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Chapter 20
Surprised she’d fallen asleep sitting up on Maisie’s bed, Lili woke to the sound of raised voices.She looked at Maisie, but she hadn’t stirred.
Lili stood up and stretched. She went over to the window. Maisie’s bedroom was at the back of the house. Down below, the garden was empty. During her catnap, the party had wound down and everyone had gone home. Lili felt relieved. She strolled over to the bedroom door and opened it. She was about to walk out of the room when she overheard Hannah and Kyle on the stairs.
Lili heard Hannah exclaim, ‘You saidbuy whatever you want, so I bought a Mercedes. It didn’t bother you at the time.’
A Mercedes? Lili mouthed. So, that was what the car Hannah had turned up in to collect Maisie was. She had thought it quite flashy at the time, but she wasn’t very au fait with cars. She could see they were rolling in money, though.
‘I know I didn’t say anything. Quite frankly, I’ve had a lot going on, but I didn’t think you’d go out and buy a car. What were you thinking? I meant lingerie or something.’
‘So, I spend fifty grand,’ Hannah said. ‘There’s more where that came from – isn’t there? You said so yourself.’
Lili slowly closed the door and sucked in a breath.Fifty thousand pounds on a car? Just what did Kyle do for a living?
A peculiar thought crossed Lili’s mind; Hannah always seemed to fall in with the wrong crowd. Lili had assumed that this time was different, and that Hannah had fallen on her feet. She had imagined that her friend’s new partner was a city slicker – a trader, or a lawyer like Alex. But something was telling her that he might not be on the up and up. She closed the bedroom door quietly, hoping Hannah didn’t glimpse her and realise she had overheard their lover’s tiff.
She checked again that Maisie was still asleep and thought of their earlier conversation about the holiday. Then, something dawned on her; she’d left an important item behind in the flat. ‘Oh, god!’ she whispered under her breath. She had put the box Alex had sent by FedEx – the one containing most of her possessions – in a cupboard, and when she’d hastily packed her suitcase to leave, she’d forgotten all about it. She didn’t care about her clothes, her small DVD collection of favourite movies, the few ornaments she’d collected over the years or even her precious books on horticulture; what really mattered to Lili was her file – the one she’d been given when she officially left care at eighteen.
There wasn’t much in it. There were some childhood photos that had been taken by different foster carers, as well as Connie, over the years. But it was the single sheet of lined paper with the details of where she’d been found on Corfu, what she was wearing, and the police report that she was most concerned about; that was the only connection she had with her past.
Lili listened carefully at the door. She couldn’t hear Hannah and her partner arguing anymore. It was her chance to slip away. She felt bad for leaving, but she had no choice if she wanted to retrieve the file.
Lili had just stepped out of the bedroom when she almost walked into Hannah, who was striding along the hall.
‘Oh, Lili. There you are. I’m sorry the party went on for a bit. Why don’t you come downstairs and have a glass of wine? I sure as hell could do with one.’
Lili shook her head, but her expression gave her away.
‘Ah, you heard us arguing.’
Lili didn’t deny it. ‘I didn’t mean to, but you were—’
‘Loud – I know! Sorry about that.’
Lili said nothing more, but she got the impression Kyle was having money issues. ‘Look, I’d better go.’
‘Oh, Lili, please don’t.’
‘I have to.’ Lili told her about the file she’d left behind in Aldeburgh as they walked downstairs.
Hannah turned to her. ‘I’ll go.’
‘What?’
‘I need to get out of here. I’ll drive to Suffolk and collect your box if you don’t mind baby-sitting Maisie for me.’
‘What about …’ Lili stepped into the hall. There was no sign of Kyle.
Hannah rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, he’s probably in the movie theatre watching a film.’
‘You’ve got your own cinema?’
‘It’s in the basement, but it’s tiny, there’s two rows and only eight seats, but yeah – crazy, huh?’
‘So, what does Kyle do for a living?’
‘Oh, you know, a little of this, and a little of that. He’s in business.’
