All Fall Down by Louise Voss Read Free Book Online Page A

taking the risk, but Jack was a different matter. At least Vernon wasn’t anywhere near California. She could give him strict instructions about safety precautions to follow. And at the first hint that the virus was anywhere approaching Texas she would make sure Jack was on the next plane back to the UK, to her sister’s.
    ‘Are you still there?’ Harley asked.
    ‘Yes. I’m thinking. Let me go and talk to Jack. I’ll get back to you in the next hour.’
    She terminated the call and walked into the living room, where Jack was sitting cross-legged on the floor, his head tilted backwards and mouth slightly open, far too close to the television. Tears had left pale tracks down his cheeks.
    ‘Jack, I need to ask you something.’
    He looked up, slightly annoyed at the interruption of his viewing. She muted the TV and sat down next to him, holding his sticky hand. ‘We might have to change the plans for the summer holidays—’
    He jumped up, an expression of panic on his face. ‘You’re not going to tell me I can’t go and stay with Dad, are you?’
    ‘No – probably not. In fact, the opposite. All I was going to say was, I’ve been offered a job in America and I don’t know exactly how long it’s going to last. It might be a month, which would be ideal because then I can pick you up from Dad’s and we could fly home together – but it might be longer than that. Would you be OK with staying at Daddy’s for longer, if that’s how it works out? I don’t want to take the job unless you would.’
    ‘Would I have to go to school in Dallas?’
    ‘I don’t know. Unlikely – but it’s a possibility. You’d be able to come back to your class here afterwards though.’
    ‘I would miss you,’ he said thoughtfully, still staring at the muted cartoon. ‘But you know Charlie Freestone in Year 3? He lives half a year with his mum and half a year with his dad. So we could be like that. It’s only fair that Daddy gets to see me half the time too. I miss him. And you remember that boy next door I played with last summer – Bradley? I could play with him every day when I’m over there, and go to school with him.’ He hugged Kate round the neck. ‘Yay! I’m gonna go and Skype Daddy!’ His face fell. ‘But what about Callum? I can’t leave him, his dad’s died …’
    ‘Shelly just told me they’re going to France to stay with his grandma, so he won’t be here. You’re a great friend for thinking of that.’
    ‘You’re a great mummy,’ he said. ‘Can I turn the volume back up again now?’
    Ten minutes later, Kate sent a text to Harley:
OK. I’ll
do it
.
    Three days later, Kate welcomed the gin and tonic brought to her by the almost supernaturally attractive Asian flight attendant, pressing the glass against her forehead before taking a large gulp, then another. She felt as though her alcohol consumption had tripled in the past few days.
    Dreading the thought of handing Jack over to his father, she reached across and touched her son’s hair. He looked up briefly from the film he was watching on the plane’s entertainment system, earphones blocking out the adults’ conversation, and smiled, showing the gap between his front teeth.
    ‘I’m going to see Bradley again,’ he informed her.
    Kate took comfort in the fact that he was so excited about the trip, and about seeing his dad and his friend Bradley, but she felt sick at the thought of him being so far away. Vernon had promised to take some time off work but, while he adored Jack, he had never been the most attentive of fathers. And he had a new girlfriend now, Shirl, although Kate suspected she was hardly as new to the scene as Vernon claimed.
    Paul sat beside Kate, looking pale. He had been anxious and restless ever since Harley turned up. The MI6 man’s presence had brought back into vivid focus memories of that night two years ago when Paul had looked on helpless as his twin brother sacrificed his own life to stop Gaunt once and for all. As