Read Online Blood Ties by Sam Hayes - Free Book Online

Willem’s flying over for the wedding so we could all, well, meet.’
    ‘And stuff,’ Robert added, knowing that Louisa was thinking it too.
    The idea was left hanging on Robert’s promise to call back once he had spoken to Erin. He hoped his wife would go for the idea. She’d only met Louisa once before their wedding, before Louisa left the country to marry a Dutchman. True, he’d been close to Louisa, she to him, but old flame was not on the list. Besides, the trip filled a needy gap – a break in the country could be the surprise he had promised Ruby and might also sweeten the news that he had to deliver to Erin – that he had taken Ruby to Greywood College.
     
    Erin came downstairs, having showered and changed, and breezed into the kitchen like a fresh bloom. Despite her bright appearance she was shattered and made a point of regaling Robert with tales of her exhausting day at the shop. Robert handed her a glass of chilled white. The evening was muggy and airless, unusually so for early June.
    ‘And she didn’t turn up until eleven today. I told her, I bloody told her, you’re fired, young lady.’ Erin took her drink and grinned at Robert. ‘You’re wonderful,’ she said. ‘What’s all this for?’ She eyed the array of ingredients on the worktop, breathed in heavily as unusual smells permeated the kitchen.
    ‘No special occasion. I just fancied cooking.’ Robert wrapped his arms around her, drank in the perfume of her shampoo and crushed her clean body against his day-old shirt. True, he hardly ever cooked and it was a riskily flagrant attempt at getting in her good books before he broke the news. Risky also in that it might not turn out right. He’d got Tanya to search for a recipe on the internet and sent her out to buy the ingredients.
    ‘Ruby seems unusually chirpy. And thanks for letting her come back to your office after school. It makes a change from hanging about at my shop.’
    ‘No bother,’ Robert replied, staring at Erin briefly, wondering if this was the moment to tell her. He chucked a pile of chopped chicken into a searing wok and filled the kitchen with smoke.
    ‘She’s doing her homework, can you believe.’ Erin pulled away from Robert and noticed the crease on his brow. ‘Is something wrong? You don’t seem very pleased that Ruby didn’t get bullied today.’
    ‘Of course I am.’ Robert placed the spatula on the counter, turned down the gas and faced his wife. He planted heavy hands on her shoulders, thought how frail she seemed, and opened his mouth to speak. ‘There’s something—’
    ‘Dad, I need help on a project. The other girls have been doing it for weeks and Miss Draper says I should try to catch up before the end of term and—’
    ‘Your mother and I were just talking, Ruby. I’ll come upstairs and help you in a minute.’
    Ruby looked at her mother then at Robert. It dawned slowly, and her cheeks reddened. ‘Oh,’ she said and retreated from the room.
    ‘Who’s Miss Draper?’ Erin slipped out of her husband’s grip. ‘And what project does Ruby have to catch up on?’ She took a large sip of wine. ‘Rob?’
    Robert turned off the gas completely, accepting that the chicken would ruin, and pulled out a chair for Erin at the kitchen table. She sat, not taking her eyes off him, and he sat too, avoiding her gaze, focusing instead on her slim fingers fidgeting nervously.
    ‘I took Ruby to Greywood College today, Erin. There was no way she could go back to her old school.’ Finally, he looked up. He saw the thin thread of mistrust strung between them, that familiar web of doubt, sparkling tantalisingly. Only this time he was the one who had shot out the yarn.
    ‘You did what?’ Erin stood and went to lean on the sink, staring out at their small patch of garden, at the willow tree under which they’d once made love and been excited by the risk of being seen.
    ‘I know Ruby’s technically your daughter but when we married you automatically passed