‘No, I don’t think we should do that just yet. You know how overprotective he is over you and he might do something rash. Leave this to me – I’ll sort it out. But I need to know how far you want me to take this.’
She paused for a moment, then looked at me with a steely determination I’d not seen in her before. ‘I want him to feel as shit as he made me feel.’
‘Okay. But I’m going to need your help to make sure he never grooms or humiliates any girl ever again.’
‘Thanks, Mum,’ she replied, and I held her close to my chest and stroked her hair. It felt surprisingly good to have my elder daughter back.
I glanced around the coffee shop and lowered my voice. ‘You know an accusation like this could ruin a teacher’s career, don’t you?’
She nodded, and gave me a smile that told me she was on board with anything I might suggest.
‘Good girl,’ I replied. ‘Good girl.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
RYAN
‘Someone’s been in Granddad’s room,’ Johnny began on the phone. He sounded perplexed and anxious.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t want to freak you out, but you know that wedding photo of you and Charlotte on the shelf ? Charlotte’s face has been scribbled out with a pen. I only noticed it as I was leaving.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course I am. I took it with me when he fell asleep so he wouldn’t see it. Who would do something like that?’
‘Laura,’ I exhaled. ‘Fuck.’
‘What? You think it was her?’
‘It could only be her.’
I fell silent. She must have somehow discovered Granddad was staying at the same facility as her son. And during their many conversations, Charlotte had clearly told Laura she’d scribbled out Britney Spears’s face from pictures with Charlotte’s crush Justin Timberlake. Laura was giving me a clear warning that, like me, she could do her homework.
I didn’t want to believe she was responsible, because that meant she was stepping out from the shadows and telling me she wasn’t afraid anymore, while I’d promised Johnny I’d let her go.
‘Jesus Christ, Ryan! If it is her then you’ve got to do something about this, Ry, before it goes any further,’ Johnny replied sternly. ‘If she’s as fucked up as you say she is, she could have done anything to Granddad when she was alone with him.’
‘I know, I know,’ I replied. ‘I’m so sorry.’
He hung up, and I held the phone to my chest and regretted taking pictures of her disabled son in the care home where my granddad also lived.
‘Shit, shit, shit,’ I said aloud, and dropped the phone onto the sofa. I was at a loss as to how to respond. Maybe now I’d made Laura’s boss aware of what she was capable of, I’d just need to remain patient and wait for Laura to mess up. However, until that happened, if Laura was gunning for me, I’d need to be prepared.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LAURA
‘Hello, my dear, are you back in the land of the living?’
Mary gave me one of her all-encompassing hugs, the kind where she thrust her body into yours and which made you want to change your clothes immediately.
‘Yes, it was a particularly nasty tummy bug. The girls had it too,’ I lied.
Following my confrontation at Effie’s school with Ryan, and the discovery that Janine was screwing my husband, I’d bought some time away from the office by faking the norovirus. I hadn’t yet mustered up the strength to confront Janine without wanting to pour a kettle of boiling water over her head.
‘Taking a few days off gave me time to whip up a batch of these.’
I eased the lid from a cake tin crammed with the contents of three boxes of clotted cream shortbread I’d bought a day earlier. ‘Don’t worry, I wasn’t contagious when I made them,’ I joked as Mary’s wrinkled hand dipped inside. I took a moment to glance around the rest of the office. Full of enthusiasm and always with other people’s best interests above their own, my colleagues were genuine, good people. But they were also incredibly blind. None of them could see what was right under their noses. None of them knew who I really was.
‘Don’t get too comfortable,’ Kevin warned as I made my way to my desk. ‘Janine’s put you down for a one-to-one drop-in, in about half an hour.’
I rolled my eyes. Janine knew I wasn’t comfortable with face-to-face callers, yet the spiteful cow had still appointed me one. Now I’d have to go and see her, and make up an excuse as to why I couldn’t do it.
‘She’s not in,’ continued Kevin, pre-empting my response. ‘She’s taken a couple of days off. She said she’s going away with her new fella.’
I stopped in my tracks.
‘New fella?’ I repeated, almost spitting out the words.
‘Yes, she’s been seeing some bloke for a while now. It sounds pretty serious from what she’s been telling Zoe.’
‘Well, it just goes to prove there’s someone for everyone. Even someone with Janine’s unique appearance.’
I stepped into her office to fume alone. I wanted to put Tony and Janine and their grubby little liaison to the back of my mind, but it was easier said than done. Instead I was picturing them, arms entwined, walking along a beachfront. I could see them enjoying a picnic in the countryside, kissing under the sun. I could imagine him holding his jacket over their heads to keep them dry in a sudden downpour. Everything he should have been doing with me, he was doing with her.
I flicked through the appointments book and questioned how – of all the people my handsome husband could have replaced me with – he’d chosen that thing. That frumpy, weasel-faced shit of a woman, cuddling up to my Tony and playing mother to my children. It beggared belief.
I’d thought that he and I had grown closer after my attack, and now I was even starting to build a relationship with Effie and Alice again. We should have been on the same page, with the aim of us all living together under one roof. And in time, maybe Tony might have even accepted Henry back into our lives. All five of us, like it was supposed to be. Not them with her; not them with Janine.
It had been my plan to deal with Ryan first and then Janine, but as my rage rose like lava bubbling at the rim of a volcano, they now shared equal billing.
I took a deep, calming breath, but the smell of Janine’s cheap supermarket perfume lingered in the air and caught the back of my throat, making me cough. I found the name of my drop-in caller in the appointments book and paused when I spotted Janine’s diary peeking out from an open desk drawer. I made sure I wasn’t being watched as I flicked from page to page. Today she’d scheduled the start of a long weekend. She’d written ‘Iceland’ with three exclamation marks; the ‘i’ was lower case and a heart used instead of a dot. Tony was aware I’d always wanted to see the Northern Lights but he’d refused to go with me because he hated the cold. Now he’d taken Janine there. I hoped the lights were so bright they blinded her.