‘Bloody hell, Fri. How?’
‘He’d gone into company records to get my email.’
‘Jeez, Frida, that’s a hell of a data breach.’
Frida nodded. I know. ‘Freaked me out big time. When Vivek had seen me in the office, he couldn’t get over how much I looked like Sunil’s daughters. That’s why he was staring at me so much. Sunil’s got two girls; did you know?’
‘He mentioned he’s got other children.’
‘He’s got a little boy too. He’s only seven. Anyway, Vivek did a bit of digging, found out my surname, put two and two together and filled Sunil in with the intel. Me and Sunil got chatting on email. Once I decided he wasn’t a creep and it wasn’t spammy, I began talking to him. Opened up a bit. He’s always been nice, very respectful. He said he knew you at uni so I started asking about what it was all like and he mentioned how you and Donna and Vivek hung out as students.’
Callie let out a horrified breath. ‘God, Fri! What have I taught you about online safety? He could have been anybody.’
‘I’m not stupid. I played it well cool until I was sure he was genuine. He told me it had been him who’d been checking me out when I left work. Said he needed to see me for himself and once he did, he was convinced he was my dad. I look exactly like his oldest. Suppose he could have come over there and then and introduced himself but he wanted to get to know me first. Make sure I was who he thought I was. I asked around at work who Sunil and Vivek Patel were. Looked up Sunil on LinkedIn and he checked out. I knew he was the real deal.’
‘So, these emails, they’ve been going on for a while then?’
‘Yeah, since March. Early on, he asked me about my dad and I said I’d never known him, he’d never been on the scene. Then we chatted a lot about how much fun you all had at uni. Then, earlier this month, he finally came out with it and said he thought he was my father. I lost it. I mean, I thought I wanted to find my dad, but the reality was something else. I’d told him I was coming here with you for a holiday and he said, by pure coincidence, he was going to be with his family in Mudeford and could we meet?’ Frida screwed her eyes shut. ‘It was all too much. I didn’t know how to tell you, wasn’t sure I was ready to meet him–’
‘So you went off to Ibiza?’
‘Yup. Had a bit of time to think. Bit of distance to process it all. Sunil sent me a really sad message. He’s never once put pressure on me, Mum, he really hasn’t, but it made me realise I might miss the opportunity to meet him and if I didn’t make the effort, I never would. He’s too nice a man to insist. So I gathered all the confidence I had and flew home.’ She hesitated. ‘I should tell you, Mum, that he paid for my flight back. The airline wanted silly money just to change the dates.’ She suppressed a grin, an impish look in the grass green eyes. ‘He booked me into first class. Scheduled. It was dead good!’
‘I’m not sure he should be giving you money, Frida, and I wish he’d thought to contact me.’ Callie was beginning to revise her opinion of Sunil. He’d been underhand. ‘Are you sure he’s the nice man you think he is?’
‘It’s okay, I said I’d pay him back,’ Frida said breezily. ‘And I don’t think he had a clue how to navigate this.’ She shrugged. ‘Neither did I. We were just muddling our way through.’ She paused as a thought occurred. ‘Maybe he didn’t want to risk you stopping him seeing me? Suppose he didn’t know how you’d turned out like either.’
‘I suppose.’ Callie wasn’t sure she had the moral high ground. After all, she’d ended up lying by omission to him about his daughter. ‘It’s all so complicated.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Frida replied, warmly. ‘So we arranged for him to come over. Meet me, then you.’ She blew out an enormous breath. ‘I know I’ve not been telling you the truth about a lot of things but it was okay wasn’t it? You meeting him like that?’
‘I don’t know, Frida.’ Callie sighed and reached for her now cold tea. ‘I’m still getting my head around all of this. If we think it’s complicated now, it’s going to be even more so in the future. If you want a relationship with Sunil, I won’t stop you but I’m warning you, it won’t always be easy-happy-families.’
Frida bit her lip. ‘Yeah, I know it might be tricky and I won’t do anything you don’t want me to, I promise.’ She gave her mother a mischievous look. ‘But don’t families come in all shapes and sizes, including blended ones?’
Callie spluttered through her tea. It may be all right after all. It seemed her daughter had a wise head on her shoulders. Grimacing at the cold tea, she put the mug down. ‘If I’m honest, I’m just relieved that you seem okay. I’ve been so worried about you, baby girl. All sorts of things have been going through my head. I knew something wasn’t right.’
‘I’m sorry, Mum. I just couldn’t get it all straight in my own head enough to talk to you about it, and you’ve been so busy at school.’
‘Some warning about Sunil coming over might have been good. I must look a right mess.’
‘You look beautiful, Mum. You always do.’ Frida’s nose wrinkled. ‘You don’t… you haven’t still got feelings for him? I mean, he’s happily married from what he’s said.’
‘No.’ Callie ruffled her daughter’s hair. ‘I don’t have feelings for him. It all happened a very long time ago and anything I felt for Sunil has gone. But I have my pride, you know. He looks exactly the same and I walked in dripping from the rain and covered in paint.’
Frida snorted. ‘Bit of an exaggeration.’
‘Just making a point. I was considered a bit of a babe at college,’ Callie said airily. ‘No one likes being reminded they’ve got older.’
‘You’re still a babe. Johnny thinks so.’
‘Does he? How do you know?’
Frida tapped the side of her nose. ‘I have eyes.’
Callie laughed. ‘Oh it’s so good to have my daughter back again, even in this dramatic fashion.’ She waggled a warning finger. ‘Don’t ever pull a trick like that on your old mother again, will you?’
‘No chance. Mum, can I ask you something?’
