She turned her attentions to her computer and bashed out an email to her ex-husband, demanding to know how far this thing had gone, what progress had been made.
Sam could feel the walls closing in around her; she felt as though her relationship with Audrey was hanging on by a gossamer thread and it wouldn’t take much to sever the attachment.
Out of character for Simon, he replied to her email pretty much straight away. Was it night time there, evening, morning? Sam didn’t care – all she wanted was answers. ‘She seems pretty insistent,’ he told her in his message. ‘She’s looking into visas and wants me to somehow get her over here.’ Audrey had always worshipped her dad and now Sam had the proof jeering at her from those books and the email from Simon.
Until now Sam had held onto the hope that she was overreacting, but this was real. It was no overnight dream – Audrey had been mulling this over for a long while.
For the next two days Sam’s determination overtook anything else. The completion date for the sale was threateningly close and so with Jilly’s help, they packed up Sam’s entire house between them. Her furniture and most of her belongings went to a storage facility, keeping back the bare essentials, they cleaned the place top to bottom ready for the new owners. Sam hadn’t heard anything about her latest job applications and right now she couldn’t care less because there were more important things in life. And with nowhere suitable to rent around here, it made sense to Sam to try to save her family in whatever way she could. Which meant there was only one option left now.
Sam barely glanced at the house when she reversed off the driveway after a tearful farewell with Jilly, she was too focused on the next step. She had to do this for Audrey, but her mother was part of the equation too. She’d ignored their estrangement for too long as it was, burying her head in the sand, hoping it would all go away if she kept calm and carried on. She only hoped this choice now would be the right one for all of them.
The drive went smoothly as though the traffic had cleared a path for Sam, and when she pulled up outside number nine Mapleberry Lane, she sat for a moment. It was the same when she’d brought Audrey here. She needed time to settle her mind, to remember that this wasn’t her a return to her teenage years, this was different. She had to do this. She was an adult, in control, and it was time for her to step up.
She pulled two suitcases from the boot, passed through the little gate at the front, not a blade of the immaculate lawn daring to blow in the light summer breeze as she made her way up to the front door.
Sam hadn’t slept under this roof in almost two decades, she barely managed a civil conversation with her own mother, let alone came to stay. But all of that had to change if she wanted to put a stop to history repeating itself. And so now, three generations under one roof was the way it would have to be. She hadn’t forewarned her mum of her arrival either; she hadn’t wanted her or Audrey to argue a case against it because now she was here, they all had no choice but to go through with it. She was moving in.
Sam raised a hand to knock but she might have known her arrival had already been witnessed by the slight tilt of the shutters in the sitting-room window, the immediate sound of the door being unlocked the other side.
She was here. This was real. And there was no going back.
Not if she wanted to put her family back together again.
Will Sam’s arrival bring the three generations of women together? Or will there be fireworks in Mapleberry…?
Continue the story in Part Two, An Autumn Promise, available to pre-order now:
About the Author
Helen Rolfe writes contemporary women’s fiction and enjoys weaving stories about family, friendship, secrets, and community. Characters often face challenges and must fight to overcome them, but above all, Helen’s stories always have a happy ending.
To learn more about Helen and her writing, find her at:
www.helenjrolfe.com
Facebook: @helenjrolfewriter
Twitter: @HJRolfe
Instagram: @helen_j_rolfe
Copyright
AN ORION EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Orion Books
Copyright © Helen Rolfe 2020
The right of Helen Rolfe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 3987 0026 0
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DZ
An Hachette UK company
www.orionbooks.co.uk
