‘Yeah? Way to go! What was she like?’ Tony threw himself down on the sofa next to him.
A smile was trying to make its way onto his lips but thoughts ofthe newspaper article filtered through first. ‘She sold me out to a newshound.’
‘Whoa. Today’s article?’ Tony asked.
He nodded, but instead of feeling the gripe of anger that had welled through him earlier, all he could recall was how her lips felt embedded in his last night.
‘What did you do? Don’t tell me you couldn’t make her wish come true?’
He swallowed, thinking about the Google search he hadn’t completed earlier. Michel De Vos’s name would still be blinking at him on his computer.
‘Something like that.’
Statue of Liberty, New York
‘Did you know there are twenty-five windows in the crown of the statue?’ Hayley said as they walked towards the entrance. She shook the guidebook, her head dropping further into it. She’d been quoting snippets of information at Angel since they’d boarded the ferry.
‘I know what you’re doing,’ Angel responded.
‘I’meducatingyoufor a change.’ She sniffed. ‘Did you know three hundred different types of hammers were used to create it?’
‘Mum, why have you got a job as a cleaner?’
‘Fashion alert, twelve o’clock.’ Hayley pushed Angel’s head in the right direction. ‘We have a fanny pack. I repeat, we have a fanny pack!’
‘Mum!’ Angel exclaimed.
‘Reasons Christmas is better in New York number fifty-six: we don’t have to watch the Queen’s Speech.’
‘Mum, stop!’
Hayley swallowed. There was no getting away from the topic now. She sighed. ‘I know you think I’m being completely weird but?—’
‘It isn’t just weird. It’s completely crazy and I don’t get it,’ Angel said, snatching the guidebook from her.
‘I know you don’t.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
Whatwasit supposed to mean? She didn’t want to tell Angel she had lost her job. That wasn’t a worry a nine-year-old should have. But anything else was going to be a lie and she was already holding so much back from her. She took a breath.
‘I’m just… a bit short of money at the moment, that’s all.’ She watched for Angel’s reaction. ‘The flights were more expensive than I thought and I want us to be able to do everything we want to do here. Like this.’ She held her arm up and out like the Statue of Liberty, fixed her face to solemn.
‘We could ask Uncle Dean,’ Angel suggested.
Hayley shook her head so hard it hurt. ‘No.’
‘But he has loads of money.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ His financial stability had always been thrown in her face by her mother.
‘He won’t mind.’
‘Imind, Angel. I want us to stand on our own two feet.’ She looked down at her boots, wet and covered in snow. ‘Four feet. Yours and mine.’ She sighed. ‘You know what I’m saying.’
‘If Nanny was here, she’d say you were being stubborn.’
‘If Nanny was here, she’d be needing the toilet by now.’
