‘Tell her you won’t be talking to her for a while and hang up,’ I said curtly.
Chloe ignored me and continued to talk.
‘Now.’
She stared at me, then rolled her eyes. ‘Chanel? Gotta go. Yeah, talk later.’
That was what she thought.
‘Chloe, what were you thinking? When did I ever teach you that theft was acceptable? We don’t steal in this family.’
She folded her arms and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. ‘Yeah, whatever.’
‘Do you realise what you’ve done? You’ve hurt yourself, gone somewhere you never should have. Because now you can never undo it. And if Northwood finds out, they’ll kick you out! And by association, even Ben!’
‘Oh my God, chill!’ she yelled, bouncing onto her side away from me.
But I wasn’t letting her off that easily. ‘Do you think I work this hard just so I can have my only daughter shoplifting? You’d better be grateful Alf is like a father to us.’
‘Oh my God, Mum! They’re not family, these people! They’re just a bunch of old weirdos who need Zimmer frames to get around and wouldn’t be able to survive in the real world.’
‘Chloe! How dare you speak of them like that. They love you to bits and we owe them more than you’ll ever know.’
‘Yeah, yeah, the fire and the blankets and the gifts, blah, blah, blah.’
‘And for your information, Chloe, this is the real world. Not the glossy paper dolls you see in your magazines, but an authentic world where people work and suffer and come together to help others. Not that you’d be familiar with the concept. I’m so disappointed in you right now, Chloe.’
‘You’re disappointed? What about me? What about that so-called family you promised us when you brought us into this shitty world? And this house? I hate this dump!’ she yelled, pushing the hair back from her face. ‘You go on and on talking about what a wonderful village this is and how you love everybody, but does anyone give us money?’
I bristled. ‘We don’t need anyone’s money, Chloe. A hand babysitting the two of you from time to time, which I regularly repay in kind, yes. But we couldn’t accept anything more than friendship. Not from these people who have shown us nothing but kindness.’
She threw her hands into the air. ‘Babysitting! You see? I’m thirteen!’
‘Yes, but you’re acting like you’re three.’
‘And you’re acting like an idiot. You say we don’t need any more money, but you always say no to everything I want!’
I took a deep breath. When she went off on these tangents, hollering never did the job.
‘Chloe, if you’re referring to the school trip to France, I said I was working on it.’ Literally. ‘But now, because of what you did, you have proven to me that I can’t trust you to walk around in your own village, let alone another country.’
‘Yada, yada, yada,’ she muttered to the wall. ‘I’m going to stay with Dad! At least, he lives in Truro and gives me everything I want!’
I kept my cool. ‘Maybe he does. But he doesn’t give you what you need, and there is a very big difference. What you did today was very serious, and I’m going to treat you consequentially.’ There. If nothing, she’d learn a new word.
‘Oh, my God, Mum! It was just a bloody lipstick, not a car! You need to get off my case! All you do is nag, nag, nag, just like Dad says. I wish he’d never married you!’
I opened and closed my mouth. Did my children actually think he was the better parent, and the breadwinner? That he gave me money to support them? They were much too young to know the truth about what he’d done to us. But now, I see it had been counterproductive. But could I lay that on my daughter’s – and my son’s – shoulders? Tell them how he had robbed us blind, and abandoned us in a caravan?
‘We’re done here, Chloe. You are grounded for a month. No internet. No magazines. And no phone. If you want to talk to Chanel, you can do that at school. From now on, you march to my tune. End of.’
‘You can’t do that!’ she protested. ‘You haven’t got the balls!’
I took her phone and her magazines and marched towards the door. ‘Watch me,’ I said, closing her door behind me, switching off the Wi-Fi on my way out.
My own phone bleeped with an SMS from Jack:
Keep your cool as always. You’ve got this. Jack xxx
5
It Could Happen To You
The next morning Chloe was ready in ten minutes, a record for any teenager, let alone her. Still, she came down at the last moment, her face red from anger, but I refused to feel sorry for her. It was time she bulked up on reality and manners.
There was a heavy silence in the car except for its usual coughing and spitting, but we made it all the way to the school gates where Ben leaned over to give me a silent kiss and Chloe slammed the door shut, but not too hard so as not to create a scene. After all, she still cared about her reputation here.
Personally, I didn’t care what the Northwood parents said, because in my home, a good bollocking every now and then was mandatory.
Back at the house, I sat at my War Desk and whipped out my financial ledger to see how deep in the shit I really was.
Mortgage. Car tax. Car insurance. Council tax. School dinners for both Chloe and Ben. A ghastly total, even before I clothed them and put food on the table. Forget about me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d bought anything for myself.
So, with Minnie lying on my feet, I dusted off my ancient Great Ideas notebook and pulled out my coloured pens in the hope of coming up with a new plot for another book.
I turned to my window facing the garden for
