I said: ‘No’ – but it was too late. He was already grabbing my legs and trying to throw me over the top.
Julius: Emma had basically confessed that she tried to kill Dad. She’d failed to such a degree that she’d damaged any relationship she was ever going to have with the family again.
I saw what was going to happen a moment before it did. She lunged towards the balcony. I shouted something like: ‘You don’t have to do this’ – as I was trying to hold onto her.
We burst through the balcony doors and I was trying to say that she had so much to live for. She seemed so determined to throw herself off and it was all I could do to stop her. It felt like she wanted to die – and I was desperately trying to stop her.
Emma: He was trying to kill me and, as the railing dug into my back, my feet came off the floor. His eyes weren’t wild or wide. He was calm and he knew exactly what he was doing.
I could feel him lifting me; shoving harder into my chest until all that was left was for me to go backwards over the rail and fall to the ground below.
Chapter Forty
THE SPOILER ALERT
Emma: Spoiler alert: I didn’t die.
You should have probably had someone else tell all my parts, then there would have been a bit more drama here. I could have popped up with a big ta-da moment…
Julius: We were struggling on the balcony and I was trying to pull her back.
Emma: I genuinely did believe I was going to die in that moment. I think I was ready for it. It’s not as if I was suicidal, but I was probably accepting. He was stronger than me and a sort of calmness came over me…
…
It was only momentary – then I decided that there was no way I was letting him get away with it.
Julius: She was flailing and kicking.
Emma: I flailed and kicked, all right. I remembered the times I’d seen Julius wince because of his side – and I booted him as hard as I could right in the soft bit above his hip.
Julius: I don’t want people saying I’m a hero. I only did what anyone else would have done in that situation. I saved my sister’s life.
Emma: He crumpled like a broken ironing board – and we both fell forward, away from the railing. He tried to grab my ankle but could barely get his breath – so I punched him one more time in the side and then made a run for the door.
Julius: Emma was still flailing – but there was a moment when I looked up and realised the maid had come into the room. She will back me up on this.
Emma: I didn’t get to the door because the maid was there. She was staring out towards the balcony and I think she’d seen everything. She can back me up on this.
Rosa Makos (hotel maid, through an interpreter): I saw two people fighting on the balcony – a man and a woman. The woman was kicking and throwing her arms – bam-bam-bam. The two of them fell away from the balcony and landed on the floor, then the woman ran towards me.
That is all I saw.
Emma: Julius was stumbling behind me, but we both stopped when we saw the maid. It felt like we’d been play-fighting as kids and that Mum had walked in… except it was so much more serious than that.
Julius: Thank god the maid was there. I really think Emma would have tried to jump a second time if it hadn’t been for her.
Emma: Julius was struggling to breathe – and he didn’t do much to stop me as I left the room. I went to the lifts, pressed the button for the ground floor, and then rode it down on my own.
Everyone was still sitting or standing with their cases, waiting for their buses or taxis.
Nothing had changed… but everything had.
I walked across to take my case from the floor next to the twins – but Mum must have seen something in me. We’d not spoken since she told me to leave the table the night before – but she came across and took my arm before asking if everything was all right.
I looked her right in the eyes and I thought about her diagnosis, and I thought about the family.
There was Dad, who had arranged this entire thing in order to rob a bank with a fake driving licence with the details of a man who was dead. It might even have been a man that he had killed.
There was my mother, who endured and tolerated all this, even though she was dying.
There was my brother, who had probably tried to kill our dad to protect an inheritance. Who had literally just tried to kill his sister.
Then there was me. The woman who killed her baby son because she’d had too much to drink and then got into a car. The woman whose husband left because he couldn’t bear to look at her any longer.
And I thought about what I should say.
Julius: It was only later that I found out Emma supposedly has an alibi for that night Dad fell. It took me a while to put things together – but then I found out the person giving her the alibi is the person who works for you.
Emma keeps talking about who benefits – but it’s you, isn’t it? It’s Garibaldi Media. It’s your movie.
And that’s when I put it all together.
There are a few things that could have happened that first night. Option one is that Dad fell. I don’t believe that – and neither does he any longer.
Second, Emma used Paul as an alibi and then snuck out of the room when he was asleep. She stumbled across Dad on the cliffs and took her chance. It’s not that hard to believe. She was never the favourite child and then, after what happened with her son, Dad never looked at her the same way again.
Third – and I think this is the most likely – Emma and Paul were in on it together. You were making a documentary and he thought it would make for a better story. I know you might not want to believe it, but there it is.
Do you have a better version of events?
Emma: I wondered if I should tell her about all the things I’d just challenged Julius about. If I should mention what had just happened upstairs on the balcony.
I wondered if she would believe me – because it would always come down to my word versus his. My word versus her favourite’s.
The lift pinged and Julius came out, dragging his case behind him. He walked through the lobby, focused only on me, with the wheels of his case bumping across the tiled grooves. And then, suddenly, he was in front of us: a triangle of me, him and Mum. He was breathing loudly, still struggling for breath, and he said: ‘We’re family.’
I know it doesn’t sound like much – but it was a declaration of war. As if he was saying: ‘This is us and this is what we do. Like it or leave.’
It was so simple and all I could reply was: ‘Yes. Yes, we are.’
And we are family – except, if I had to like it or leave, then there was only ever going to be one decision.