Until Death by Ali Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

home.’
    Ryan groaned. ‘I’ve got to go to the gym, see Shelley, I’m so busy today.’
    ‘Busy!’ Ryan had never had a job, not a legal one anyway, yet he always claimed to be busier than her. Georgie saw Mo coming out of the entrance to the office. ‘I have to go, Dad, you dragged me out of a meeting. You can’t come here when I’m at work. You have to phone first.’
    ‘At least Ryan thinks of the family. Family’s important to him.’ His voice was rising, the drink setting him off again. ‘He knows when the heart’s been ripped from a family.’
    ‘Please, Ryan, take him home.’
    Mo came up to them. ‘Georgie, Angus is asking for you.’
    ‘Mo, this is my dad and my brother Ryan.’
    Georgie was acutely aware of the miasma of spirits clinging to her father. She hoped Mo was standing upwind. Mo smiled and said hello and the two Bells stared at him, her dad swaying uncertainly as the silence stretched.
    ‘OK, I’ll see you tonight, Dad.’ She turned and walked away with Mo. The silence was so painful she had to break it. ‘Sorry about that.’
    ‘Sorry about what?’
    ‘My useless fuck-up of a family. I’ve got two more brothers who are even worse.’
    Mo turned round as the Rav 4 roared off and up the ramp to the road. He smiled at her. ‘Your bro’s got a sick car.’

6
     
    I t was the middle of the afternoon, the dead time before Kelly’s evening rush dealing with kids and chores. Medea had come round to cook Greek dishes in Kelly’s kitchen, spattering flour across the floor and leaving trails of honey on the surfaces which the kids got on their sleeves. Now her mother-in-law was sealing a series of Greek dishes in clingfilm, mummifying them in layers to be freed at suppertime. Their remains sat in the fridge for days afterwards, staring up aggressively, demanding to be eaten. Normally Kelly was irritated by Medea’s thoughtless intrusion but today they had had an OK chat and had even laughed with each other. She felt emboldened. Maybe she could use Medea to get Christos to change his mind about letting her leave. She watched her mother-in-law wipe the kitchen surfaces and miss a large drop of honey, making Kelly wonder how bad her eyesight was becoming.
    ‘There’s a special bond between a mother and her only son, I can see that.’
    Medea nodded, lifting the toaster to clean underneath.
    ‘You love him very much, don’t you? You want only the best for him.’ Kelly moved closer to Medea, the two of them side by side, working in the heart of the home. ‘He deserves a life with someone else, someone who can make him happier than I can.’
    Medea didn’t turn her head.
    ‘It would be better for the children if we separated.’ Kelly grew bolder; her argument had not been rejected so far.
    Medea took the cloth she had been holding and began to fold it in half, creating smaller and smaller squares as she went. ‘It sounds to me that you’re being very selfish. You can’t just walk away when things get tough.’
    It was as if she had slapped Kelly. ‘Medea, he’s got a mistress.’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous. He’s married to you.’
    ‘He’s having an affair with Sylvie.’
    Her mother-in-law’s face contorted like she’d tasted something bad. ‘If he is, then that’s partly your responsibility. You need to think about what you’re not giving him, what he’s seeking elsewhere. To love and to serve are in your marriage vows—’
    ‘I don’t believe what I’m hearing—’
    ‘There are a lot of pressures on a powerful man. You need to support him, help him through. You need to think about the family name.’
    ‘We need to think about the happiness of our children.’
    Medea had folded the square as tightly as possible and now was unfolding it, reversing her actions. ‘Where were you living when you met Christos?’
    ‘In a flat in the Elephant and Castle.’
    ‘Did the paper peel? Could you smell the stale cigarettes from other flats, Florence looked after by