There’s further bad news when I use a website to check it. To say my credit rating is in the toilet is being diplomatic. Even the ever stoical Liaden gasps at the number.
“How can it be that bad?!” I cry, wanting more than anything to feel Leo’s arms around me, but I also know exactly what will happen there, and I don’t want it. I know he’ll immediately drop a shit ton of money in my account, pay all my debts, and probably add giving me a pay rise on top. And I get that his first instinct would be to help, to take all my troubles away, but I don’t want to add that on top of everything else we’re dealing with. I don’t want to be beholden to him for a damn thing, because that’s just who I am. I pay my own way in this life. I work hard for my money. I’m nobody’s financial burden.
Until now.
And that’s the thought that finally lets the sob that’s been building burst free, and I cry helplessly with three sets of arms around me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Text messages between Emily Gastright and Leo Mills:
Emily: Hey, how’s Sadie doing? Any better?
Leo: Ehh. In some ways. She’s not a wailing wall or anything, but she’s not herself.
Emily: [sad face emoji]
Leo: I think if she wasn’t pregnant, she’d be kicking ass and taking names about this, anyone daring to interfere with her self-sufficiency. You know our girl is stubborn about her independence. But because she doesn’t want to distress the baby, she’s trying to smother her feelings to stay calm, and I’m keeping a careful eye on her because I don’t think it’s doing her any good.
Leo: Kind of want to go on the rampage about this myself.
Emily: Anything any of us can do to help?
Leo: Nah. Everything that can be done in practical terms is being done. Just hugs and coffee and the industrial metal playlist on the sound system until further notice. Thanks, precious xx
Emily: Anytime, you know that xx
Emily
I rereadLeo’s messages with a listless sigh. Reception is thankfully empty right now, because I’m thoroughly preoccupied. My first urge is always todosomething when one of us is blue, or in trouble, or whenever anything bad happens, really. Seeing the way Sadie went white as a sheet when she checked her banking app has really stayed with me. When I first arrived at Foxton-on-Sea, she was one of the first friends I made, and her innate self-assurance and ferocious self-sufficiency really inspired me to grab life by the balls myself. I don’t like seeing her so defeated. And I know it spoiled her first baby shopping expedition for her, and tarnished the memory, and that just stinks.
We need to do something to wash that shit away and replace it with a fun memory.
And then it hits me.
I fire up WhatsApp instantly, certain I’m onto something and that the others are likely to agree.
From the WhatsApp group called THE TIME HAS COME!!!! (Members: Emily Gastright, Eli Gastright, Dean Gastright, Liaden O’Brien, Tippi Mills, Tim Stewart)
Emily Gastright: Guys, we need to make a plan
Emily Gastright: Most of you will have seen how quiet Sadie’s been since the whole identity theft thing, and she doesn’t need this.
Emily Gastright: She needs to be cheered up. She should be happy and relaxed, especially in her condition, not stressed and sad. We need to take her mind off everything.
Emily Gastright: What if we threw her and Leo a baby shower a bit early? We can make it Sadie-centric, nothing corny, no storks, etc. What do you all think?
Liaden O’Brien: Sounds like an excellent plan. I’m seeing mocktails, the grisliest and most fucked up horror films we can find, and enough fruit salad to sink an aircraft carrier.
Tim Stewart: She’d love that. That’s really nice.
Dean Gastright: I’m in. What should we bring?
Eli Gastright: Same. Who else should we invite?
Emily Gastright: Aside from the Wishbone crowd? Obviously Tim and Eleanor [smiling emoji]
Tim Stewart: I can see if Nat’s available, too? Eleanor would like it if she was there.
