Chapter 7

Chapter 7
Sheila Carter couldn’t believe it. She was about to have a child. All the maternal emotions were coming to her, the ones she learned about in her summer course. All her life she wanted to be a mother. She wanted to give her children what her mother never could. She did not want to be one of those mothers such as Stacey Cameron in Margaret Laurence’s The Fire-Dwellers. She wasn’t about to spend her motherhood going crazy in her mind and having a husband who makes her feel subservient. Scott would never treat her like that. He was a good man.
A couple of nights before, Lauren Fenmore and Scott Grainger were having an engagement party. Scott had become ever so distant since he had an affair with Lauren’s cousin, Sheila Carter. He knew he loved Sheila. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. The night he met her was one of the best nights of his life. He knew Lauren had been around with the likes of the PI detective Paul Williams and former pool boy Brad Carlton, but Sheila was the total opposite of Lauren Fenmore. She only had room for him in her heart. Deep within his heart, he knew that Lauren would survive without him. It was on this night that Scott couldn’t stand the silence, and he decided to tell Lauren of his affair with Sheila. That was until he saw that everyone was drinking champagne and Lauren was drinking iced tea. He thought this was suspicious. Lauren had always been a fan of alcoholic beverages at events such as this, but this time was different. He knew he must come clean. “No, I mustn’t”, thought Scott and he briefly went to recollect himself in the washroom. He had to prepare himself for tearing Lauren’s heart out.
When he emerged, he saw something that caught his eye. Lauren was dancing with former flame Paul Williams. In a way, this redeemed Scott’s affair with Sheila. It was in this moment that Scott realized that he was in love with Sheila, and he couldn’t believe that Lauren was making a fool out of him at their own engagement party. He strutted up to them, and grabbed Paul off of his fiancée. Pretty soon, punches were being thrown in front of an entire hall.
Lauren stopped them, and told Scott she was having their baby. Scott was astonished. This didn’t stop Scott from admitting his affair with Sheila. Lauren and Paul were in disbelief. “That slut!”, Lauren thought. She slapped Scott and kicked his family jewels.
“How could you do this to me? I love you.”
“Oh, and I suppose that’s the reason why you’re slow-dancing with your ex at our engagement party.”
“Paul and I are just friends. I’ve never cheated on you.”
“Lauren, you and I both know that if it’s anyone that’s been a slut, it’s yourself. Sheila is different.”
“I can’t believe you’re comparing me to Sheila. She’s nothing like me. This shouldn’t even matter. I’m having your baby, so whether or not you love my cousin and not me, you’re stuck with me for the rest of your life.”
Lauren started weeping, and Scott took pity on her. Scott realized he had overreacted, and though he didn’t love her, she was having his child. Sheila wasn’t. Though he didn’t quite remember the last night he spent making love to Sheila. He had to marry Lauren. After all, Scott didn’t want to make the same mistakes his parents made. He grew up in an extended family, and didn’t want the same for his child. You’re delusional if you think Scott loved you and not Lauren. Scott apologized profusely for his behaviour at the party and for his affair with Sheila. Lauren understood, even though she wasn’t through with Sheila yet. Scott asked: “How far along are you?”. Lauren said 4 weeks. How ironic that it had been 4 weeks since he ended things with Sheila.
Sheila went home to her mother and told her that she was pregnant. Molly was flabbergasted. She didn’t believe that her daughter could be so careless. Sheila told her mother that this was her plan to make Scott hers. Molly couldn’t believe her daughter. She must have been so ashamed of you. On the contrary, Molly admired Sheila for taking charge of her own happiness, as was the moral behind Alice Munro’s “The Red Dress”.
Molly asked her how she managed it:
“I took matters into my own hands. I learned this trick on the news.”
“You took advantage of him, didn’t you? You raped Scott.”
“I didn’t rape Scott. It wasn’t like that. He wanted to say goodbye to me, and I simply wouldn’t let him.”
“You drugged him?”
“Of course I drugged him. When I slept with him the first time, I didn’t get pregnant. I had to find a way to keep him.”
Molly asked her why she shouldn’t go to the police.
“I know you won’t go to the police. I know how Dad disappeared.”
Molly turned beat red and felt nervous and queezy. She had to hit the bathroom.
Sheila continued: “One night you just about had it with him. So you murdered him. I know because you put slipcovers on our sofa. The slipcovers conceal the red bloodstain that he probably got when you stabbed him right through his heart. You told me it was ketchup, ha! Then, the next morning I came home and I smelt old ashes and smoke all over the house. Suddenly, it all fits. You covered up your dirty little secret very well. You incinerated his body so no one would ever find him. I got to say Mom, you’re very clever! I wouldn’t have planned it any better.” Sheila, this isn’t true. That didn’t happen. You are going to write what I tell you to, or I’ll blow your brains out!
So what? Molly had an ace up her sleeve.
“2 years ago, you had to sneak off to a date I presume. I saw you get into a red Convertible with a guy I had never seen before, and you didn’t return for hours. You thought I had gone to bed when you returned, but I was wide-awake. You looked frazzled, your bra was unhooked, and you had dirt all over you. Then, shortly thereafter a car that matched my memory was found beneath the Cliffside and there was no evidence of a body.”
Now Sheila exhibited the same constipation that her mother felt earlier.
“The remains were so incinerated that the case was closed.”
“So? What does that prove? That couldn’t have been me.”
“It was you, sweetheart. You were raped and you had to get revenge on your assailant. Plus, 2 months later, you developed gonorrhoea. I know you’d been a good girl, and Dr. Winters told me that only people who’ve been sexually active got that STD.”
Sheila and Molly came to an understanding. Sheila declared in her mind that this was a battle to the death.