Jenny and Mike had been there whenever she needed someone to talk to, or a shoulder to cry on and Tessa was always on the phone too.
On Karen and Shane’s intended wedding day, both couples insisted that she pass the day with them, hoping to keep her mind occupied, but Karen knew she couldn’t pretend. What should have been the happiest day of her life would forever be associated with grief and pain. She and Jenny had never made it to Belfast for their shopping trip, so at least she didn’t have a wedding dress to remind her of everything she had lost.
Maybe it would get easier as time went by. People kept telling her it would, but how did they know?
Aidan was the only one who seemed to understand, the only one who didn’t tell Karen that she would get over it, that it would get easier, that she had to get on with things. United in their mutual loss, each seemed to share the understanding that it would be a very long time before either of them managed to do that, if ever.
It was this shared pain and unified sorrow, that enabled them to lean on one another. For this, Karen was grateful, relieved that every time she rang him crying, lonely and vulnerable in the middle of the night, after waking up from a nightmare, Aidan understood. And that unlike everyone else, he had respected her wishes to be left alone on her wedding day, but had dropped everything when she phoned that evening and let her cry silently in his arms for hours. Karen knew that each would have been lost without the other’s support.
However, Aidan was in serious disagreement about her decision to fight the Quinn family for possession of the house.
“Stuff like this, the law is clear cut. You are not Shane’s next of kin; you never were. You can’t fight reality,” he argued after Karen had been turned down by yet another in a string of lawyers who refused to take on the case.
But now she had someone willing to fight her corner and nothing anyone else said would stop her.
Karen was fully prepared to take on Jack Quinn, and come hell or high water, she was going to win.
61
Later that evening Jenny arrived, tired and straining with the weight of her problems, and the bags containing her and Holly’s stuff.
“I didn’t want to leave anything behind,” she explained, seeing Karen eyeing the Fiat Punto’s open boot stacked with suitcases and refuse sacks, ostensibly containing everything they owned.
“Did you tell Mike you were coming here?” she enquired, trying to pretend she didn’t see Holly holding her arms out, wanting to be released from her car seat. She was one of the few children that Karen wasn’t afraid of, but she wouldn’t go as far as picking her up and cuddling her. “Here, I’ll get the stuff – why don’t you organise herself first?” she offered.
“I left a message,” Jenny replied. “I was kind of relieved that I didn’t have to speak to him directly.”
She handed Karen the luggage, mopped her sweatingbrow and then went about the not-inconsiderable task of settling the baby.
Karen nodded sympathetically, appreciating that things were difficult for Jenny, but they must be equally difficult for Mike who knowing what he did, also now had to work side by side with Roan for his troubles.
Once Jenny had settled her things in the spare room and Holly was sleeping peacefully in her travel cot, Karen opened a bottle of wine and the two sat companionably in her living room.
“So, how are you feeling?” she asked, pouring Jenny a glass of chablis.
“At the moment, relieved. I needed to get away. Thanks so much for letting us stay here.”
“Goes without saying that you’re welcome, but unfortunately I can’t add that you can stay as long as you like. I told you a court date’s been set, didn’t I?”
“You’re definitely going through with this, then?”
“Absolutely,” Karen said in a tone that brooked no argument. “I told you, even if I haven’t a chance in hell I’m not letting the Quinns walk all over me.”
Jenny shifted uncomfortably. They’d had this conversation many times before and she knew that Karen would never yield. She feared that her friend was making a big mistake taking on Shane’s family over an already established point of law. She couldn’t possibly win and the Quinns knew it, their solicitor knew it and Karen’s solicitor surely knew it too. The only person who didn’t – or at least wouldn’t admit to knowing – was Karen.
Jenny believed that the entire situation would end not only in tears but also with fat legal bills on both sides. And Karen certainly couldn’t afford that; as it was she could barely afford the mortgage.
“What does Aidan think?”
Karen sniffed. “He wants me to give up, and move on – same as you.”
“It’s not like that. You know that I’ll support you,we’llsupport you every step of the way – I suppose we’re just not as convinced as you seem to be that this is the best way forward.”
“And what am I supposed to do?” Karen shot back, cheeks reddening. “Where am I supposed to go? This is my home, our home, Shane’s and mine. He worked himself to the bone to get the deposit and sacrificed a lot. You know how tight things were for us. It can’t be all for nothing.” Her eyes flashed angrily as she spoke. “You saw it yourself that day when the estate agent turned up. Jack just wants to sell this place off – he doesn’t care about me, doesn’t care about Shane and what he might have wanted. He just wants to make a profit, another few quid to add to the loot he already has in the bank. He doesn’t give a shit, Jenny.” She wiped her eyes viciously.
Jenny knew better than to say any more. She had thought,hopedthat just for a minute, she was getting through to her. But she had forgotten how solidly stubborn her friend could be.
The landline rang and Karen got up to answer it. Then raised an eyebrow as she listened to whatever the person on the other end was saying.
