But not now. Now she had to pull herself together and get them safely back to Watersmeet.
To her mum.
Home.
16
Jenna briefly toyed with the idea of asking the twins not to say anything about what their father had told them, but she dismissed the thought very quickly. It wasn’t fair to expect them to keep secrets from their grandma and the rest of the family, especially on top of the news they’d had to deal with already today.
As she parked the car, her mum walked round the side of the house and waved a tape measure at them.
‘Heard you pull up,’ she said. ‘I’ve been measuring up the windows on the green shepherd’s hut. I’ve picked out some smashing curtains for it. Do you?—?’
She broke off and narrowed her eyes as Jenna and the twins walked slowly towards her. It would have been obvious that something was wrong, even if Jenna wasn’t struggling to hold back tears. The way the twins were behaving was a dead giveaway. Usually, they’d have rushed over to their grandma and thrown themselves at her, telling her all about their visit to the burger bar. Instead, they were quiet and subdued.
‘What is it?’ her mum asked worriedly, looking from the girls to Jenna. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Mummy and Daddy have separated,’ Hallie said flatly.
‘He’s not going to live with us ever again,’ Ada told her, her eyes swimming with tears.
Jenna could barely look at her mum, who was now watching her closely, even as her arms went around the girls.
‘Mind that tape measure,’ Jenna said automatically.
Her mum threw it carelessly on the path and hugged the twins to her, giving Jenna such a compassionate look that she had to turn away.
‘I’ll put the kettle on, shall I?’ was all she could manage.
Jenna hurried inside Watersmeet, closing her eyes briefly as she heard Ada say plaintively, ‘But he’s still our daddy, isn’t he, Grandma? Even if he doesn’t live with us, it still counts, doesn’t it?’
She’d known, deep down, that Ada would struggle with this a bit more than Hallie. Hallie was always more philosophical about things, and she’d never seemed to have that need for Joel that Ada sometimes displayed. She would have to watch Ada. Although, she supposed, she would have to watch them both. Just because Hallie didn’t say much it didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling it. She knew that from personal experience.
‘They’ve gone to look at the shepherd’s hut,’ her mum murmured behind her. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve cheered them up a bit. I’ve told them they can have a sleepover in one when we’ve got it all furnished and ready.’
Jenna hadn’t even heard her mother come into the kitchen. She nodded without looking round, dropping teabags into two mugs and reaching for the sugar.
‘Jenna, I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Well, it was… I mean, it wasn’t definite. I didn’t know for sure. And I certainly didn’t know he was going to tell the girls today.’ She tried so hard to keep her voice neutral, but that last sentence was too much for her. Her words wobbled dangerously and she swallowed hard, trying to stay in control.
A moment later and she was in her mum’s arms. Somehow Alison had turned her round and pulled her into an embrace without her even noticing.
‘I’m so sorry, love,’ she soothed, as she stroked Jenna’s hair.
It was too much. Jenna’s sobs wracked her body as she clung to her mum, finally releasing all the pain and anguish that she’d tried so hard to keep a lid on for – how long? Weeks? Months? Years?
‘He’s got someone else, Mum,’ she cried. ‘He says he loves her.’
‘Oh, Jenna.’
‘He says he doesn’t loveme. He says he hasn’t been in love with me since I had the twins…’
Fresh sobs stifled her attempts to explain just how impossible this situation was. She wanted to scream and shout, and demand to know how the man who had promised to love and cherish her forever could say such terrible things.
Because now she’d started to ask these questions, they just kept on coming.
How could he abandon her for a woman who took him to a stupid burger bar where the staff wore green dungarees and silly hats?
