BooksBarbecue
Back A Change of Circumstance Save as PDF
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. One
  3. Two
  4. Three
  5. Four
  6. Five
  7. Six
  8. Seven
  9. Eight
  10. Nine
  11. Ten
  12. Eleven
  13. Twelve
  14. Thirteen
  15. Fourteen
  16. Fifteen
  17. Sixteen
  18. Seventeen
  19. Eighteen
  20. Nineteen
  21. Twenty
  22. Twenty-One
  23. Twenty-Two
  24. Twenty-Three
  25. Twenty-Four
  26. Twenty-Five
  27. Twenty-Six
  28. Twenty-Seven
  29. Twenty-Eight
  30. Twenty-Nine
  31. Thirty
  32. Thirty-One
  33. Thirty-Two
  34. Thirty-Three
  35. Thirty-Four
  36. Thirty-Five
  37. Thirty-Six
  38. Thirty-Seven
  39. Thirty-Eight
  40. Thirty-Nine
  41. Forty
  42. Forty-One
  43. Forty-Two
  44. Forty-Three
  45. Forty-Four
  46. Forty-Five
  47. Forty-Six
  48. Forty-Seven
  49. Forty-Eight
  50. Forty-Nine
  51. Fifty
  52. Fifty-One
  53. Fifty-Two
  54. Fifty-Three
  55. Fifty-Four
  56. Fifty-Five
  57. Fifty-Six
  58. Fifty-Seven
  59. Fifty-Eight
  60. Fifty-Nine
  61. Sixty
  62. Sixty-One
  63. Sixty-Two
  64. Sixty-Three
  65. Sixty-Four
  66. Sixty-Five
  67. Sixty-Six

This was why Greta didn’t open her messages before she started work but always waited for lunchtime, or at least until her coffee break. ‘You’ve moved on.’ What did Noelline know? But if you had asked Greta Tonks the previous day if that was true, she would have said a firm yes, that she had her life back, a good life and one she was perfectly happy in, and that she and Olivia didn’t need Jeff, didn’t miss him, managed very well without him, thank you. Of course, when it had happened she had not felt any of that, she had been devastated, torn apart and certain she could not survive, let alone make a go of being an abandoned and then divorced woman with a daughter and modest earnings.

It was only fourteen-year-old Olivia who had held her mother back from a nervous breakdown. Greta thought her daughter had heard and seen far too much, yet they had struggled through, damaged and bereft but more or less intact. Jeff had faced the full onslaught of her shock, rage and distress and of his daughter’s pale, cold withdrawal, for no longer than a couple of weeks, before he had bolted to 23-year-old Madison. Noelline, who lived nearby, reported back on his marriage, then their new house and the way the two of them were always about and lovey-dovey, but had never mentioned a pregnancy. So why now? Did she think telling Greta about the twin babies was necessary and might, in some way, be good for her state of mind, or was it just gloating, disguised as friendly concern, and if that were so, what was friendly about it?

She went to make her coffee two hours earlier than usual, because she needed to do something and the news had shot the morning’s work to pieces before it was started. She would hardly be able to concentrate on checking solicitors’ bills for possible errors and inaccurate charging, a job she had done for the past ten years, as a freelance for various legal firms, from home.

She opened the back door onto the side of the garden which caught the late-morning sun and stood looking out but not seeing, hands round her coffee mug. It was very still and freezing cold.

She had thought all of her bitterness and anger at what Jeff had done to them had begun to fade. It was almost two years ago. The misery, regret, self-blame had left her quite soon because she was intelligent, reasonable, clear-sighted, and was sure that she had not been in any way at fault. They had had a happy marriage, at ease with one another, devoted to their only child, for whom they had waited seven years, and because they were so relieved and grateful for Liv, they had never been sad that she was an only one.