‘It means we had this exact conversation when I saw her, and she point-blank refused to speak to Lennon about leaving, and she has absolutely no intention of telling my dad about any of what’s been going on.’
‘He’s going to find out one way or another.’
‘Yes, but you’ve seen the hold she has over him. One look into those big blue eyes and he’ll do anything for her. If she says Lennon is a poor blameless victim, he’ll buy it.’
‘I don’t understand it,’ Alex said.
‘Me neither. I wish I did.’
‘Regardless, someone’s got to do something. I’ll go and talk to him.’
‘To Dad?’
‘No, to Lennon. There’s no point in going to the monkey, is there, when you can speak to the organ grinder.’
Zoe frowned, and he had the decency to look ashamed at his comment. ‘Sorry, unfortunate turn of phrase, but you know what I mean.’
‘I don’t think you should get involved.’
‘Why not?’
‘Firstly, I don’t think Lennon will listen. Secondly, he might decide to give you a taste of what he gave to Heath, and we have plenty going on here without that to add to the mix. Think about Billie. She’s struggling enough without having to deal with?—’
They both spun round at the sound of a creak at the kitchen door to see Billie standing there with Louisa in her arms. ‘I came to get some water,’ she said, eyeing them both with the deepest suspicion. It was hard to tell how much she’d heard of their conversation, but she had to have heard the last bit. And for Zoe, perhaps the most damaging. Things were bad enough, and too many secrets had already been kept, so she decided to confront it.
‘Billie…we didn’t mean…we weren’t talking about you just then. I mean, you came up in the conversation, but it was nothing bad about you.’
‘So I’m not struggling then?’
Zoe gave a pained smile. ‘I don’t know about that. We haven’t talked about this properly, but I think we need to.’
‘Can it wait? I’m kinda tired.’
‘That’s just it,’ Alex put in. ‘Whenever we try to talk to you about it, you make an excuse. So what are we meant to think?’
‘Maybe you’re meant to think there’s nothing to talk about, and it’s you two making a big deal out of a problem that doesn’t exist.’
‘That’s not fair—’ Alex began, but Billie cut across him.
‘If you want to talk to me, talk to me. Don’t talk about me when I’m not there.’
‘It wasn’t like that, Billie,’ Zoe pleaded.
She turned the tap with such force that the water splashed all over the sink. Then she filled a glass and went to the door.
‘Billie…’ Zoe called after her as she left them without another word. Then she turned to Alex with a sigh of frustration. ‘Great. Nicely handled. You’d think, after years of working with new mums, I’d have this stuff figured out by now.’
‘You’ve never lived with any of them before,’ Alex said. ‘Don’t beat yourself up over it. We’ll sit her down and talk to her tomorrow.’
‘Doesn’t sound as if she wants to talk.’
‘We’ll insist that she does. The same as we’ll insist Lennon takes notice of what we’ve got to say.’
Zoe had almost hoped Billie’s entrance had caused him to forget about their other immediate problem. He was right – someone needed to do something about Lennon, and Alex didn’t know the half of it. She didn’t dare mention what had happened to Stacey in the pub because that would only have convinced him he had to take action, and the truth was, she didn’t want him to because she was scared for him. It wasn’t that she thought Alex couldn’t look after himself, but seeing what Lennon had done to Heath, and knowing that Heath was no wimp, had convinced her that Alex was simply no match. Nor would she want him to be – macho muscleheads weren’t her type, and she loved Alex’s quiet strength and reason more than almost anything else about him. But he’d try and be the hero, and that was the problem.
‘Flo, as far as I know, is pushing to get the police involved over the thing with Heath.’ She decided to go for broke. ‘She usually gets what she wants, and so I would leave it to the police. They’ll go and visit him and give him a warning – even if they don’t charge him with anything, a caution should be enough to calm things down. He’ll either behave, or he’ll leave, and either will do, won’t it?’
‘I’d rather he went. I don’t think he knows how to behave.’
