Chapters (48)
- Cover
- THEFEUD
- Dedication
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- PROLOGUE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
Shutting the front door, Jessica sighed. She had been desperate for some time alone all morning. Riffling through her handbag, she found the pregnancy test. Three mornings in a row she had been as sick as a dog. At first, she had thought it was the shock of finding out about Joey, but now she wasn’t so sure. Jessica took the white stick out of the box and studied the instructions. When she was pregnant with the twins, this type of technology probably hadn’t even existed.
Realising that the test only took five minutes, Jessica smiled. The quicker she got the answer she wanted so badly wanted, the better.
‘Oi, oi!’ Jed shouted, as he picked up Frankie in the layby near his house.
Frankie smiled as she got in his red pick-up truck. ‘Where’s your Shogun?’ she asked him.
‘Me dad’s got to drive up north. His motor’s been playing up, so he borrowed mine.’
Cupping Frankie’s face with his hands, Jed gently kissed her. ‘Whaddya wanna do today then?’
Lying to her mum had given Frankie ideas. ‘Can we go to Southend? I haven’t been there for ages and it’s a lovely day for the seaside.’
Jed laughed at her way with words. ‘I’d take you to the moon and back if you asked me to, Frankie.’
With the help of Raymond and a JCB, Eddie set to work at digging up his dad’s garden. Apart from Jessica and her brother, Eddie hadn’t told a soul about his dad’s letter and its contents.
‘You all right, boys? I’ve got some cold Guinness in the fridge if you want one,’ shouted Iris from next door.
Sweating his cobbs off, Eddie gratefully accepted her offer.
‘Your turn, Raymond, I’m fucked,’ he said.
Eddie had thought it would only take a couple of hours to find what he was looking for. He had been wrong. The ground was rock hard and the digger he had borrowed was pony.
‘Thanks, Iris,’ Eddie said, as he grabbed the two cold cans.
‘Why you digging up the apple tree?’ Iris asked nosily.
‘Me dad planted it for me mum when she was alive. He always said to me, “When I die, son, I want you to dig up the tree and replant it in your own garden,”’ Eddie lied.
He had concocted the story earlier. ‘If any of the neighbours ask, we’re digging up the tree and replanting it at mine. After we’ve found what we’re looking for, I’ll ring up Davey Brown, get him to pick it up and dump it somewhere for us,’ Eddie told Raymond.
‘It will die if you dig up its roots. It won’t grow properly again,’ Iris said suspiciously.
Eddie smiled. ‘It was me dad’s final wish, so I’ll do me best to save it,’ he assured her.
* * *