Emily reeled with a mixture of fear and confusion. Jake had categorically denied that the text had anything to do with him or Sally. He’d been seething with anger that she would think it did. Yet here Sally was announcing that shewaspregnant. ‘Congratulations,’ she managed. ‘I bet you’re thrilled to bits.’
‘I am.’ Sally smiled excitedly. ‘It wasn’t planned, but now that I’m getting used to the idea, I’m over the moon. Dave is, too. Mind you, he’s a big kid himself. He’s probably out shopping now for Lego or footballs or something.’
‘Really?’ Emily’s heart thrashed wildly against her chest. ‘That’s very decent of him … under the circumstances,’ she said, and watched her friend’s face slowly blanch.
‘What circumstances?’ Sally murmured, eyeing her warily.
Emily said nothing. Nausea swilling inside her again as she wondered whether she was horribly wrong, whether she was truly going insane or whether the lies she was being told were designed to make her think that she was, she turned and walked away.
Thirty
Millie
‘Just one more time,’ Louis said, wearing his best winning smile as he leaned across from the driving seat to peer up at her. ‘I’ll have this guy off my back after that, and then no more, promise.’
Millie felt her heart drop. ‘But can’t you just ask him for a bit more time? You’ve paid him regularly, so he knows you’re making an effort. And it’s not like he doesn’t know where you live.’
‘Yeah, that’s the problem, though, isn’t it?’ Sighing heavily, Louis leaned back and pulled one of his smokes from his shirt pocket. ‘He’s already given me a week’s grace. He wants me to settle my debt, which I don’t have a snowball in hell’s chance of doing. He won’t hesitate to pay me a visit if I don’t give him something.’
Watching him light up, Millie wished he wouldn’t smoke that stuff in the car. Opening her window, she tried not to mind. He was obviously stressed. ‘Can’t you just pay him a bit more each week? I could help,’ she offered. She wished she could do more to help him pay it off. But she didn’t have anything worth selling apart from her PC, which she needed, and the fifty pounds she had in the bank wouldn’t make much of a dent in the three hundred pounds he said he still owed the man.
Louis drew smoke deep into his lungs, held it a second and then blew it out slowly. ‘It’s drugs money, sweetheart. I don’t think he’s going to be very impressed if I offer him a cut of your pocket money,’ he said, a droll edge to his tone that made Millie feel about twelve years old, like some silly kid who didn’t get it. She did. She wasn’t naïve. She knew it was dangerous to owe people drugs money, and this was before Louis had pointed out the man he owed it to in the pub when they’d gone into Worcester one night. He’d said he was called Bear because he was built like one. He was right. A great bloody bruiser of a bloke with an ugly scorpion tattoo on his neck, he definitely looked dangerous. Louis said the scorpion represented intimidation and fear, and then told her that the last person who’d owed him money had gone missing, eventually turning up in bin bags floating in the canal. Several of them. ‘They never did find his head,’ he’d said, a nervous swallow sliding down his throat as he’d eyed the man with deep trepidation.
‘Can’t you go to the police?’ she asked now, immediately realising that she actually did sound naïve, as Louis almost choked on his joint.
‘Yeah, right.’ He rolled unimpressed eyes in her direction. ‘They’ll be falling over themselves to offer me protection, won’t they, when I tell them this bloke I owe a shitload of money to for drugs is threatening to part me from my balls.’
Millie’s heart sank. Of course he couldn’t go the police. What a dumb thing to have said. ‘But you don’t do hard drugs any more. They might take that into account,’ she suggested, her heart dropping another inch when Louis shook his head, laughing scornfully. ‘You don’t, do you?’ She glanced worriedly at him, wondering whether he was telling her the whole truth. ‘It’s just … you seem to have been paying him off for ages.’
It was the reason they hardly ever went out. She didn’t mind, not really. She supposed she couldn’t be seen out locally with him anyway, at least not until she’d had the dreaded conversation with her parents about their age difference. She had wondered, though, on the odd occasion, whether he might still be seeing his wife. Whatever spare cash he had left he said went to her – supposedly to help with the bills on the house until they got a buyer. She’d thought that was nice of him at first, generous and caring, but she couldn’t help being a bit suspicious when she’d seen the woman leaving his flat once. Louis had said she’d popped by to drop some of his stuff off. She’d no reason to disbelieve him – he and his wife weren’t living together, after all – but she couldn’t help wondering. She’d smelled perfume on him, too, not hers. He’d explained it away, telling her it was some stuff he’d bought for his mother, and she’d liked it so much she’d sprayed it all over the place. Seeing how pleased he’d looked as he’d told her, she’d tried to believe him, but now a seed of doubt was niggling away at her.
‘I don’t, apart from the odd joint,’ Louis said. ‘I told you, I went on a treatment programme. I knew I had to when my old mum got sick. I have to look after her, don’t I? I’m not shoving her in some old people’s home, no way. She deserves better than that. It doesn’t earn you brownie points where bastards like Bear are concerned, though. He’d laugh in my face if he knew, before chopping my fucking head off, that is.’
Millie felt an avalanche of conflicting emotions. He was trying so hard to stay clean, caring for his mother. She was proud of him for doing that. She was also scared for him. And terrified for herself. If someone discovered what shewas doing, she would be in deep trouble.
‘I just need a bit more stuff, Mils,’ he said, reaching for her hand and giving it a squeeze. ‘Enough to keep him happy. My ex reckons there’s a buyer for the house who’s a dead cert. I’ll be out of the woods then and we can start to make plans. Proper plans for you and me.’
‘I don’t know, Louis.’ Nerves clenching her tummy, Millie dropped her gaze to her lap. She wanted to make those plans more than anything, wanted desperately to move out to somewhere of her own, especially now, with the arguments at home and the prospect of her parents splitting. She wouldn’t have to sneak around any more then, and they could hardly tell her she couldn’t see Louis if she lived with him, but … ‘What if my dad finds out?’ she asked, her heart twisting at the thought of how much hurt she would cause him. ‘They’re bound to notice that pills are going missing soon. And they’re going to realise it’s someone with a set of keys. My mum will be apoplectic. And my dad … I don’t think I could bear to see the disappointment in his eyes.’
‘He’s not going to think it’s you.’ Louis repeated what he’d told her the first time they’d done this. ‘He’ll think it’s an inside job. That nurse, Sally, helping herself to medication to fund her Botox, or the receptionist – she likes her fancy clothes, doesn’t she? He’s never going to suspect his own daughter of stealing from him. Let’s face it, sweet cup, you look like butter wouldn’t melt. He probably thinks you’re an angel.’ He gave her a reassuring smile and chucked her under the chin. He meant it affectionately. He was always doing it, but now Millie felt about three years old.
‘But he might. They only keep so much stuff in the safe. If he realises drugs are going missing, he’ll have to call the police. There might be evidence, and then …’ She stopped, the hard knot of panic in her stomach twisting itself tighter.
‘He’s not going to find out,’ Louis said, his tone sharp. ‘Not unless someone tells him.’
Millie’s gaze swivelled back to his. His eyes were narrowed, flint-edged and hard. What did he mean? How would anyone tell him when only they knew?
Louis looked away. ‘Look, just forget it,’ he said, taking another agitated suck on his joint. ‘I’ll work it out. I’ll just have to make myself scarce, leave the area or something. There’s this bloke I know in Manchester who owns property to rent. He might have somewhere he can let me doss. It would have to be somewhere cheap until I can find work, but—’
‘No!’ Millie’s heart leapt. ‘Don’t do that.’
‘What’s up?’ He looked back at her, surprised. ‘You can come with me. I thought that was what you wanted: me and you to get a place of our own.’
‘I do, but …’ Millie faltered.Manchester?What would she do there? She could apply for courses, she supposed, but it seemed like a million miles away. She wouldn’t see her parents. For the first time, it occurred to her that she would want to. That she would miss them, even her mum, for all her banging-on.
‘You don’t want to give up your home comforts and move into a bedsit. I get it. Can’t say I blame you.’ Louis sighed dejectedly. ‘I suppose you wish I was more like your perfect old man, a fully trained doctor who’s so loaded he can keep your mum in any style her heart desires. She fell on her feet when she met him, didn’t she?’
‘No,’ Millie refuted hotly. ‘I love you. I don’t care what you do.’
