The Marriage Act(58)

Roxi had assumed the property in a New Northampton village of Gayton was going to be, at best, a replica of her modern, shoebox home. But this was nothing of the sort. It was an immaculately presented, original Georgian build, with two sash windows either side of a red wooden door, and three more above it. The weedless lawns were separated by a tiled path. It was a house Roxi could only dream of owning, and she was more than a little green-eyed.

It was most certainly not where she’d expected to find the home of the person trolling her on social media.

In the last week, @JustSayingBabe had targeted every single one of Roxi’s posts, from her most recent ones right back to her first. Each attack included details of Roxi’s life that she had never spoken of publicly.

But it was the troll’s accusation that Owen was having an affair that had echoed the longest and loudest. Was it true? Had Roxi’s ambition pushed her husband into someone else’s arms? Try as she might, Roxi just could not imagine her dependable, reliable, loyal Owen ever doing that. She trusted him implicitly. But there was no escaping the fact their marriage was in trouble. If starved, even the most loyal dogs will eat from another bowl.

As fast as she could delete the comments and then block the troll, the quicker they reappeared. She concluded they must be using a program to bypass her attempts to hinder it. Roxi’s obsession with this anonymous opponent was keeping her awake at night. Each time her phone alerted her to a new comment, she couldn’t relax until she knew who had posted it. At peak traffic times she was checking the device every minute. She asked herself if this was how the decline in Jem Jones’ mental health had begun. Did paying undue attention to one person spur Jem into delving deeper and taking other negative comments to heart too? If that was the case, Roxi knew she had to nip this in the bud: ignore it or take a stance and fight back. She chose the latter. And she would do it the most effective way she knew – in front of an audience.

It was unlikely the enemy knew of some of the important connections Roxi was making. She had confided about the deeply personal attacks she’d suffered to a civil servant and fervent supporter of all things Marriage Act-related as they’d waited to appear on a Radio 4 show together. By the time they’d left the station, one of the woman’s team had located her troll’s original IP address then quietly provided Roxi with the location of the property it was registered to. Now here she was, parked outside Antoinette Cooper’s house.

Roxi wanted to arm herself with all she could find out about her tormentor. But her research had yielded nothing. Cooper had no online presence. No LinkedIn employment history, no videos uploaded to TikTok or even a YouTube channel. For someone so vocal about Roxi, she had very little to say about herself. What was she hiding? After days of planning, Roxi was about to find out. Because she was going to confront Cooper on her doorstep and record every moment of it before posting it online.

Roxi had developed an instinct for the posts that would generate the most traffic and gain the attention of mainstream media. And she was convinced this one had the potential to be huge, while renewing her call for AI to be used for monitoring all social media posts.

She could imagine the TV captions already. ‘How I confronted my troll’, and ‘Britain’s Brightest Influencer fights back’. The world was going to learn Roxi was no pushover.

Another ten minutes passed before she fully readied herself. One last check that her recording equipment was charged and operational and she began to make her move. However, just before she exited her vehicle, Cooper’s front door opened. If her tormentor was about to leave, Roxi would need to confront her now. But first, she wanted to get a better look at who she was taking on.

A woman appeared and, even from a distance, she appeared much older than Roxi, by at least a couple of decades. Surely this couldn’t really be Cooper? Was it her mother? But age was no barrier to malice.

Roxi watched carefully as Cooper shifted her body slightly so that her back pressed against the door. She was not alone; she was allowing someone to pass her. Their back was to Roxi and she watched as Cooper briefly placed her hand on their arm.

Only when they turned to walk down the path did Roxi recognize Cooper’s visitor. It was her husband, Owen.





44


Jeffrey




Jeffrey was barely able to mask his satisfaction at supervisor Adrian’s news.

He placed on the ground the packages of new clothing he’d had delivered to his temporary PO Box and pushed a loosening earbud back inside his ear.

‘This kind of complaint happens all the time,’ Adrian advised. ‘Please don’t take it personally.’

‘How can I not?’ Jeffrey replied, seeking to sound more disappointed than delighted. ‘You know what it’s like when you spend so much time with a couple – you want to help them make it work. So it’s disheartening when you tell me they want to replace me as their Relationship Responder. I’m failing them.’

‘You’re not, honestly, you’re really not. This only goes to prove what good work you’re doing. They’re uncomfortable because you’re getting to the root of their problems. They’re trying to distract from facing up to their own failures by projecting them upon you.’

‘What did you tell them?’

‘That it wasn’t our policy to change Responders four weeks into a programme of assistance, as noted in their contract.’