Sixty-three. Jasmine
I feel like such a failure. Sephy is hurting so much and I don't know what to say to her. I don't know how to reach her. And I'm afraid. Minerva's always been the strong one, the one who lands on her feet no matter what. But Sephy . . . Sephy lives by her heart, not her head. I let her go to Chivers boarding school because I thought some time away from home would help her to toughen up. She'd have to rely on herself and no one else. I thought she'd learn something about people and life away from the narrow circle of her friends at Heathcroft High. And it did work.
Until that boy showed up again. Until he tricked Sephy into meeting him just so he could kidnap her with his other Liberation Militia friends. I still don't understand how Callum could've done it. He was supposed to love my daughter and yet he could do that to her. He kidnapped her and victimized her and had sex with her. Sephy insisted that Callum didn't force her but that's not the point. She was vulnerable and he knew that and yet he still took advantage.
That's supposed to be love?
Now look at her.
Vilified and ridiculed and unable to set foot outside her house without some idiot or other making her life a misery. And it's all thanks to that boy Callum. I love my granddaughter very much, she's very precious to me – but so is my daughter. And I watch Sephy's eyes permanently shrouded in pain as I speak to her and I see her shoulders drooping and her head bowed and I can't do a single thing to change it. I'd give my life if it'd help Sephy to find some kind of peace but it doesn't work that way. Sephy is heading for some kind of breakdown – Meggie and I are both agreed on that at least. But Sephy won't get help and she's so notorious now, she's afraid to set foot outside Meggie's front door.
I'd like to take Jude McGregor and wring his scrawny neck for what he's done to Sephy and his niece. I know everything he said about Sephy was a lie. What I don't understand is why she won't come right out and say so? Why won't she defend herself? What hold does he have over her?
I've tried phoning Kamal about Sephy but he's too busy to be interested. He has his new wife and family now. We're yesterday's news. I don't care about that so much – I'm getting over him. But I do mind for my daughter's sake. And Sephy was so close to her father. How could he just abandon her like this? Sephy is like a ship without a rudder. She's trying to do everything alone, by herself, and it's too much.
If she doesn't get help soon, I'm afraid of what will happen to her. All I can do is make sure that she knows I'm here for her.
I just wish I'd let her know that sooner.
VIOLET