BooksBarbecue
Back When I Lost You
Chapters (81)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Dedication
  4. Prologue
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Forty-three
  48. Forty-four
  49. Forty-five
  50. Forty-six
  51. Forty-seven
  52. Forty-eight
  53. Forty-nine
  54. Fifty
  55. Fifty-one
  56. Fifty-two
  57. Fifty-three
  58. Fifty-four
  59. Fifty-five
  60. Fifty-six
  61. Fifty-seven
  62. Fifty-eight
  63. Fifty-nine
  64. Sixty
  65. Sixty-one
  66. Sixty-two
  67. Sixty-three
  68. Sixty-four
  69. Sixty-five
  70. Sixty-six
  71. Sixty-seven
  72. Epilogue
  73. Acknowledgments
  74. Read More
  75. Prologue
  76. One
  77. Two
  78. Three
  79. Four
  80. Follow Merilyn online
  81. Dedication

The young woman seemed to shrink in on herself. Wrapping her arms tightly across her chest, she began to cry again, tears falling silently onto her lap. Nell pushed away the first feelings of guilt. This was her job. However bad Kelly-Anne felt, it was Nell’s job to get to the truth. Even if it did make her feel like a shit.

‘He didn’t mean to.’ Kelly-Anne spoke quietly and the air in the room seemed to still. ‘He was back from the pub and Georgie was crying. I’d tried to stop her before Connor got in, ’cos I know it does his head in, but I couldn’t, so I put her in her cot and shut the door and went to make Connor’s dinner.’ She stopped speaking then, and as if realising for the first time she was crying, wiped at her face with the palms of both hands.

‘And then what happened?’

‘He didn’t like the dinner I was making, so he started to walk around the front room, shouting about this and that. What a bad mum I was, a crap girlfriend, said he’d rather be with her.’

‘With the girlfriend he was with before you? The one who lied about him hitting her?’ She chose her words carefully, keen not to trigger a defensive reaction now Kelly-Anne had started to speak.

Kelly-Anne nodded and Nell looked to Paul, who quietly left the room.

Turning back to Kelly-Anne, Nell asked, ‘And what then?’

‘Georgie was really yelling by then, and I mean really yelling. He told me to shut “it” up, so I went into her room and—’ She stopped, and the expression on her face told Nell she was back there, seeing her baby in the cot.

‘She was all hot and red and damp from crying,’ she continued, ‘so I picked her up to give her a cuddle. I walked round the room with her, whispering for her to stop before Connor came in, but she didn’t.’ Kelly-Anne looked to Nell, her eyes wide. ‘I did my best to stop her crying, but Connor couldn’t take it any more – it wasn’t his fault, it was mine.’ Her tone pleaded with Nell to understand.

‘So Connor entered the room?’

Kelly-Anne nodded again. ‘He took her off me.’

‘The baby?’

‘He said he’d stop her crying and I tried to get Georgie back, but he told me to go back to the kitchen and make him something he could eat.’

‘So, you left him alone with Georgie?’

‘Yeah. I went into the kitchen and started to make some dinner again and then Georgie just stopped crying.’ She gave a small shrug. ‘Just stopped, she did.’

‘Did you go back into the room or remain in the kitchen, after she stopped crying?’

‘I went back to thank Connor for helping me, you know, helping me with the baby.’

Nell nodded.