‘I feel like I’m in a bad dream or caught in the middle of an elaborate, sick prank. Who does that? Who leaves their kids and jumps on a plane to Australia? It’s a spectacularly shitty thing to do.’
‘I agree, and especially when Billy’s ill. I don’t want to defend her but could she be ill herself,mentally I mean? Nobody in their right mind would think it’s okay to do what she’s done.’
Jed shrugged. ‘I don’t know. It’s possible. She’s always been scathing of anyone with mental health problems before – thinks they should pull themselves together and stop making such a fuss – but that doesn’t make her immune to it. As you say, that’s not normal behaviour.’
‘They should pull themselves together and stop making such a fuss?’ I repeated. ‘And she’s a nurse?’
Jed gave me a sideways glance and rolled his eyes. ‘Believe it or not, a very good one too. Yeah, I know. Doesn’t tally, does it?’ He sighed. ‘The ridiculous thing about all this is that, if she’d told Pam and Billy that she wanted to try and fix things with Declan and could only do that face to face, I guarantee they’d have offered to look after the kids while she flew back to Aus. They could have put things in place like getting the twins into a nursery or sorting a childminder. Instead, she’s gone about it in the most underhand way possible with the maximum hurt and inconvenience. Typical Ingrid.’
‘Do you think she’ll come back?’ I asked.
‘The million-dollar question! I keep going over what she said in the pub and I can’t shake this nagging feeling in my gut that she’s gone for good. She never cries but she sobbed bucketloads about it being over with Declan and we’re not talking fake tears. She was genuinely distraught. She said she couldn’t live without him and her note reiterated that. There was also something about Declan hating their life and about her trapping him into marriage and kids which he’d always been clear he never wanted. What if she’s so smitten with him that she’d permanently ditch her children if they were the only barrier to them being together? What if she has no intention of coming back and that suggestion about me raising the kids was never about usdoing it together but about dangling Aaron as a carrot and hoping I’d go for a three-for-one offer? She must know that Pam and Billy can’t look after them permanently – it’s too much to expect a couple in their seventies, one of whom has cancer, to bring up toddlers.’
‘Could she really be that calculating?’
‘I wish I could say no but she’s already proved she is.’
Jed dropped me off at the end of Castle Street and I told him to ring me if he needed to talk, even if that was in the middle of the night.
I gave Hercules a huge hug before wandering into my bedroom to change into some cosy loungewear. He’d only stayed over for two nights but, already, the flat didn’t feel right without Jed. Spotting his bag beside the bed, tears pricked my eyes and a lump blocked my throat. It wasn’t just Jed’s absence making me feel tearful – it had been an emotional day across the board.
‘I need cheering up,’ I said to Hercules. ‘Fancy aFriendsfest?’
I grabbed a random DVD from my shelves and cuddled up with Hercules on the sofa, immersing myself in a world that made me laugh, brought me comfort and could take my mind off everything hurtful.
As I settled down to sleep a couple of hours later, I pictured Piper and Savannah covering Lucy in make-up and how sweet the pair of them were. Jed and I had agreed that we didn’t want children together but if a scenario arose where Ingrid really had cleared off with no intention of ever returning and she meant what she said about Jed raising her kids, I absolutely would step up and be a mum to Piper, Savannah and Aaron. How couldn’t I? I knew how it felt to lose your parents and tofeel like there was nobody who really wanted you and there was no way I’d let those three children doubt how important and loved they were.
I didn’t want to give too much thought to getting close to them in case Ingrid returned full of remorse, ready to set up a new life with the children here or, worse, to take them back to Australia. But we’d been talking earlier about trusting our guts and my gut was telling me that, if things worked out with Declan, Ingrid wouldn’t be back.
29
JED
With Mondays being Anastasia’s day off, I spent the day in the gallery. I usually felt a bit twitchy when I didn’t have studio time but, today, I probably wouldn’t have got any work done, feeling restless and anxious for news from Billy and Pam. I jumped every time my phone rang or pinged, even during the morning when I knew it couldn’t be news about Ingrid because she was still in the air.
Early in the afternoon, a message came through from Tara.
From Tara
Just a quickie to let you know my parents have had an offer accepted on Whispering Winds. They’re really excited and Dad’s already been talking to builders. He loves a project! Keeping everything crossed for news from Ingrid soon x
We were ten minutes from closing time on Monday when Billy rang to say they’d finally spoken to Ingrid but could I go to their house after I closed as they’d rather discuss the conversation in person than over the phone. That sounded ominous.
Billy answered the door. ‘Pam’s in the lounge but she’s really upset.’
‘I take it the conversation didn’t go well.’
‘I’d better let her tell you.’
But Pam couldn’t get the story out, breaking down after a few words, so Billy had to take over.
‘There was no remorse,’ he said, the sadness evident in his voice. ‘It was all about her – she’s loved Declan since she was sixteen, being apart from him for the past couple of months has been hell, she can’t lose him and the only way she has any chance of winning him back is to see him without the kids in tow because the kids are what caused their relationship to fall apart in the first place.’
My stomach lurched. ‘She actually said that?’
A sob escaped from Pam and she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.
Billy sighed heavily. ‘Those exact words.’
