The Half Sister(43)

‘I’m good, I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions actually.’

‘Okay, fire away!’

‘I’d rather do it in person,’ asks Jess. ‘Are you at home? Would it be okay if I popped over? I only need ten minutes.’

‘Alas, I’m driving around the streets of South London,’ says Lauren.

‘Oh,’ says Jess. ‘I was hoping to have a chat.’

‘Where are you?’ asks Lauren.

‘At home.’

‘Didn’t you say you live in Hackney?’ says Lauren, suddenly feeling as though she has a renewed sense of purpose.

‘Well, yes, but . . .’

‘I can come to you,’ says Lauren, grateful for some direction. ‘I can be there in twenty minutes.’

‘But—’ starts Jess.

‘What’s your address?’

Jess gives it to her, albeit begrudgingly, and when Lauren pulls up outside a derelict row of shops a little while later, she has half a clue as to why. The windows are either broken or so dirty that you can’t see into what were probably once prosperous businesses. The only clue to what used to be there are the half fascias that hang precariously above the shopfronts: Hair by —; Shi—Kebab; Tatto—.

Double decker buses roar past Lauren as she gets out of the car, pinning herself to the bodywork in an effort to be avoided. She moves around to the pavement side to get Jude out, who she suspects finally fell asleep looking at the lights as they rushed overhead hypnotically in the Blackwall Tunnel.

The doorway for number 193 is beside the only open shop in the parade – a Chinese takeaway with yellowing net curtains and cooing pigeons nesting above its entrance. Lauren sidesteps the defecation peppering the paving slabs and presses the buzzer.

She can hear footsteps making their way downstairs and prepares her best, Well, isn’t this lovely? face, but Jess beats her to it.

‘Sorry,’ she says, as she forces the door over the newspapers and flyers that litter the hall floor. ‘It’s only temporary, until I get myself sorted out.’

Lauren forces a smile as she steps inside, suddenly grateful for her tiny but clean house.

‘So, how’s things?’ asks Lauren, as they bypass doors marked A and B and head up the stairs.

‘Well, I’ve got myself a job, which will get me out of this place in the next few months.’

‘Ah, that’s great,’ says Lauren, already panicking about putting Jude’s car seat down when they get into the flat.

‘This is me,’ says Jess as she pushes on a door marked C and holds it open for Lauren.

Once inside, Lauren’s relieved to see that despite its outward appearance, Jess’s flat is actually very orderly and spotlessly clean.

‘What can I get you?’ says Jess. ‘Tea? Coffee?’

‘Erm, coffee would be good please.’

Jess clicks the kettle on and takes two mugs out of the cupboard.

‘So, how’s the job going?’ asks Lauren. ‘Are you enjoying it?’

‘I love it,’ says Jess, smiling.

‘Is it in town?’

‘Canary Wharf,’ says Jess. ‘So not too far.’

‘Kate and her husband work there,’ says Lauren, though she doesn’t know why. It’s not as if Kate’s exactly flavour of the month for either of them right now.

‘Actually, it’s her I wanted to talk to you about,’ says Jess.

‘Oh?’

‘Yeah, I just wondered if there was any way you might be able to get us together.’

Lauren grimaces before she’s even finished the end of the sentence. She’s already been summoned to a meeting with Kate and their mother, which will be bad enough. There’s absolutely no chance of getting Kate and Jess together.

‘I just really want us to all get along,’ says Jess. ‘You’ve been so kind, and I just know that if Kate would just give me time, get to know and trust me, then I’m sure we could be the sisters we were meant to be, if circumstances hadn’t dictated otherwise.’

Lauren looks down at the floor and takes a deep breath. ‘It’s not your fault that Kate’s taken this the way she has,’ she says. ‘She’s a tricky character, who’s always been daddy’s little princess, so to find out that the man she looked up to wasn’t the man she thought he was has been hard for her to accept.’

‘Does she believe it?’ asks Jess.

‘No, I don’t think she does,’ says Lauren. ‘Not yet, but she’ll come around.’

‘How? What can I do to make her see that I’m not here to cause trouble? That I want us all to get along.’

Lauren shakes her head. ‘I don’t know, but I’ll work on it. It’s important to me that you’re a part of my family and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you’re accepted.’

‘After everything I’ve been through, I just want to feel like I belong,’ says Jess tearfully.

‘I know,’ says Lauren, going to her and pulling her in for a hug. ‘You don’t deserve this.’

‘Why are you being so kind?’ sniffs Jess. ‘Why aren’t you as angry or mistrusting of me as Kate is?’

‘Because I know what my father was capable of and I’ve spent many, many years being angry with him. I would have gone on hating him until my dying day if you hadn’t turned up. You saved me from that – you’ve showed me that some good came from the mistakes he made back then.’