“That wasn’t me. Although I would’ve done. Someone just beat me to it. Keys.” She rummaged in her bag and pulled them down, dumping them in my hand with some force. “Thank you. Now leave.”
“But what about Toby?”
“You don’t get to turn up and flip his world upside down. He thinks you’ve abandoned him. If you want to see him, we can sort that, but we have an agreement that you stick to so he doesn’t feel let down by you. Again.” I’d played these words over in my head a gazillion times before, but saying them felt different. There was more I wanted to say, and there had been more I wanted to ask, but where she’d been and what she’d been doing was now irrelevant. I didn’t care.
“He’s my son. Not yours.”
I’d expected that response. “And he was your son when you abandoned him and didn’t even bother calling to speak to him. You knew he was at school now, so why are you here? Looking to see if I’ve left any cash around?” Because it’s not to see him, is it?” I heard the heat rise in my voice, matching the anger that was going to boil over.
Joanne put her bag over her shoulder. “It’s alright for you, isn’t it? Going out with some rich footballer. You don’t have to worry about paying bills or buying food, and you wouldn’t even send your sister any money. Wonder what the newspapers would think of that?Perfect Dee Jones lets sister starve. How would that suit your image? All those sponsors?” She picked the box of truffles up and stuffed them in her bag, her expression defiant.
“I’m not sure the papers would care when they work out that you abandoned your son. They don’t tend to take too kindly to that.”
She didn’t shout back, or issue any more threats. Instead, she shoulder-barged past me and headed towards the door. “Anyway, I’ve got what I want. You’ll be hearing from me.” The door slammed behind her.
I stared at the door, nausea creeping up my throat, my heart beating its way out of my chest. A minute ticked by, two minutes. She didn’t return. I looked at my phone, no message from her yet, but there would be. She wanted something, probably money, and Joanne was a genius at manipulating any situation to get what she wanted.
Rowan knew something was the matter as soon as he saw me, which was later that evening. He’d had a meeting after training with one of his sponsors, something to do with a new product that they wanted him to be the face of. Rhys did the negotiating, but Ro liked to know what he was going to be advertising and he would outright refuse to do it if it wasn’t something he actually liked. In this case, it was a new range of trainers, which he was pretty gleeful at, as the man had an obsession with trainers, keeping them all in boxes with a photo of what was in each at the front. It was rather disturbing.
“What’s happened?” He waited until Toby had gone to bed, which had taken longer than normal as he was pleased with having finished his reading book on a harder level and wanted to read it twice to show off.
I gave him the run-down of what had happened with Joanne, trying to read his face when he didn’t say anything.
“She gave me her keys. I can’t see if she took anything else.”
He ruffled his hair, sitting back on the sofa with my feet in his lap. The sofa wasn’t quite big enough for him; it was only a two-seater, as the lounge wasn’t a huge room, and he was a big man.
“Have you contacted the police?”
“There’s no point; she didn’t commit a crime.”
He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. We need to get the locks changed.”
The ‘we’ didn’t surprise me. It had been this way for a couple of weeks, Rowan referring to us as being a ‘we’ more and more.
“I’ll call someone in the morning. She’s going to ask for more money.” I said the obvious. “Threatening to go to the media is an obvious thing for her to do.” I looked at him, needing to see any expression but annoyance.
“What’s she going to tell them? That we’re together? That ship’s sailed. The press aren’t stupid; they have to have proof behind whatever she says else they risk more lawsuits than they’d want to fight.” He started to massage my feet, pressing in at certain points which made me just want to curl up and never leave.
“I’m just fed up of waiting for her to do something. I know it’s coming; I just wish she’d get it over and done with.” I reached out to the small coffee table for my mug of tea.
“I’m sorry, Sparkles, but even after she’s done one thing, there’ll be a second and a third. She knows you have an income, and you would do whatever to keep Toby safe; she’s going to play on that.” His hands travelled higher up my leg, pressing into the muscle. “Don’t let her stop you moving forward. Or us moving forward.”
I smiled despite my worry. There was that ‘us’ again.
“I’ve seen a house. Wondered if you wanted to come and view it with me?” His words were quieter than usual, and mumbled a little.
“Sure.” I sat up, interested. I knew Rhys had been pressuring Ro to find a house in the area to buy and move out of the club accommodation. He’d sent him links to properties as they came up, but Rowan hadn’t paid any attention. “I’m not the best with décor though.”
“That’s not why I’m asking you to come and look with me. I can get an interior designer in. I want to see if you like it or not.” He moved one of his hands to rub at his face, the thing he did when he was stuck with what to say, or how to say it.
I blinked a couple of times, stopping my usual blurt out, which would’ve been ‘it’s your house, so all that matters is what you think.’ That wasn’t what he was saying. It wasn’t what he needed to know. If Rowan was only bothered about his opinion, he wouldn’t want me to view it with him.
“In fact, there are two house that look okay. I wondered if you would come with me Thursday afternoon.” He rubbed absently at my leg. “One’s in Alderley, the other’s in Mottram. I think the one in Mottram would be better, but I want to see what you think.”
“I’ll come with you.”
He looked relieved.
