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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

Olivia huddled at the kitchen table, staring at the half-empty biscuit packet and the remains of her tea and the screaming of the babies came to her from two directions, upstairs and on the monitor, and she heard her father and Madison, voices alternately angry with each other and then soothing as each held a twin and tried to hush them.

When the phone rang again, it was his number on the screen. She ignored it, and then switched the whole thing off. She was never answering that phone again, was going to throw it away the minute she left here. She wanted to leave now but through the window she could see sleet coming from a darkening sky. She had no coat, no boots, no money.

It was twenty minutes before first Madison then her father came down.

‘I’m driving you home,’ he said. ‘Now.’

‘I need the loo.’

‘OK, second on the left.’

‘And then you’re gone,’ Madison said, ‘and I’d prefer it if you didn’t come back here, actually, see your dad somewhere outside when you have to, I think anything else is going to upset us all.’

‘I don’t –’

‘Sorry, but this is our new life together, us and the boys, it’s all we want, we don’t need his past like a millstone, though as I said, you’re entitled to see him away from here. I wouldn’t prevent that. I hope you think I’m being fair to you?’

Another sudden smile, a quick flash of white enamel, her earrings catching the overhead light, and to Olivia in that second, she turned into some glittering, poisonous insect. She dodged out of the kitchen, used the lavatory, and then followed her father to the car, the shiny new Mini that was too small for his big frame and long legs, and he drove her home through the sleet, and only when they got to the house, did he speak.

‘I’m sorry, Oli, but you do see? You understand? It’s difficult – for me. And for her. of course it is, she’s very young. Do you get what I’m trying to say? Oh, and . . .’ He reached into his jacket, took out his wallet, found three twenty-pound notes. ‘Here.’

Olivia looked at the money and almost pushed it away, but in the end, took it, folded it tightly in her hand, and said, ‘Thank you.’

She got out of the car and went down the path without looking back.

Twenty-Four