group had made light of his run of bad luck. When the losses had mounted up to a worrying degree, Alex had confided in them that he needed time to pay back what he owed them. It was at this point that the genial group had stopped being genial and begun to threaten him. Terrified by the change in them, realising he was in way over his head, Alex had done the only thing possible and concentrated all his energies on winning back all the money he’d lost. Since his bank manager wouldn’t have appreciated this as a sensible business plan, he’d borrowed the money from the friend who’d introduced him to the poker group in the first place.
A week later he’d lost it all.
He borrowed an emergency sum from a money-lender, tried again.
Lost that too.
Meanwhile his family was oblivious. When Lola’s mum asked him if he was all right, he explained that he was just tired and she told him he shouldn’t be working so hard. The following night, as he was leaving the garage where he worked as a mechanic, he was stopped by two heavies in a van who explained in graphic detail what they would do to him if he didn’t repay every penny he owed by this time next week.
This time next week was now tomorrow and desperate times called for desperate measures. Sick with shame and in fear for his life — the heavies had been phoning him regularly, reminding him that the countdown was on — Alex had decided to disappear. It was the only answer; he couldn’t admit to Blythe what he’d done, the hideous mess he’d made of his life. She and Lola meant everything in the world to him and he couldn’t bear it any longer. If Lola had arrived home half an hour later he would have been gone for good.
‘I wish you had,’ he said heavily. ‘You told us you were going shopping in Oxford Street this afternoon. I thought I was safe here.’
Shopping in Oxford Street. She’d completely forgotten about that after Dougie’s mother had dropped her bombshell.
Lola, her face wet with tears, said, ‘But I didn’t, and now I know’
‘I still have to go. I can’t face your mother. I’d be better off dead,’ said Alex in desperation. ‘But I’d rather do it my way than stay to find out what those bastards have in store for me .. . oh God, I can’t believe this is happening, how could I have been so stupid ...’
Hugging him tightly, Lola already knew she had no choice. Her biological father, an American boy, had done a bunk the moment he’d found out that Blythe was pregnant. But it hadn’t mattered because Alex had come along two years later. He loved Lola as if she were his own daughter. He had made her boiled eggs with toast soldiers, he’d taught her to ride a bike, together they had made up silly songs and driven her mother mad, singing them over and over again; she had run to him when she’d been stung by a wasp, he had driven her all the way to Birmingham to see a boy band who were playing at the NEC. His love for her was absolutely unconditional .. .
‘I can help you,’ said Lola. ‘You don’t have to leave.’
‘Trust me, I do.’
Dry-eyed – this was too important for tears - she said, ‘I can get the money for you.’
‘Sweetheart, you can’t. It’s fifteen thousand pounds.’
Her stomach in knots, Lola didn’t allow herself to think of the repercussions. ‘I can get you most of it.’
And when Alex shook his head in disbelief she told him how.
When she’d finished he shook his head with even more vehemence. ‘No, no, I can’t let you do that. No way in the world, absolutely not.’
But what was the alternative? For him to disappear from their lives? For her to lose the only father she had ever known? For her mother’s world to be shattered?
‘Listen to me.’ Although her own heart felt as if it were breaking in two, Lola played her trump card. ‘Mum would never need to know’
’Lola. How nice to see you again.’ Adele Tennant opened her front door and stepped to one side.
‘Come on in.’
Following her across the echoing, high-ceilinged hall, Lolafelt sick and dizzy but grimly determined. Mustn’t, mustn’t pass out. She’d barely slept last night, hadn’t been able to eat anything either.
‘I’m glad you’ve seen sense.’ Adele sat down at the desk in her study and reached for her chequebook. Next to her, morning sunlight bounced off the glass on a silver photo frame.
Shifting position to avoid the glare, Lola saw that it was a photograph of Adele and her children, Dougie on the left and Sally on the right. The photo had been taken a couple of years ago while they were on holiday somewhere unbelievably exotic, with palm trees and an ocean the colour of lapis lazuli, because Adele Tennant didn’t take her holidays in Margate. Dougie, tanned and grinning in a white shirt, was looking carefree and heartbreakingly gorgeous. Sally, the older sister Lola had never met, was blonde and pretty in a flamingo-pink sarong. Now twenty- six and engaged to an Irish landowner, she was living with him in the Wicklow Mountains outside Dublin. Dougie adored his sister and Lola had been looking forward to getting to know her.
Her throat tightened. That wouldn’t be happening now ‘You won’t regret this.’ Adele crisply uncapped a fat black fountain pen and hovered the glinting nib above the cheque. The old witch couldn’t wait.
‘Hang on a minute.’ Lola briefly closed her eyes, wondering if she could do this.Yes, she could.
‘Ten thousand isn’t enough.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘It isn’t enough.’ She had to say it. ‘I need fifteen. Then I’ll leave Dougie alone. I’ll never see him again.’
‘The cheek of you!’
Lola’s mouth was bone-dry. ‘Otherwise I’ll move up to Edinburgh.’
Adele shot her a look of utter loathing. Frankly, Lola didn’t blame her one bit.
‘You are beyond the pale.’
