Thirty-two
‘Mum? Are you okay?’ Brittany asked as they sat at the dinner table that evening.
Jenny wasn’t okay. Her troubled thoughts had been eating away at her all day. She had to be wrong about it all. It was like watching an old rerun ofDays of Our Livesor something. She had a soft spot for those old soapies—her nan had always stopped everything in the afternoon to watch her stories on TV when Jenny had been a kid. The memory gave her little comfort at the moment. Unlike the multiple scandals and far-fetched plotlines of those shows, this was everyday life; those kinds of things didn’t happen to real people. And yet, they did. Far too often. Maybe not so much anymore, society had clearly changed a lot of the old rules. But Jenny understood that sometimes, when faced with traumatic situations, people made decisions based on fear. Whatever the truth was, Susie had been just a kid when she had her baby, andwhatever choices she made back then, she’d probably made them because she was scared.
‘I’m just not very hungry. I’ll put mine in the fridge to heat up later. I think I might have an early night,’ she said, smiling at her daughter as she finished feeding Sophie. Jenny felt a surge of gratitude. Britt was such a great mum and Sophie had so many people in her life to love her and protect her should anything ever happen. Susie hadn’t had that. The thought made Jenny sad.
Jenny sat at the desk the next day at work.
She’d tossed and turned into the wee hours, the thought of bringing up what she knew with Susie off-putting, to say the least. Questioning her about something as private and sensitive as this was not going to go well; after all, Susie had threatened to call the police on Sharon and George.
The woman would have every right to tell Jenny to go to hell. It wasn’t even any of her business; her theory was based on a couple of strangers’ words and none of it had anything to do with her. She should just tell Nick and get him to deal with Sharon and George. But then, what if her suspicions were true? Regardless of what the truth was, finding out his sister might have had a secret child would be a huge shock and cause even more hostility between him and Susie.
On the other hand, if what Sharon and George said was true … If therehadbeen a baby boy and his family wanted to know what happened to him, didn’t they deserve some answers too?
‘Are you sure everything’s all right? You don’t seem like yourself,’ Nick said. Jenny had dropped into the pub on her way home, hoping to figure out what to do about Susie. ‘Yeah. Just … work stuff. And I have a headache,’ Jenny said, which wasn’t altogether a lie. She’d been in pain ever since being thrown into the middle of this horrible bloody fiasco.
‘At least there’ll soon be one less headache. Susie’s leaving tomorrow.’
‘Leaving?’
‘Yeah. Thank Christ. She’s been in an even bitchier mood than usual. And that’s saying a lot.’
Jenny could understand why. It was no doubt a little unsettling to have people from your past hounding you about things you probably didn’t want to have brought up. ‘Do you think she’s got something going on?’ Jenny asked carefully.
‘Going on? Like what?’
‘I don’t know. Could something be worrying her? Maybe you should try and find out what’s going on in her life. If she’s worse than usual, it could be because she’s going through something.’
‘I’d be the last person she’d tell.’
‘You’re her family,’ Jenny said. ‘You should be the first person she’d come to if she had a problem. Maybe that’s why she came out here? You said her visit was unusual.’
He seemed to consider the idea before giving a twist of his lips. ‘I reckon she’d have a team of therapists on retainer to handle any of her problems, and knowing my sister, theywouldn’t be personal, they’d be financial. She lives and breathes business—she doesn’t have time for personal crises.’
Jenny didn’t understand families like this. She just didn’t. They were supposed to be there to help each other, not treat one another like business partners. Still, if Susie was intending to leave, there was no more time to put off whatever she was going to do.
‘Babe, I gotta catch the sales rep before he heads out. I’ll see you later?’ he asked, kissing her lips quickly as she nodded absently. ‘She’s up in her room if you want to say goodbye,’ Nick said over his shoulder as he left.
Jenny let out a long breath as she eyed the staircase. Sheshouldgo and say goodbye. This was Nick’s sister—or possibly his mother—and if she and Nick were going to be in a committed relationship, then she would have to at least try and get on with any family he had left.
She didn’t have to bring up the baby thing, she reminded herself as she walked down the hallway and stopped at the door to Susie’s bedroom.
Lifting her hand to knock, she heard the clip-clop of heels on the timber flooring before the door swung open to reveal an impatient Susie on the phone, staring at her expectantly.
‘Oh. Sorry, I didn’t know you were on the phone,’ Jenny started, before the woman raised her finger and silenced her abruptly.
‘No, Jonathan. That’s not good enough. I don’t care that you had personal reasons for the delay. You’re a professional. I expected that contract to be on my desk and it wasn’t. Ifwe’ve missed out on signing up this client you’ll have being jobless to add to your issues. Get that contract sorted. Today.’
Wow.
Susie swiped the disconnect button and looked at Jenny with a bored expression. ‘Can I help you?’
The woman was a tyrant. Jenny fought to hold on to her compassion. Tyrant or not, she’d also once been a frightened fifteen-year-old.
But the woman in front of her was as far removed from that helpless girl as a person could get. There was nothing vulnerable or scared about her now. She was a fortress.
‘I heard you were leaving. I came to say goodbye,’ Jenny finally said.
