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Emily caught sight of Gerald. He must have walked up the stairs from the basement kitchen and seen them all standing in the hall by the front door. She wondered how long he’d been listening to all this, unnoticed behind the group. Gerald stepped forward. ‘Wendy, what’s going on?’
‘Wendy?’ Alice turned to her in surprise.
Emily looked at her mum and held her breath, waiting for her response.
‘I’m Anthea.’
Alice looked confused. ‘But Gerald just called you—’
‘That’s my first name, but I prefer to go by the name you know me as – Anthea.’
Alice turned to Jeffrey. ‘So, you two were meeting up behind my back when the girls were young?’
Jeffrey looked at her sheepishly.
She frowned at him. ‘But that was never agreed, Jeffrey. Why would you do that?’
Gerald let out a tremendous groan as he turned to his wife, and said, ‘I told you your decision would come back to haunt us.’
Wendy whirled around. ‘Oh, so it wasmydecision, was it?’
Alice stepped in. ‘Excuse me, Gerald, but how was it justherdecision? We were all involved, you, me, Wendy, and Jeffrey.’
Freya and Emily exchanged glances. Emily didn’t know what they were on about, but one thing she did want to clear up was what exactly had been going on between her mum and Freya’s dad. ‘Mum, were you having an affair with Freya’s dad? Am I Jeffrey’s daughter?’
Wendy turned to her daughter. ‘Of course not. Whatever gave you that idea?’
‘The trips to London, just you and me, to meet Jeffrey and—’
‘Excuse me.’ Omar, who had been standing apart from the group, stepped forward, interrupting. He peered at Freya. ‘Tarek – you haven’t had relations with this girl, have you?’
‘Dad! That is none of your business.’
Emily caught the young man who had arrived with Alice’s husband staring at Freya.
Tarek frowned. ‘Well, you’re one to talk, aren’t you, Dad? You are carrying on with Alice!’
‘Whatever you think, Tarek, nothing happened!’
‘I saw you.’
Alice turned to Emily. ‘Excuse me?’
‘You were going to your room, then you changed your mind. I saw you heading along the hall towards Omar’s room last night.’
‘We had a cup of tea. That was all.’
‘Is that true – Dad?’
Omar nodded at Tarek. ‘We are just old friends. Nothing happened.’
Jeffrey looked at his wife. ‘Old friends? How long has this been going on?’
Alice sighed, ‘Nothing has been going on, Jeffrey.’
‘But he said—’
‘That was a long time ago.’
