stopped me, and an officer breathalysed me. I thought it was a joke, or just a random check, but it was neither.

It was a set-up.

I grit my teeth as I release the handbrake and ease my foot on the accelerator and, as I expected, I am more than a little rusty when it comes to operating a vehicle after such a long time. The car judders and jolts and I almost stall it, but I eventually get the feel for it again and now I’m driving. Which means I’m breaking the law. But it’s nothing in comparison to the crimes Luna has committed.

I’m on the way to my old house. The one I used to call home. The one where I shared a bedroom with Reid, and where I used to tuck our two children into their beds each night. The one where I made so many meals in the kitchen, watched so many kids’ movies in the lounge, and spent so many sunny afternoons in the garden with my little ones frolicking on the lawn. I designed and decorated every room, I put up every photo, and I poured all of my love and attention into making it as warm a place to exist as any family could hope for.

I need to get there as quickly as possible and wake up my ex-husband. Tell him that the woman he has allowed into his life is a liar. Tell him to get the kids and get them out of the house until the police have arrested Luna and her true nature has been laid bare. Only once my family members are safe can I rest, which is why I am pressing my foot down further and further on the accelerator pedal.

They are not currently safe.

As I speed through the silent streets, passing all these houses where families sleep and drama is lacking, I cannot believe that this is just the latest development in my own dramatic family history. Depending on how things go when I get to my destination, all these people around here could be waking up to some very hair-raising headlines on the morning news. If I have my way, the news will report on how Luna has been unmasked as a dangerous and deluded villain and I am the hero of the story, who has suffered so much before finally getting my redemption. But if things go wrong, it’ll be my obituary they are reading.

I could call the police. Have them meet me there. But that risks a couple of things. One, they might not believe my accusations and two, if they don’t, Reid won’t, and then I may have missed my chance. I need to catch Luna off guard. I need to make Reid believe me and I know I can because we were so close once. We were married. We were soulmates. I hope he’ll hear the truth in my words. All I need to do is voice them to him and it’s best to do that without any other influences. So no police. Not yet, anyway. The time for them will come. But for now, it’s my time.

This is my family.

So only I can do this.

I’m not far away now. Only a few minutes at most. The closer I get, the more I see my enemy’s face in my mind’s eye.

Luna took my family from me, so it’s time I start taking too.

I’m going to take my family back.

I’m going to take my revenge.

TWO

LUNA

The dead of night is a bad time for guilt. It often comes in waves, the silence and solitude no match for the voices in my head that remind me of all the bad things I have done in my past. During the day, I can distract myself and keep myself busy enough to briefly forget all the sins and secrets that have got me the life I have now. But then everyone goes to sleep, everything falls quiet and that’s when the bit of my brain that worries that this will all be taken away from me comes out to play.

You’re a bad person.

You don’t deserve your family.

Reid is going to find out what you have done. Then he’ll leave you, taking the children with him. He’ll go back to Sadie, while you’ll go to prison. You’ll be alone again. You’ll never have any happiness.

It’s what you deserve.

Those are just a few of the thoughts running through my tired mind as midnight approaches and I find myself wide awake, downstairs in the house I worked so hard to get into. The house I managed to remove Sadie from. The house where I live with her family, the one I targeted after becoming obsessed with them all whilst delivering parcels here in my day job.

I did it. I achieved my goal. I have a family now.