While I was away on holiday, my mum phoned me in a complete state. She couldnt stop crying, clearly beside herself. I ended the call quickly and rang my brother to find out what on earth had happened. He, however, responded rather harshly, insisting I speak to Mum directlyhe obviously knew the reason for her distress. He even said shed finally got what she deserved.
I was terribly unsettled. In the end, my husband and I decided to cut our holiday short. Even though the train tickets back to London were costly, we headed home straight away.
When we arrived, we found my mother still in tears, utterly shaken. We sat her down in the lounge with a cup of tea and gave her some valerian to try and calm her nerves. Eventually, she managed to pull herself together enough to tell us about the unfortunate incident. Apparently, shed returned from her shift at the local library only to find my sister-in-law, Alice, sitting there covered in bruises. Knowing Alice was expecting, Mum had panicked. She immediately dashed over, hugged Alice, and asked what had happened. Just then, my brother James entered, and Alice jumped up, screaming and accusing Mum of abusing her.
Mum was absolutely dumbfounded, unable to make sense of what was being said. James, believing his wifes story, was horrified and promptly threw Mum out of the house. Later, he took Alice to St Marys Hospital, where, tragically, she lost the baby. After that, James refused to listen to any explanations, avoiding contact with all of us and harbouring a deep grudge against Mum. Despite everything, I had a gut feeling that things werent as they seemed and chose to believe my mothers words. Thankfully, the truth eventually came to light, though from a very unexpected source.
It turned out that Alices close friend, who happened to be a genuinely decent woman, confided in me the real story. She explained that, in fact, the whole thing had been Alices ideato manipulate James into driving Mum out. Alice herself had taken steps to deliberately end the pregnancy. When James learned the truth, he was furious. He threw Alice out of the house on the spot, and then, with genuine remorse, apologised to our mother from the bottom of his heart.
A mothers love really is boundless; despite everything shed been through, Mum welcomed James back with open arms.
