Make Believe by Cath Staincliffe Read Free Book Online Page B

served as coverings for the furniture and curtains in the living room.  But the chilled out vibe had little apparent effect on the woman herself, Janine swiftly realised.  Felicity Wray seemed close to hysterical, nervy and melodramatic with a latent hostility that simmered behind her words. She swished about in a maxi dress, her arms adorned with bangles and love-beads around her neck, smoking a small cheroot. 
    Phoebe , a dark-haired 14 year-old was a typical young teen, a mix of innocence and cynicism.  Switching between disaffection and naivety within a few sentences.  They were trying to talk to Phoebe, who was perched, arms firmly crossed, on the end of a huge sofa, but Felicity kept interrupting.
    ‘ Clive says he wanted to try and make contact again,’ Janine said.
    ‘ He thought he could just say sorry and make it all better.  Like – hello?’  Phoebe was trying for disaffected teenager but Janine sensed a fragility behind the act.
    ‘ That’s why you rowed?’ Janine said.
    Phoebe indicated it was.
    ‘ You knew about this argument?’ Janine asked Felicity.
    ‘ I told her,’ Phoebe said.
    ‘ She stopped eating, you know, when he left,’ Felicity tossed her head, her earrings jingled.  ‘Starved herse—’
    ‘ Mum!’  Phoebe blushed furiously.  At least Pete still saw his kids, Janine thought.  How much harder would it have been if he’d abandoned them?  She pictured Eleanor, 11 now and the same age as Phoebe was when Clive left.  Eleanor would be completely crushed by something like that.
    ‘ It’s the truth,’ Felicity said to her daughter.  ‘And your schoolwork suffered, he never thought about that, did he?’
    ‘ Mum, don’t,’ Phoebe muttered.
    This was impossible.  Janine nodded to Richard signalling with her eyes that he should concentrate on Felicity.  Janine moved around the other side of the sofa, putting herself in between mother and daughter. 
    ‘ Was it a difficult break up?’ Richard asked Felicity.
    ‘ Had he tried to see you before?’ Janine said to Phoebe. 
    But Phoebe didn’t reply, she seemed intent on listening to what her mother was telling Richard.  ‘He made such a mistake, abandoning us.  I think he knows that now.  Clive and I, a love that deep – it’s not a bond you can ever break.  If it hadn’t have been for the baby—’
    ‘ Mum!’ Phoebe said.  Janine saw she was trying to protect her mother. 
    ‘ Phoebe?’ Janine said, ‘Your dad, he’d not contacted you before?’
    The girl, shook her head rapidly.  ‘No.  Well, he came round here with Sammy a few weeks ago.  Some deranged plan that if we got to know him it’d change everything. Soo not a good idea,’ she said. 
    Something else Clive Wray had failed to mention.  Did he think they were idiots, that this wouldn’t come to light, just like his trip to see Phoebe at the stadium had done? 
    Felicity was still waxing lyrical.  ‘He’d never have left me but for that.  He wants us back.  He’s just in denial.’
    Janine saw a spasm of irritation on the girl ’s face as she swivelled round on the sofa arm and said hotly, ‘We’re second best.  He picked Claire, he picked Sammy.’ Janine knew the feeling.  Pete had picked Tina.  How much more painful if a child had been involved then?  Janine sensed the loneliness, the rejection that the girl felt.  It was all so keen at that age, so cut and dried. 
    Phoebe jumped to her feet.  ‘When Mum was ill, she,’ Phoebe hesitated, flushed, ‘she took an overdose.  I had to stay at Dad’s.  I was invisible.  My mum had nearly died but all they could think about was Sammy.  Dad didn’t want me there and she didn’t.  They just wanted to live happily ever after—’ her voice was cracking.
    ‘ It must have been hard,’ Janine said.
    Phoebe blinked back tears but didn’t say anything.
    ‘ You met Sammy?’ Richard said to Felicity.
    She stared at him, Janine could see a smirk twitching at the corners