‘Thanks for the vote of confidence, Holly.’ I sigh and eye the ceiling. ‘I was going to suggest we make an afternoon of it and go to Coffee and Cupcakes, but I’m not sure you deserve cupcakes now.’
‘But she’s brilliant in goal,’ Holly adds hastily.
Shaking his head, Jason laughs. ‘Good move, Holly,’ he says. ‘You’re sure?’ he asks me. Even from the foot of the stairs, I can see his dark, all-telling eyes are clouded with concern. I’m grateful that, after last night, he still cares. Glad he’s still fighting.
‘Of course. They are my children, for my sins.’ Urging him on, I turn towards the kitchen, aiming to grab him a couple of cereal bars, since he won’t have eaten. And then I step back as the landline rings.
‘I’ve got it,’ Jason shouts.
Hearing him saying hello to his sister on the phone in the bedroom, I head onwards, only to stop again as his mobile beeps atop the hall table. Mark calling with a progress report, I wonder. My gaze flicking to the stairs, I hesitate for a second and then pick it up to check his messages – and my stomach turns over. Too stunned even to breathe, I stare – confused, at first, and then disbelieving at what I glean is a profile photograph. A sexually explicit photograph: a near-naked, voluptuous woman with her breasts spilling out. On my husband’s phone? I almost laugh at the absurdity of it, and then work to control the explosion of bewildered emotion inside me.
It’s a mistake, I tell myself. Some random message sent by…Who?Why? My mouth dry, I check the stairs again, and then brace myself to thumb up through the preceding messages.
Fill me in tomorrow, Jason’s last text reads.Cheers for your efforts, mate. I owe you.
My hands trembling, my senses reeling, I scroll up to the next.
And my heart stops dead.Lucky git. Has she got a sister?Jason had asked.
My blood turns to ice as I realise he’s actuallyscoredher. Ten out of ten. Nausea churning my stomach, I squeeze my eyes closed. Dimly, I register Jason ending his phone call upstairs.
‘I’ll drop by next week,’ he tells Hannah. ‘Sorry I can’t stop. I’m due in the office.’
Is he? I swallow back the parched lump in my throat. Is it really his office he’s so eager to get to? Where he’s been going all these weekends? Is it even his actual sister he’s talking to?
It is. I heard him. ‘Hi, Hannah,’ he’d greeted her. They talk occasionally on the phone but don’t see each other often enough. They drifted apart after the family split up. I’m reminded of the fact that Jason’s childhood wasn’t a good one. That his adoptive parents stayed together until being together became intolerable. That they were both unhappy, his mother desperately so, because his father cheated. My father cheats. Doallmen fucking well cheat? My fury surfaces, white-hot, rising inside me.
Breathing in hard through my nostrils, I try to dampen it down. I have to stay in control. Inhaling another long breath, I exit his messages and place the phone back.
Attempting some level of outward calm, I fix my smile in place and, though the strength seems to have drained from my body, force myself on to the kitchen. He hasn’t done anything, I try to reassure myself, other than indulge in immature chat.Yet.My sluggish heartbeat drums a prophetic warning in my chest. He’s toying with the idea though, isn’t he?
Six
JASON
His lack of sleep catching up with him, Jason yawned widely, and then almost had heart failure as he realised he hadn’t checked for traffic at a roundabout before entering.Crap!Pressing his foot down on the accelerator, he drove on, leaving a cacophony of horns blaring behind him.Christ.That was a close shave. Swiping a hand shakily over his face, he glimpsed in his rear-view mirror and breathed a considerable sigh of relief when he established that none of the drivers he’d cut up had pursued him. He wouldn’t have blamed them.
He’d been miles away, running through the glitch in the computer software and hoping that Mark really had made some headway with it. It was the only way they stood a chance of keeping their key client, and thereby securing referrals. Selling stylish gym wear to fashion-conscious gym-goers, the client’s company had revenues in excess of £6 million. Jason needed this deal, but, as much as the client loved the sales package they’d put together for him, he doubted he would maintain his turnover if the site crashed before his customers had hit purchase. He hadn’t sounded majorly impressed when they’d last spoken.
Jason hadto rescue this. Or else throw in the towel. Wouldn’t his father-in-law just love that? No matter what he said, Fenton didn’t want him to succeed, but Karla couldn’t see it. He wanted him to go under, left with nothing to offer Karla. He wanted him out of her life, regardless of the fact that they’d now been married twelve years and had two children. Children they would never have had if Robert Fenton had had his way.
And whose lives they would ruin if they kept constantly arguing, he thought soberly. Jason had been there, a casualty of parents who chose to stay together for the sake of their children. They’d believed they were providing stability for him and his sister. The reality was that their tangible unhappiness created the very kind of atmosphere that was emotionally toxic to a child.
He needed to turn this around. Somehow. Opening his window, Jason took a gulp of bracing air and tried to concentrate on the road. He could have killed someone back there. Been seriously injured or killed himself, leaving his kids without a father. He pictured Holly, who, for all her sassy eleven-year-old attitude, still wouldn’t go to bed without her Pink Cuddles Build-A-Bear; Josh, his skinny, sensitive son, who was trying to act ‘cool’, while quietly worrying his parents were going to split up, Jason swallowed back a tight lump in his throat.
Karla had been fine that morning, despite their argument last night. Everything was seemingly back to normal. She hadn’t seemed to mind him coming in to work on a Saturday – again – even though his efforts were surely doomed to failure without the dubious help of her father. There’d been a troubled look in her eyes though, he’d noticed, when he’d leaned in to kiss her cheek before leaving.
‘It is only the office you’re going to?’ she’d asked him.
Noting her expression, which had been almost guarded, Jason had looked at her, puzzled. ‘Yes,’ he’d answered. Where else would she think he was going? He’d long since abandoned playing rugby at the weekend, and he barely had time to see the inside of the gym. His life had been all work and not a lot of pleasure lately. ‘Why?’
‘No reason,’ she’d said, searching his face. ‘I just wondered.’
‘I’ll be there all day,’ he’d assured her. ‘I’ll be back as soon as I can. Call me if you need me to pick anything up from the shops.’
Karla had nodded, her gaze flicking briefly down. Jason had felt his chest constrict for a second as she’d looked uncertainly back at him, something akin to fear flitting across her eyes. She’d dismissed it when he’d asked her if she was all right, mustering up a smile and saying she was fine. Jason hadn’t been convinced. She was as worried as he was. Obviously she would be, with things the way they were.
Was he being selfish? He pondered it as he parked up and walked towards his office. He desperately didn’t want to be beholden to her father; the thought of him being involved in his business, having access to his employees, one of whom was female, young and pretty – exactly the sort Robert Fenton liked to prey on – was intolerable. Then there was the small matter of his pride, which wouldn’t allow it. Was he prepared to risk his marriage, though, his family’s future, for the sake of his dignity? He had his kids to think about, their education, as did Karla. Didn’t she have some say in this, when all was said and done?
