‘Love you too, Mrs Perry.’
As we kiss and I run my fingers through his hair, I make the decision that I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that whoever it was who sent those photos will never come between me and my husband. My family means too much to me to let someone else’s twisted agenda destroy my life.
‘Right…’ Ed pulls away from our kiss and smooths my hair away from my face. ‘Much as I’d love to sit here all day snogging my hot wife, I have to go to work.’
I scowl and blow a raspberry. ‘Spoilsport.’
‘Someone has to be the grown-up.’ He grins.
‘Better you than me.’ I jump up off his lap. ‘Those children are being scarily quiet. Better go and see what’s happening.’
‘Stay here if you like. I’ll go and check on them,’ Ed says. ‘I want to say goodnight before I leave.’
‘Okay, thanks, babe. Have a good night.’
Ed goes next door and I hear him chatting to the children before he leaves for work. I sit back down at the kitchen table and take a sip of my tea, but it’s already gone cold. Now that Ed’s gone, the anxiety I’m feeling ramps up even more. Aside from being scary, this thing has the potential to completely ruin my life.
I can’t go to the police, because that would risk Ed finding out. My brother Ash is a cop, but he has strong morals and might not believe I’m telling the truth. I’ve always been a bit of a rebel and I wouldn’t blame him for thinking the worst of me. Even though I would never do anything like that. My family is sacred to me. No, I’ll have to get to the bottom of this without his help. I did send Kelly a couple of texts earlier to meet up for a chat…
I think I’m going to risk confiding in her. She’s always so caring and non-judgemental. She’ll know what to do for the best. I should probably wait until later when the children are in bed, but I can’t spend another moment with all these worries swilling around in my brain. I pick up my phone and call Kelly’s number. Even if we can’t talk properly now, I can ask if she’ll come over for a chat, maybe even for dinner. She could bring the boys over. Ryan and Sonny are never any trouble. Annoyingly, her phone goes straight to voicemail. But that’s fine, I’ll get hold of her eventually, and when I do, she’ll help me to come up with a plan. A way to get out of this mess.
But, even as I strengthen my resolve and try to act more positively, I can’t help feeling that things are slipping and sliding out of my control. That if I don’t do something soon, the life I’ve built will fall away, and I’ll be left with nothing.
Thirteen
Friday
KELLY
Derek has left me a box of jewellery to display on the counter. The pieces are delicate and pretty – a golden dragonfly brooch, several twisted silver rings and various coloured bracelets and clip-on earrings. As I attempt to hook them onto the stand, I wonder about their previous owner. Did the person grow tired of the pieces or was it someone who died and had no one to leave them to? Did they originally buy the pieces for themselves? Or were they perhaps gifts from a loved one? I often do this with donations – wonder about each item’s history, but it always makes me feel a little melancholy.
I could really have done with giving work a miss today. I texted a few other volunteers, but there was no one free to take over my shift and, whatever else I have going on in my life, I don’t like to let my boss down. He relies on all his volunteers. Profits from the shop go towards local charities – the hospital, the lifeboat association, families in need and lots of other worthy causes. I wonder if perhaps Sophie could benefit from some of the proceeds. I’ll have to discuss it with Derek.
Sophie is still at the house. I haven’t had the chance to talk to her about getting some help, and I couldn’t very well throw her out onto the street. With any luck, I should have some time this evening to sit down properly with her and have a serious discussion about how best to help. I’ll pop back home during my lunch break too. Make sure she’s okay.
The shop is quiet this morning. I’ve only had a couple of browsers in so far. My thoughts swing back to my children, and to the crazy rumour that I kissed Sonny’s teacher, Mr Llewellyn. It’s all nonsense of course. Just bored kids trying to cause trouble. Sonny told me that everyone at school is talking about it.Poor Ryan.If his friends were teasing him about his mum kissing a teacher, then no wonder he flipped out in the classroom. Especially as he misses his dad so much. I hope he realises there’s no truth to it.
I did try to talk to Ryan last night, but all I got in return were monosyllabic answers. I asked him if this rumour was the reason he was rude to his teacher, but he just clammed up. At least he didn’t kick up a fuss about going in to school this morning. I hate the fact that I can’t seem to get through to my eldest son these days. He’s shutting me out. I wish Michael were here. He would know how to jolt him out of it.
I have to admit, the rumour really shook me up too. Sent my thoughts racing back to that day at school all those years ago. I shiver, not wanting to think about that time. We’ve all managed to put it firmly behind us. This silly gossip is just an unfortunate coincidence.
The shop door swings open, rattling the bell and distracting me from my worries. I look up. It’s Tia and Leo. I guiltily remember that Tia left a message for me to call her yesterday and I never got back to her. I was too preoccupied with everything and the message went out of my head.
Tia is one of those people who always manages to look effortlessly beautiful. She doesn’t dress expensively like Fiona, yet all her clothes just seem to look perfect on her. If you didn’t know her well you would say that today is no exception: her dark curls are wild, her print dress and sandals are cool, and her caramel skin is flawless. But Tia is one of my best friends, and I can tell that something isn’t quite right. There’s a tightness in her face and a few wrinkles in her dress. Her eyeliner is lopsided, and Leo (who normally looks like a child from a kids’ clothing advert) is wearing mismatched sandals and it looks like his shorts are on back-to-front.
‘Hi, Aunty Kelly, I got a lolly.’ Leo waves an orange lolly at me before shoving it back in his mouth.
‘That looks yummy.’
He nods vigorously.
‘Hi, Kels,’ Tia says wearily. ‘How’s it going?’
‘Fine.’ I give her a quick hug and briefly wonder whether I should confide in her about Sophie. But I promised I wouldn’t say anything to anyone, and I like to think of myself as trustworthy. It’s always the way that if you tell one person a secret, then they end up telling one other person and eventually the secret gets out. No. I’ll stay silent. And anyway, if I told Tia the truth about everything that’s going on in my life, we’d be here all week. Plus I don’t want to burden her with my own problems; not when she seems so preoccupied and also a little down. ‘How are you doing?’
‘Oh, you know… It’s… well…’ She shakes her head and stares down at her feet.
‘Tia, what’s wrong?’
