Imogen purses her lips together.
‘I should never have told Dorothea to stay away. I regret it now. But I wasn’t thinking of you. I was worried she’d try and take you away …’
Imogen’s head shoots up. ‘What? But I was a burden to you. It would have been easier for you if I’d stayed with Dorothea.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ scoffs Alison. ‘I … I needed you too.’ Tears spring to her eyes and she blinks them away.
‘Oh. I never thought …’
‘It’s okay. It was selfish of me. There was enough room for both of us in your life. I really am sorry, Immy.’
Imogen stops walking, her face pained. ‘I understand.’ She gives Alison a half-smile. The subject of their father hovers between them but Alison doesn’t want to bring him up and spoil this moment. They begin walking again.
Imogen suddenly blurts out, ‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Sure.’
‘Does Gareth ever get jealous?’ and then she cries out, ‘Lila! Don’t go too far ahead.’
‘She’s fine. In what way?’
‘Like with other men. People you work with?’
‘I mostly work with women.’
‘No male hairdressers?’
‘Well, yes, there are. I work with two and one is gay.’
‘And the other?’
‘He’s young enough to be my son!’ She laughs. ‘Well, not quite. But no, Gareth doesn’t get jealous. I mean, I’msure he would if I was hanging out with Ryan Gosling on a regular basis. Why do you ask? Is Josh the jealous type?’
Imogen nods and looks troubled. ‘He’s always been a bit possessive, but he … I dunno … he just seems to be getting worse lately.’
Alison glances at her sister. She’s never once said anything negative about Josh in the whole twelve years they’ve been together. ‘Is he controlling?’
‘How can you tell the difference between controlling and just caring too much?’
Alison stops walking. ‘Really? You need to ask that?’
Imogen toes the ground, her cheeks reddening. ‘After what happened with Filcher, Josh insisted he come and pick me up every night, even when I wasn’t working late. And once, when he saw me leaving the building with a male colleague, he started questioning who I was working with. Then he started to insist on meeting me for lunch and then wanted to track me on my phone – I mean, he’s on the Find My app too, so it’s not just one-sided. And since we moved in here he’s been acting even more possessive. He doesn’t like me talking to Harry …’
‘Harry?’
They begin walking again, slowly. Up ahead Lila is skipping and twirling, Solly by her side.
‘Yes. Remember me telling you about him? He was the one who I had that summer romance with when I was staying here with Mum. His parents still live next door and he’s staying with them at the moment after his relationship broke down. Anyway, Josh didn’t like it whenI was late home one night because I got talking to Harry. He didn’t speak to me for ages.’
A growing sense of unease creeps over Alison. She’d had a bad feeling about Josh, but she’d give anything to be wrong. ‘Why didn’t you ever say anything before?’
Imogen touches one of her hoop earrings. ‘I don’t know. We moved here, and we were so excited, but it seems to be getting worse and then the other night he … he …’
‘He what? Did he hit you? If he hit you I’ll fucking kill him.’ Alison feels a rage so intense she’s tempted to stomp off and throttle Josh right this moment. She can’t believe this is happening again after what they went through with their parents. She wants to scream at Imogen.How could you have let things get this far?
‘No, no, he didn’t hit me,’ she says hurriedly. ‘Of course not. But he slammed his hand onto the table in anger, just for a brief moment, which scared me.’
‘What the fuck. Immy … that’s not okay.’
