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‘Mum, Dad, I want you to meet Jack,’ Belle says, bouncing up and down. She still has a grin on her face.
‘Hi…Jack,’ Rob says to the man, a cautious note to his voice as he shakes his hand. I’m vaguely aware of him looking at Belle, waiting for her to explain who he is – a teacher, the father of one of her friends perhaps, maybe someone from the weekend job she had a while back.
Though I know he’s none of those things.
‘Mum?’ I hear Belle say.
I watch as Belle’s arm links with Jack’s as she presses against him, feeling myself freeze from the inside out.
It’s as though I’m underwater – everything blurry and surreal around me. I don’t take my eyes off the man. I’m stone-cold frozen. Can’t even lift up my hand or speak a word.
‘Jack is my fiancé,’ Belle says, snuggling up against him. She rests her head on his shoulder. ‘Isn’t it exciting? We’re engaged!’
CHAPTER FIVE
MOLLY – THEN
She heard voices the other side of the door as she held her breath, not daring to open it. But she knew she had to go in. He’d told her to, after all, and she had nowhere else to go. He’d been good to her so far, hadn’t he? But Molly couldn’t deny that part of her was scared. Abigpart of her, in fact. This wasn’t home – which in itself was a good thing. But something felt off, as though she was about to enter another life – a world she knew nothing about. And her gut was screaming at her to be careful; to get out while she could.
With her hand on the doorknob, she told herself that whatever happened here, it was for the best, the start of her new life. She simply had no choice.
There was music coming from inside the room – a song she didn’t recognise with a catchy beat playing on the radio. And giggling. She hitched up her holdall on her shoulder, wishing she’d been able to carry more. Fact was, she didn’t own much more than was in her bag anyway, though she’d still had to leave some stuff behind. Couldn’t be helped, under the circumstances. She turned the knob and pushed the door open a sliver. A waft of warm, perfumed air filled her nostrils, undercut with the tang of cigarette smoke.
‘Who is it?’ said a female voice.
Now or never, Molly thought, taking a deep breath as she pushed the door open.
Three girls in the room stared at her, their eyes sweeping up and down her body. She knew she looked a state; hadn’t had anywhere to wash since…since heraudition. That’s what he’d called it, though it wasn’t anything like the audition she’d done for the school play a couple of years ago. She laughed in her head at the thought of that – and the thought of school. She’d been bunking off for ages. If her teachers could see her now…
‘What you smirking at?’ One of the girls, a few years older than Molly, got off a saggy old sofa and came over to the door. The scarlet satin robe she wore fell open at the front, revealing a black bra and matching lacy knickers. Her stomach was flat with a sparkling jewel in her belly button.
Molly took a step back, shaking her head. ‘Sorry, I—’
‘Don’t chew with your mouth open,’ she continued, lifting her finger and pressing upwards under Molly’s chin. ‘Manners.’ Her stern face broke into a grin.
Molly swallowed her gum.
‘Come on in, then.’ She stepped aside, holding the door wider. ‘He sent you up, did he? Darren?’
Molly nodded, looking up at her. She was as tall as a man in those heels.
‘There are rules around here, right? If you stick by them, you’ll be OK,’ the girl said, closing the door again. Though she looked more woman than girl, Molly thought, venturing in.
‘What’s your name?’ another girl said, glancing over. She was sitting at a cluttered dressing table, peering into a mirror.
‘Molly.’
‘I’m Hannah,’ the first girl in the scarlet robe told her. ‘And that’s Vanessa,’ she said, pointing to the girl applying her make-up. ‘And this is Lilly.’ She wafted a hand at the sofa, where another girl, similar in age to Molly, was curled up under a blanket. ‘She’s sick.’
Lilly lifted a hand then coughed. There was no denying that she didn’t look well. Her face was pale, her skin almost blending in with her pulled-back, white-blond hair – a contrast to Vanessa and Hannah’s tans. Molly reckoned they were fake, though. The streaks were obvious.
‘Hi,’ Molly said, hitching up her bag again. She bit on her bottom lip, her eyes casting around. The place looked homely, though it was in a mess – a shabby mash-up of a little girl’s dream bedroom that hadn’t been tidied in a month, and a crack den. Not that she’d had experience of either.
‘Let me show you where you’ll sleep,’ Hannah said, taking hold of Molly’s hand and leading the way across the wonky-floored attic room. Molly ducked her head as they went through a low doorway into another room. There were three sets of bunk beds and a couple of old melamine wardrobes. ‘That one can be yours,’ Hannah said, pointing to the top bunk in the corner. ‘It’s spare.’
Molly stared at it. The mattress was bare, with a ball of grey-white sheets crumpled up at the end.
‘Bedding needs washing but you can do that tomorrow. It’ll do for tonight.’
