Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen

Tania was annoyed; she knew that her tardiness was a family joke, but she was still irritated that her mum had not even bothered to call her back.

The thought of going to the club, and watching her cousin playing happy families was not something she relished, but she knew she had to show her face at some point. The later the better, as far as she was concerned and, even though she’d made sure she looked pretty good, she felt she could never compete with Bernadette O’Toole.

She sighed heavily, and lit a cigarette. She usually only smoked when she was drinking, but tonight she felt on edge, nervous.

It was gone midnight, and no one had even bothered to ring her to see if she was OK and ask if she was going to come to the opening. She was hurt. It seemed that everyone was enjoying themselves so much they had forgotten about her. She felt the sting of tears; apparently even her mum wasn’t bothered about whether she went or not.

She put out her cigarette, and made her way up to her bedroom. It was her own fault; she could easily have got a cab – her family owned most of the cab ranks anyway, it’s not like she would even have had to pay. Stubbornly, she had not wanted to appear as if she was bothered either way about the night.

Now she was feeling sorry for herself, and it was far too late to turn up on her own. As she undressed, she wondered why her mum had not even returned her call. That wasn’t like her.

Lying in her bed, she felt lonelier than she had ever felt before in her life. She had been a fool; she should have gone to the opening with a smile on her face. She had as much right to be there as anyone – more right in fact than that Bernadette O’Toole. At least she really was family.

Picking up her phone from the bedside cabinet she rang her mum’s mobile number and, when it couldn’t connect, she smiled. Well, that was another mystery solved! Her mum probably couldn’t get a signal in the club. That satisfied her; she didn’t feel so abandoned now.

As she lay back against her pillows, she wondered if Petey was having a good night. She hoped so. Petey was always making her laugh, always making her feel good about herself; he made life feel exciting. He flirted with her really, and she enjoyed that more than she let on. He teased her, which annoyed her brother Danny, and she couldn’t understand why it angered him so much.