Tangled Lives (24 page)

Her mother got up. ‘I’m going to call Daniel. God, poor bugger. He innocently moves in with us – against his better judgment, I might add – and then finds himself in a proper nest of vipers.’ Marsha saw her mum shoot an angry glance at her dad.

‘Shouldn’t you call Ed too?’ her father called after her mother, but she didn’t answer.

Annie waited until she was in the safety of her bedroom, out of earshot of the others, before making the call to her elder son. Of course she would ring Ed, but he wasn’t the injured party here.

Daniel answered his phone on the second ring.

‘Welcome back,’ he said wryly.

‘Where are you?’ Annie asked.

‘Uh … I’m on the Heath.’

‘Can we meet up? Not here.’

‘Yup, OK.’ He sounded resigned rather than angry.

‘Usual place? By the Parliament Hill Fields entrance?’

She throbbed with indignation as she made the short
walk to the Heath. She knew she’d been curt with her daughters and Richard, and that what they said was perfectly reasonable, but she just couldn’t cope with the feeling that somehow Daniel had been set up.

He was sitting on the wall near the entrance, waiting for her. He looked very young suddenly and, unsurprisingly, pale and tired. He got up slowly when he saw her, and offered himself to be embraced. She hugged him fiercely against her, meeting little resistance.

‘Let’s walk,’ she said, and they set off.

‘I didn’t do it,’ was the first thing Daniel said, striding along, his hands buried in his jeans pockets.

‘I know you didn’t.’

Daniel glanced sideways at her. ‘Why are you so sure?’

‘I just am.’ She threw herself down on a patch of grass up the hill from the main path and looked steadily at her son.

‘So tell me. What happened?’

Daniel looked utterly bewildered, pushing his hair off his face in a gesture that had become very familiar to her. ‘It had been a fun party, nobody caused trouble … they were a good bunch. Marsha was tired, but there were a few stragglers – including Emma – out on the deck, so I said I’d stay and make sure everything was shut up after they left. Emma disappeared and I assumed she’d gone up to bed, but after I’d locked the doors to the garden I went to turn the lights off in the TV room, and she was on the sofa. She told Marsha she’d been asleep, but I don’t think
she was.’ He paused, tearing small clumps of dried-out grass from the dusty ground in silence. ‘When she saw me, she beckoned me over. I could see she was drunk, and I went to help her up. But she clung to me, and began stroking my face …’ he shot an embarrassed look at her, ‘then she kissed me, pressing herself against me … Annie, she was really trying it on. I don’t want to spell it out, but you can guess.’

‘And you weren’t tempted? Even a little bit?’

Daniel made a short, angry sound. ‘So you don’t
entirely
believe me.’

‘I have to ask,’ she said. She knew all too well the lethal level of attraction Emma inspired in the majority of red-blooded males. They would happily risk their marriages, their careers, their dignity to bask in a momentary glance from those dark eyes. Why should Daniel be any different?

‘I tried to pull away, but she clung to me, and in the end I had to hold her off – I probably was responsible for the bruises on her arms – and push her back onto the sofa. She was furious.’

‘Not used to rejection.’

‘Whatever … but she called me a bastard, said I was “up myself” and that Ed thought I was a jerk.’

He appeared defeated as he sat there cross-legged on the grass. How upsetting, she thought, to know that people dislike you merely for your existence.

‘He doesn’t think you’re a jerk.’

Daniel raised his eyebrows.

‘I’m not denying he’s jealous of you.’ Her heart went out to her second son. What hell he must be going through, thinking Daniel had tried to make a move on his girlfriend. He’s insecure about Emma on a good day. And none of this is his fault.

‘It doesn’t really matter what Ed thought of me before though, does it? He sure as hell hates me now.’

Annie nodded reluctantly. ‘Right at this moment, that’s probably true. But I’m sure Emma will tell the truth in the end.’

He shook his head doubtfully.

‘I can see why she did what she did now. I suppose she thought you’d tell someone – Lucy, Marsha – and she wanted to get in first and blame you. It makes sense.’

‘I thought of that, but it’s not really much consolation.’

‘I suppose not.’

‘I mean, it’s hardly in her best interests to tell the truth at this stage, is it? It’d be the end of her relationship with Ed, and probably the rest of the family.’

‘But at least I can tell the others what happened …’

‘My version … they know that already, Annie.’

‘And I think Marsha and Lucy trust you – they just thought perhaps there might be blame on both sides.’

Daniel sighed. ‘Well, fair enough. Even you had your doubts.’

She wasn’t going to deny it. She had. But her silence was obviously a beat too long for her son. He gave her a disappointed look.

‘Look, there’s something I haven’t told you. I didn’t want to tell you like this. But if it’s the only way you’ll believe me …’

Annie’s phone rang. She looked at the screen.

‘Sorry, I have to take this … Ed?’

‘Mum, where are you?’ His voice sounded dull and heavy with stress.

‘I’m on the Heath.’ She dreaded him asking if she were alone, but Daniel was getting to his feet. She gestured urgently for to him to wait, but he just shrugged and turned away. She watched helplessly as he gathered pace, almost running towards the path and the exit to the main road, then turned her attention to her other son.

‘Did you hear what he did?’ Ed demanded.

‘Marsha told me.’

‘What are you going to do, Mum?’

She sighed. ‘I don’t know what I can do, darling.’

‘But the bastard assaulted my girlfriend!’ Ed’s voice was full of rage. ‘You’re going to throw him out, aren’t you? You can’t have him in the house after what he’s done.’

‘He’s gone already. He went yesterday.’

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

‘Emms is in a terrible state, Mum. I don’t know what to do about her. She keeps crying and crying. I want to kill him for what he’s done to her. Bloody, bloody bastard.’

It was horrible hearing the anguish in his voice and not knowing what to say, how to help him. Not knowing,
either, if Emma’s tears were tears brought about by guilt, or by trauma. Nor if Ed himself really believed her.

‘Just give her time, darling. She’s bound to be upset.’

‘Have you talked to …
him
?’ He asked, spitting out the last word as if it were poisoning him.

‘Yes …’

‘And? Told you he had bugger all to do with it, no doubt.’

Annie was lost for words. One son pitted against the other.

‘He said he didn’t do it, Ed.’

There was an explosion of anger at the other end of the phone.

‘Well, he would, wouldn’t he?’ She heard a brief silence. ‘But you didn’t believe him, did you, Mum?’

‘I don’t know what to believe, darling. The whole thing’s a nightmare.’

‘Right, well … let me know when you’ve made up your mind.’ Ed’s voice was suddenly dangerously quiet, then the phone went dead.

For a long time after Ed had hung up, she just sat there on the grass. This is my fault, she thought. I was the one who went along with Daniel moving in. I should have listened to Richard – and to my own instincts. Ed wouldn’t have resented him nearly so much if he hadn’t been living in his bedroom. I wanted him near me, to get to know
him better. But I’ve handled this all wrong with my stupid naiveté. And now I may have lost them both.

It was only on her slow walk back to the house that she began to mull over what Daniel had said, just before Ed called. Something he had to tell her. Something that would make her believe his innocence. What did he mean? She tried his mobile, but it went straight to answer. ‘Please, ring me.’ She left the message on his voicemail with little hope that he would.

‘Did you talk to them?’ Richard asked, finding Annie sitting alone in the kitchen later, nursing a glass of white wine.

She nodded.

‘And?’

Annie shrugged. ‘Daniel told me what he told the girls.’

‘And Ed? What did he say?’

‘He’s angry with me.’ She shook her head. ‘It was really upsetting listening to him, Richard. He was in such a state.’

‘Poor Ed …’

Richard picked an opened bottle of red wine off the shelf by the sink and sniffed the contents. ‘Smells alright. Do you think it’s safe to drink?’

‘I wouldn’t risk it if I were you.’

He sat down opposite her, still cradling the wine bottle. ‘What are we to do now, Annie?’

‘I was being ridiculous earlier, saying Emma had plotted Daniel’s downfall. It just seemed so wrong. I’m sorry, I lost it.’

Richard’s look was almost sympathetic.

‘And Daniel?’

‘Oh, he’s gone. So …’ she glared at him, ‘a result.’

But Richard held his hand up in protest. ‘I didn’t say a thing.’

‘You didn’t have to. Please, don’t pretend you aren’t delighted he’s gone.’

‘That’s not fair.’

She shrugged. ‘Maybe not. But what happened on Saturday night was just a symptom,’ she told him. ‘We …
I
… brought him into the family too soon. This, or something like this, was bound to happen.’

She felt utterly miserable as her thoughts swung between her two compromised sons. I’m prepared to take most of the responsibility, she thought. But what’s Emma’s part in all this? For a mad moment she wanted to take that silly, spoilt girl by the neck and strangle her.

16

Annie retreated to the bakery, where she threw herself into her work: making new designs for cakes, chatting up clients, chasing advertising, telling the others the highlights of her Cornish weekend. She forced herself to put the previous days behind her, and the warmth and sweetness of her floury empire welcomed her like a womb. Here they didn’t even know that Daniel existed.

Jodie came back into the office with a fresh cup of coffee for her. ‘Good weekend?’

‘Yes, lovely. Cornwall is stunning. We had a fantastic time.’ She could hear her leaden tone of voice belied her words, but Jodie didn’t seem to notice.

‘Never been, myself. Not sure what the point of the seaside is … all that sand.’ She grinned.

‘No, well …’

She had phoned Daniel several times in the three days since he’d left, but he hadn’t answered and hadn’t returned her calls. She had spoken to Ed, but the call was just a
miserable repeat of the previous one. She’d wanted to cry, hearing the antagonism in her son’s voice.

‘Can I do the Huntingdon-Wheatley cake?’ Annie asked her office manager.

Jodie looked puzzled. ‘Do it? You okayed the design last week. Do you want to change it?’

‘No, I mean make the cake itself … actually physically make it. I used to do all of them.’

Her manager raised her eyebrows. ‘Of course you can.’ Annie saw her glance out through the glass to where Carol was lining up the ingredients. ‘She looks as if she’s just about to get going on it.’

Jodie thinks I’ve lost my mind, and perhaps I have, she thought. But she had an overpowering need to indulge in the physical act of measuring, mixing, smoothing, baking. It was why she had started Delancey Bakes, and right now it was the only thing that made sense to her.

Carol moved aside with a cheerful smile. ‘Think you can still work the magic?’

Annie laughed. ‘Bloody nerve. ’Course I can.’

She fetched a white coat from the cupboard, pushed her hair into the cotton peaked hygiene hat and gave her hands a good scrub. She felt better already.

For the next half an hour Annie was absorbed in creating the birthday cake. Carol had pushed the order, in its see-through plastic folder, along the counter to her boss. Specification: rich chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream
filling, chocolate fondant icing, three layers, eight-inch, square.

She diced the soft, slippery butter into the metal mixing bowl, poured on the caster sugar, lowered the beaters onto the ingredients and stared as the mixture became pale yellow and fluffy. In went small quantities of beaten egg as she watched like a hawk for signs of separation. Then the chocolate pieces, melted in a glass bowl over steam. Then the soft light puffs of flour carefully folded in. She smoothed the chocolate cream into the waiting greased and lined tins and took them on a tray to the oven. She looked across the room and saw Carol sipping tea, covertly watching her preparations.

‘Not so bad,’ Carol called out, grinning.

‘We’ll see.’

Annie had been in the zone during the making of the cake. But now it was in the oven, she felt as if she were coming down off a high. She set the timer and went back to the office. Jodie looked at her questioningly.

‘It’s good to stay in touch,’ Annie said quietly.

Jodie nodded. ‘Funny, I’ve worked here for nearly six years now, and I’ve never made a cake in my life.’

‘You should try it some time. It’s very therapeutic.’

Jodie laughed. ‘You in need of a bit of therapy today, then?’

It wasn’t a serious remark, but it hit a chord. Suddenly, to her horror and to her office manager’s clear embarrassment, Annie burst into tears.

The whole story came out. Jodie, who usually kept a professional distance between herself and her boss, was obviously unnerved, but listened sympathetically to Annie’s tale. At one point Kadir came to the office door, but the manager shooed him away.

‘I’ve made such a mess of it.’

‘Don’t beat yourself up. It’s families. They’re all like that. I’m not being funny, but you may have got off lightly so far. Believe me, my lot are constantly at each other’s throats. That’s why I never see them unless I have to.’

‘But I don’t want it to be like that,’ she said.

Jodie shrugged. ‘Nobody does. And I’m sure you can paper over the cracks if you really want to.’ She laughed. ‘I just don’t want to. I’m not sure I even like my family much. They might be blood, but they’re a pretty sad bunch … except for my mum.’