Impossible to Forget(103)

‘And . . .’

Tiger made a face that said, what else do you want me to say? ‘He seemed all right. A nice enough bloke. I mean, I literally met him once.’

‘Is Daniel . . . Hope’s Daniel,’ she clarified, ‘is he my dad?’

Tiger paused, ran his tongue over his teeth whilst he decided what to say.

‘Yes. I think so.’

‘You think so?!’ said Romany, her voice suddenly louder and bordering on a shout.

Tiger ran a hand over his chin, apparently considering his next answer, and Romany felt a hot ball of fury building in her chest as she watched him decide what to tell her.

‘Yes, then,’ he said. ‘He is. I thought I recognised him in the restaurant on Christmas Day, but I couldn’t place him. He didn’t seem to know me, and obviously he didn’t say anything so . . . But I’ve thought about it since then and, yeah, I think he is.’

‘And you were going to tell me when, exactly?’

He let out a sigh and looked at her forlornly. ‘Oh come on, Romey. Don’t shoot the messenger, mate? What was I supposed to do? I thought it was him, but I didn’t know for sure. And you never seemed to want to know anything about him, so I just kept schtum.’

‘And what about Maggie and Leon? Do they know too?’ asked Romany accusingly.

Tiger shrugged. ‘I mentioned it to Mags, yes. But she never met your dad. I only did by accident. So, we decided to wait and see how things played out. I mean, what with your exams and everything, it seemed like the right thing to do. Sorry if we screwed up.’

He looked genuinely upset and Romany felt her anger lift a little.

‘What’s happened, anyway?’ he continued. ‘Has Hope said something?’

‘Not Hope,’ Romany replied, her voice breaking as she tried to hold back her sobs. ‘Daniel. He gave me a lift back and we got chatting and he said that he’d known Mum when they were young and then he said that he’d moved to York to be near her and me. And I just kind of put two and two together, and then I ran away.’ Her words all ran into one another in her rush to tell the tale, and then emotion got the better of her and she began to cry.

Tiger put his arm around her and held her tightly. ‘Oh Romes, don’t. I can’t stand to see you sad. But just so I’m clear. He didn’t actually tell you he was your dad. In so many words, I mean?’

Romany shook her head into his shoulder, her voice muffled by his shirt. ‘Well, no,’ she agreed. ‘Not in so many words. But it all fits, doesn’t it?’

‘Yeah,’ replied Tiger. ‘That’s what I thought anyway.’

There was a pause whilst she tried to control her tears and Tiger continued to hold her. Then he said, ‘Do you think you should talk to him? Get it all out in the open.’

Romany considered. Running off hadn’t been the most mature response, she conceded, but she’d been taken off guard. It wasn’t the kind of situation you had a plan for. But Tiger was right. It did need sorting out and now was as good a time as ever.

‘Do you think he’s still out there?’ she asked.

‘Only one way to find out,’ he said. ‘Let me go and see?’

Romany gave a single nod.

‘And if he is, shall I bring him in?’

‘Okay,’ she said, a tiny tremor cracking the word in two.

She stepped aside so that Tiger could get past her and open the door. He flicked the latch and peered out into the street. Then he went as far as the gate, but in a couple of seconds he was back.

‘I think he’s gone,’ he said.





54


It was a long time since Maggie had been nervous, properly gut-wrenchingly nervous, but she was now. It was only an interview, she told herself. She had been in hundreds before, although, to be fair, she had generally been the interviewer and not the interviewee. And it wasn’t that important. Yes, this would be a great job to get, but there would be others. Now that she had started to look, positions that might suit her seemed to be popping up all over the place. What distinguished this one was that it would be the first. This was the benchmark by which she would measure everything that came next, all the things that were currently unknown. How would she perform under pressure? How would her career gap be taken? Was her legal knowledge still up to date? What would she be like as a team member rather than a team leader? Was Maggie Summers still relevant to the legal world at all?

She thought she had answers for some of these questions, but not all of them. She would only know where she stood after she had the first interview under her belt and was able to test their response to her. And that was about to be now.

Her phone buzzed and she snatched it up. It was a good luck text from Leon. That was sweet of him, she thought, but she was too anxious to reply just now. She turned her phone on to Do Not Disturb and dropped it back into her bag. Then she stood up, took a deep breath and set off for the interview.



Two hours later she was standing on the pavement outside the offices of what she hoped would be her new employer. It had gone well, she thought. She was fairly sure she had come across as measured and unflappable, with high levels of personal responsibility and integrity, a strong work ethic and a clear sense of team spirit. She had, in fact, just been herself. And they had liked her, she hoped at least. They seemed to respond well to her honesty when they asked her about why she had left Brownlows and what she had been doing since and, of course, her CV was impressive, her list of former clients and transactions substantial. They would let her know later, they had said. So now all she had to do was wait.