Shauna felt grim satisfaction. Something had worked out, after all.

83

83

That bitch is going to fire my arse now, thought Suki as she stomped back down the stairs, hardly caring whether Donna heard her this time or not. She was shaking with emotion, shuddering with rage. She knew how this would go: Claire would tell Donna to get rid of her, and that would be the end of it.

She carried on doing her job, knowing that at any moment she was going to be collared by the manageress of the club and given the order of the boot. She waited a whole week for the axe to fall, but it didn’t happen. She didn’t see Claire down on the club floor, either. Then one evening when the place was busy, Donna called her to one side.

‘Claire wants to see you in her office,’ she said.

‘Oh. Right.’

Suki went up there, past Donna’s little office and into the bigger one, the owner’s office. Claire was sitting there behind a big walnut desk with a tooled red leather top, her hands folded in front of her. She stared up at Suki as she entered.

‘Come in,’ she said. ‘Sit down.’

Suki sat and crossed her legs, one foot twitching like a metronome. Unblinking, she gazed back at the woman who had callously abandoned her all those years ago. Left her newborn baby on the steps of a convent. If not for Dave and Josephine and Ginny Vance, what would have become of her? She couldn’t believe anyone would be so callous. So cruel.

‘My God,’ said Claire, and her voice trembled.

‘What?’ Suki was steaming mad with this woman. This bitch.

‘You look like me,’ said Claire.

Suki shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t going to make this easy for her. Fuck her.

Claire took a deep breath, moved her hands. They shook, Suki noticed without sympathy.

‘How did you find me?’ asked Claire.

‘My aunt died. Well, not my aunt, was she? But she died. And then I read the note she left me, explaining things. You dumped me with the Sisters of Mercy in New York.’

Claire shook her head. ‘That was Gina. She took you there. She used to be manageress here. She tried to talk me out of giving you away, but in the end she could see that it was no use, I just couldn’t cope. You know, I always thought,’ said Claire. Then she stopped, took a breath. Started again. ‘I always thought that if I ever saw you again, you would look like . . . like them.’

Them? Suki wondered what the hell Claire was on about. ‘Where’s my father?’ she asked, her eyes hostile. ‘Didn’t he want me either?’

‘What?’

‘Who is he? Where is he?’

Claire was shaking her head now. ‘Wait. Stop. You don’t understand.’

‘So explain to me. And what do you mean – “them”?’