She soon found out why.
Upon her arrival at the local solicitor’s practice, Jack and Nellie were sitting together in the waiting room. Nellie made small talk while they waited – stiff, awkward and meaningless chat – Jack sitting stony-faced and barely acknowledging Karen’s presence. She should have suspected then, probably should have known that something was amiss.
But Karen couldn’t have imagined in her wildest dreams what she would hear that afternoon. She could still recall the solicitor’s soft tones as he explained that, because Shane had left no will and they weren’t married, their house in Harold’s Cross now legally belonged to his next of kin – his mother. She listened in disbelief as the solicitor told her that the deeds of the property were registered solely in Shane’s name and thus would now be transferred to Nellie’s. As Jack remained an active guarantor for the mortgage, he also had a legal interest.
It had been surreal, Nellie patting her hand and telling her that they wouldn’t expect her to move out straightaway, that she should go home and consider what to do next. Home? Hadn’t they just told Karen she no longer had one?
She had never once considered the legal implications of Shane’s demise, hadn’t considered anything other than overcoming the gaping void in her life since she lost him. While she had briefly wondered how she might continue paying the mortgage on her own, she’d assumed that life assurance would cover his share of the repayments.
She remembered Aidan advising her to get in touch with a solicitor to thrash out any related stuff, but Karen had been too wrapped up in trying to get through the days without Shane.
But that afternoon in Meath, reality had come tumbling down on top of her, much the same way that a pile of Shane’s clothes had come tumbling out of the wardrobe once Karen had felt strong enough to gothrough his things. His scent was still painfully evident on the sweaters and T-shirts, triggering another intense wave of grief.
She had been angry then and she was equally angry sitting in that office, wanting to scream at his family. Wishing that Shane didn’t have to die, wishing that he was still here and that she didn’t have to suffer all over again.
But it seemed the suffering had only just begun. Jack had told her in no uncertain terms that they had every intention of selling the house. He would give Karen a couple of months to ‘sort herself out’ and any contributions she made towards the mortgage in the interim would be repaid.
But he hadn’t bargained on her resolve. It had been the proverbial kick up the backside that Karen needed and had given her a new lease on life. Since then, she had temporarily parked her grief and set about making an absolute mission of keeping the house. There was no way she was going to pack her bags and just up and leave her home, the home she had shared with Shane.
Suddenly she had something to fight for.
She refused to move out on the original vacate date the Quinns had set, and threw every subsequent legal letter into the bin while she tried to launch a defence.
After a few false starts, her dad had put her in touch with a property lawyer in Dublin who was open to taking a case on her behalf, and as she’d learnt just that morning, she and Jack Quinn were going to battle it out in court.
So no, Karen conceded, bringing her thoughts back to the present, there had been little opportunity for Jenny to confide her secret liaison with Roan Williams had she been so inclined.
“And now he and Mike are working together?” she said to Jenny. “You’ll have to say something.”
“I know,” Jenny was crestfallen. “But I was so sure I would never see Roan again. I thought it was all at a safe distance. I couldn’t risk telling Mike back then. He wouldn’t have understood.”
“And do you think he’ll understand now?”
Jenny buried her face in her hands. “I have no choice but to find out, do I?”
56
Much later, Jenny drove home in a daze, barely noticing the activity around her. It had turned out to be much drearier than this morning’s bright skies had suggested, which she thought was fitting to her mood.
She looked out over Dublin Bay, remembering when Mike had proposed. It wasn’t long after Shane’s funeral and they had gone for a walk along Sandymount Strand; Mike teasing her about that time in Brittas Bay when she wouldn’t get her feet wet, that very first day they kissed.
Jenny had promptly taken off her shoes and socks and rushed into the water, as if to prove him wrong and show him that, this time, she had no problem at all getting her feet wet.
He had followed, and the two spent ages jumping around and splashing in the water until they were soaked. Afterwards, they both collapsed laughing and exhausted onto the sand. Then Mike sat up, lookedseriously at Jenny’s upturned face and out of the blue asked her to marry him.
It was unexpected, yet it felt so right and she said yes without a moment’s hesitation. Roan had ceased to exist in her thoughts once they’d said their final goodbye after Shane’s funeral. Mike was the one she wanted now, pure and simple.
When they phoned Rebecca to announce the news, she and Graham were over the moon. As were everyone else, Jenny’s parents, Mike’s mum and all their friends, including Tessa and Gerry, who at the time had their own reason to celebrate after Tessa gave birth to a baby boy.
Jenny had hesitated before telling Karen about their engagement, mindful that the news would resurrect deeply painful memories. But she had been equally delighted for them, cognisant that Shane’s death had affected their relationship, though not for the reason she suspected.
“I knew that I would marry again, eventually,” Mike confessed, once they’d chosen the ring. “But I had every intention of taking things slowly. After Shane’s accident, everything changed. I put myself in Karen’s shoes and wondered how I would feel if I lost you. And I decided that I wasn’t going to waste time, Jen; if I wanted you to be part of my life, if I wanted to be with you for therestof my life, now was as good a time as any to start. Because none of us ever know how long that might be. The rest of our lives, I mean.”
Jenny knew he was right. And shortly after theirengagement, she moved into the house in Blackrock and began making it a home.
Everything was falling into place, and she didn’t think anything could spoil her happiness. She had well and truly moved on.
Indicating right, she turned into the driveway and got out of the car, pausing for a moment before putting her key in the door.
