Finding Grace(8)

Olivia nodded.

I knew the shop they meant. It was a small Nisa store about halfway between our two homes on Violet Road, managed by tubby Mr Jaspreet and his lovely wife Meena. Grace and I often had a wander down there if I’d run out of bread or milk, and somehow I always ended up buying her one of those ridiculously expensive comics with a free cute toy attached to it.

‘Her dad watches her there and back, she just doesn’t realise it,’ Bev told me from behind her hand. ‘We could do something similar… if you want to let her walk up.’

‘Pleease, Mum.’ Grace rubbed her sore head, sensing weakness now. ‘I’ll be fine. I’m nine now!’

‘What’s all this about walking home?’ Nadine fiddled with the gold buttons on the cuffs of her black wool coat as she gravitated towards us, her interest piqued.

‘It’s just from her friend’s house, Mum. Grace maintains she’s too old now for Lucie or me to walk back home with her.’ Blake looked at me beseechingly. ‘She reckons it’s cramping her style.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘I don’t know, Blake. I think—’

‘Nine is too young, in my opinion. Ten, perhaps,’ Nadine remarked sternly. ‘In fact, if I remember correctly, I think Liberty was at senior school before Aisha would consider it. She’s such a competent mother, handles Liberty so well when she tries to push the boundaries.’

I turned to my husband and saw that he’d noted the sparks flashing in my eyes.

‘Do you know, Blake,’ I said pleasantly, ‘I think Grace is sensible enough to make a five-minute walk on her own now.’

‘Yesss!’ Grace and Olivia high-fived together and it was smiles all round, my daughter’s headache seemingly forgotten.

Apart from Nadine, that was. My mother-in-law looked like she was chewing on a wasp.





Five





You really couldn’t blame anyone for taking her at face value. Standing there today at the party, watching her lovely daughter and playing the perfect mother and wife.

Clever enough to fool even those closest to her. She seems so plausible, so decent… and yet both she and I know that’s not the case.

We’re the only ones who know it, although she hasn’t got a clue I’m aware of who she really is.

She’s done well for herself, I’ll give her that. Ambitious, good-looking husband, two cute kids, a boy and a girl – although the baby isn’t here today, of course. She doesn’t need to work, and lives in a nice area.

I know her routine inside out.

Oh yes, she’s carved a reasonable life out of the unspeakable chaos she left behind her all those years ago.

I’ve known about her past for a long, long time. It’s been hell to get so close and keep so quiet, but I knew I had to wait. I wasn’t sure what for; I just knew there would come a time, an opportunity to set things straight, remind her of the awful truth she’s tried so hard to bury.

She nearly succeeded, too, in erasing the evidence.

I suppose, if my own life had taken a different path, if I hadn’t dug around a little, acted on my instincts, events would have blurred and eventually merged into a history that could be forgotten.

I’ve been close to confronting her so many times, but now I know there couldn’t be a better time for me to act.

It would be easy to rush, but I’ve waited too long for that. I’m going to take my time, make sure everything runs like clockwork.

Then I’ll sit back and watch her very carefully constructed life fall to pieces around her.

That moment can’t come soon enough.





Six





Lucie





Before: Sunday morning





The morning after the party, I was thoroughly spoiled. Blake insisted I stopped in bed another hour while he got up early to look after Oscar and get Grace ready for her outing.

I pulled my robe around me, turned off the lamps and popped across the landing into the bathroom. What a luxury, to actually take my time going to the loo without rushing to get back to Oscar, or being interrupted by Grace walking in.

I glanced in the mirror and wished I hadn’t before padding back across the bedroom to open the curtains. It looked like another cold day out there, but with a blue sky, just like we were lucky enough to get at the party yesterday. I loved this sort of pre-spring weather.

Before Blake was elected as a councillor, we sometimes used to wrap up on mornings like this and walk by the river after taking Grace to school. There never seemed to be the time to do that now.

A movement below the window caused me to peer down. Jeffery from next door was in his front garden, waving up at me. I nodded and raised my hand, just so he couldn’t tell Blake I’d been rude – which he had been known to do on occasion, as if I was a kid – then turned away, shuddering as I stepped back from the glass.

Not even eight o’clock yet and he was already out there, pulling up invisible weeds. I swear he did it just to keep tabs on what people were up to on the street. He must have left the party early last night, as we made sure we said goodbye to everyone there but I don’t remember seeing him hanging around outside, as he was earlier in the day.

I got back into bed and lay on my back listening to my husband and daughter banging around downstairs looking for everything she needed for her trip.