‘That’s a fantastic picture, Grace,’ I tell her, and she grins with pride.
Isaac has a gold star for his story and is very pleased with himself.
‘Well done,’ I tell him. ‘Well done both of you.’
I take them to the park as a reward. As they go up and down the slide I sit on the bench and think about my mum. I can’t have this hanging over me all the time about my part in George’s wife’s death. I need to deal with it. As soon as Mum is stronger Ihave to confess everything to her. And to Nick. Then Alison will have nothing on me.
And hopefully it won’t tear my family apart.
I let the kids play for a good half an hour to tire them out then we pop into the supermarket before we set off home.
As soon as I open the door I feel like something is off but I can’t put my finger on what. I go into the living room. Everything looks fine.
‘Can we watch the TV?’ Isaac asks.
‘Okay, for half an hour or so while I cook dinner,’ I tell him, turning it on and selecting their favourite programme. The kids settle down, one on each end of the sofa, and I go into the kitchen and unpack the shopping. Everything is exactly as I left it. I can’t shake off my uneasy feeling though and I go upstairs, checking every room. Nothing is out of place.
I must be imagining it. My anxiety is getting the better of me. I go back down into the kitchen and put the oven on. I’m going to do something simple tonight, fishfingers, chips and beans. The kids love that. Me and Nick can order a takeaway later and open a bottle of wine. It would be good to have a relaxing evening together after such a fraught week.
I open the freezer and take out the fishfingers, shake them onto a tray. Shake the chips onto another tray.
Then I open the cupboard to get a tin of beans – and I freeze. I haven’t eaten any since the day I learnt that Alison’s mum had died because she was allergic to peanuts, and I’ve never, ever bought any, but there, on the shelf in front of the beans, is a jar of peanut butter.
34
NICK
‘We’re going to need you to go up to Leeds and sort things out, Nick. We can’t afford to lose this contract,’ Graham, the project manager, says, coming into the office.
Just what I need! I know there have been a few problems on the Leeds development site but didn’t realise they were that bad. I look up from the calculations I’m working on. ‘I need to get this finished. Can you send Phil?’ Phil is my right-hand man and very reliable.
‘No can do, he’s off work with the flu. He phoned in first thing this morning, he’s croaking like a frog. He’ll be off for at least a week.’
That only leaves me then. I really could do without this, it means I’ll be away a couple of days, at the earliest, and it’s almost the weekend. I don’t want to leave Lizzie, she’s been edgy again since the wedding, and especially after Judith’s fall, but I can’t refuse. I’m the Construction Manager, it’s my job to deal with onsite problems.
‘Nick.’
I snap my attention back to Graham. ‘When do you want me to go?’
‘We need you onsite first thing in the morning, so you need to travel up this afternoon. You can leave work now to avoid the rush-hour traffic. I’ll get you booked into a hotel for a couple of days. I’ll deal with these costings.’
I know when I’m beat. Besides, this contract is important to us, we don’t want any delay in the building work. ‘Sure. No problem.’
Hopefully, it will only take a day or two, but you never know with these things. Thank goodness Alison is staying with Judith and can keep an eye on her, at least Lizzie won’t have to worry about her mum. I’m glad too that I had that conversation with Alison the other night when she asked me to help bring the bed down. She’s assured me she won’t breathe a word of what happened all those years ago to Lizzie. I think I can trust her. I have to.
I’m about to leave when I get a message from Alison. She wants to talk to me urgently.
What the hell is going on now? I don’t want to go around and talk to Alison. I need to get home, explain to Lizzie that I have to work away and get on the road as soon as possible. But I can’t refuse, can I? Something has obviously happened for Alison to want to talk to me. My mind starts working overtime.
What if it’s Judith? Has she got worse? Lizzie is worried that her mum is taking too long to recover, has she had a relapse? Or maybe it’s something to do with Lizzie herself, she and Alison aren’t exactly hitting it off.
Whatever it is, I need to sort it before I go away otherwise all this could blow up in my face.
My family, my future and maybe even my freedom depend on keeping Alison onside.
35
NICK
