You know there’s something seriously wrong when the police arrive at your door past midnight. I guessed what it was at once. He had finally done it.
I’d moved out of the family home when I was seventeen, and haven’t put a foot inside it since. After years of wanting my father’s attention, I finally had it once I reached puberty. It was the wrong sort of course, “our little secret” he used to call it.
Poor Mum, the things she had to put up with over the years. She didn’t deserve any of it. She’d never told anybody of the mental and physical abuse she had been subjected to from ‘HIM.’ Even now I can’t call him ‘Dad’, he’s such a despicable human being. Why she stood by him all these years I will never understand.
Mum and I kept in touch over the years, the odd phone call here and there, or meeting for coffee at the supermarket cafe, where she didn’t need to explain where she’d been. I never gave her my address for fear of him finding out where I lived.
For now, he was under arrest, detained at his Majesty’s pleasure. The police had closed off the house as it was a crime scene. I would have to wait until they’d completed all their forensics, to sort Mum’s things out. I know it will take a while, but perhaps all the stains of Mum’s spilt blood over the years will speak volumes, and give him a longer sentence.
For years Mum had made me promise not to talk to anyone outside about the domestic abuse. She’d wanted everybody to think that our lives were good, with a caring husband and a happy family. She’d grown up in that house and had inherited it from her mother, and now it is to be mine. He has no hold on it, he had never paid rent all the time they had lived there. It was my mother’s trust fund that was used for any repairs. He squandered all his own wages, either down the bookies or the pub.
Now, was the time to break my promise. I will testify against him. I was a witness of his bad temper and short fuse over many years. He seemed to enjoy his power over both of us.
He was sentenced to 18 years. I cheered as the verdict was read out. To my surprise many of Mum’s neighbours were in the Court Room. All of them came over to talk to me once we were outside.
“Don’t be a stranger.”
“Come around for a cuppa, so that we can catch up.”
“Sorry Kathy, your Mum deserved better than him.”
I moved back home. The first thing I did was to burn all his clothes, and throw all his other possessions in the rubbish bin.
I sat down on the settee and noticed the sampler on the wall.
Home Sweet Home
I threw it in the bin.
