The Business by Martina Cole Read Free Book Online Page B

swearing and her mother’s pathetic attempts at placating him. Anyone would think she was the only girl in the world to get in the club.
    Imelda slipped out of the bed and, standing by her bedroom window, she saw that most of the neighbours were in their back gardens, listening to the furore that was now a common occurrence in the Dooley household.
    She knew that most of the women had guessed the cause of Gerald Dooley’s sudden lunacy, and she knew it would not be long before everyone knew.
    Imelda wondered if Jason’s mother had given him the message that she had left with her. Jason knew better than to call her at home, but he could still leave a message with her friend Belinda. In fact, she was actually wondering if Belinda was keeping his message from her. In her more paranoid moments, when she wasn’t envisaging Jason under a car, or a bus, she actually wondered if he was just ignoring her. But that couldn’t be. He had to know what deep shit she was in. Even though Imelda didn’t know what she expected him to do, she wanted him to at least acknowledge her in some way. Even if it was only with a message through Belinda. But she knew in her heart that Belinda had seen him, she knew that she had, and if he hadn’t anything to say by now, he wasn’t going to say anything at all.
    Imelda finally had to admit that she was on her own, that there was no way out. She was trapped in this nightmare for the duration. Trapped with a child that it seemed no one wanted, least of all her. Her mother was more frightened of the priest than she was of her own husband, and after his carry-on that was a serious fear, because her father was terrifying everyone at the moment.
    She glanced around her bedroom. A few months ago this had been like a haven to her, had been where she came sleep off her excesses. Where her mother brought her cups of tea and bacon rolls, and where her father came to kiss her goodnight, or bung her a few quid. It had been a friendly place, somewhere she had felt safe, had felt loved. Now though, it was a hostile environment, it was suddenly full of dark corners and drab furniture. It was the last place she wanted to be on this earth, but she had nowhere else to go. Had no other option open to her. Imelda had hoped in her heart that Jason might have been moved to offer her somewhere to go. Even though she knew that was ridiculous, it was amazing what the human mind latched on to in times of extreme crisis. That a baby, an innocent child, could have caused all this grief was unbelievable. But she knew it wasn’t the child that her father was focusing on, it was the way the child had got there.
    She could hear her mother’s voice once more, still trying to calm her husband down, trying to quieten him so the neighbours didn’t get another earful of his ranting and raving. She could almost feel the spit that she knew he was spraying over anyone within a two-foot radius.
    The fear was back again, like a big, black cancer eating away at her. She knew that Jason had abandoned her. All her usual bravado, her loud-mouthed persona that her family’s name had always allowed her to get away with, had deserted her.
    Even her brothers had no real time for her any more, they just wanted some kind of closure, an end to it all. They saw her as the catalyst for their father’s destruction, and she was, she knew she was.
    Until now Imelda had not understood just how much she had lost. School had been a breeze thanks to her mother, and her brothers. When she’d been chucked out, her mother had sorted things for her. In fact, until now her whole life had been pretty much as she wanted it. Her father’s reaction, his extreme reaction to her latest escapade had thrown her completely. She would have lain money that she could have got away with murder where her father was concerned, and she had a feeling that had she committed a murder it would not have had this much of an effect.
    Her father would have moved heaven and earth to