Read Online Married by Christmas by Scarlett Bailey - Free Book Online

But Anna is a grown woman, in a very grown-up relationship, and this really, as dreadful as it is, is between her and Tom. This is, after all, their life we are talking about, not yours.’
    Liv said nothing for a moment, surprised that her mother was not only making sense, but actually being perceptive. Of course this wasn’t up to her; of course she wasn’t going to be able to fix it – the real question was why she thought she could? She’d been so wrapped up in Anna and Tom for the last year, so involved in their romance that perhaps she’d started to feel a little bit like it was hers, wished it was even. But it wasn’t, far from it. Tom wasn’t hers, and never would be, and, at the end of the day when all was said and done, neither was Anna.
    ‘Christ, I seriously need to get a life,’ Liv said, with mild horror.
    ‘I have been saying that for a while, darling, and also laid. I can’t help thinking you’d have a much more laid-back personality if you had more sex,’ Angela reminded her gently. ‘Now, Mrs Henderson who runs our Rock Choir, she’s got ever such a lovely son, he’s got a bit of a wonky eye, but if you squint he looks just like Hugh Grant …’
    ‘Bye, Mum,’ Liv said hastily before Angela resumed her normal service of unremitting psychological torture reserved only for her natural-born daughter. ‘Thanks, and love you!’
    Liv started as she hung up and found Anna in the doorway, staring at her like an apparition, her complexion matching her trademark pale clothes, the stark hall lighting casting strange shadows on her face.
    ‘I know what I’m going to do,’ Anna said perfectly calmly. ‘It’s fine. It’s simple really. I’ll go to America, find Charisma and get her to sign the papers, and then the marriage can be dissolved and I can still get married on Christmas Eve.’
    Liv opened her mouth, and then closed it again, for the first time in her life truly speechless.
    ‘It’s simple,’ Anna continued, her colour gradually returning with her strength of purpose. ‘I’ve had a look, I can get on the ten o’clock out of Heathrow, but I’ll have to leave soon. Will you come with me in the cab, I’ll pay, I just don’t want to go on my own.’
    ‘Um, but, the thing is … what about Tom? Have you talked to Tom?’ Liv asked her. ‘Told him what you are doing? Surely this is something you need to discuss with him? Shouldn’t he be sorting out his own mess?’
    Right on cue the doorbell went, and Anna and Liv stared at each other. They didn’t even have to look at the figure that loomed behind the stained glass window to know that it was Tom.
    ‘I’m not talking to him,’ Anna said, holding the palm of her hand up against the door, as if she could keep it closed with sheer force of will. ‘He’s not coming in!’
    ‘Anna, you have to talk to him!’ Liv was confused and exasperated. ‘You’re planning to fly halfway round the world because you want to marry him, why on earth wouldn’t you talk to him?’
    ‘Because … even though I still love him, if I look at his stupid stripper-marrying face right now I might kill him, and then I’ll go to prison and the dress will definitely go to waste, and the reindeer keeper won’t get his Christmas bonus and he’s using it to buy his son a PlayStation, that’s why. I’m thinking of the reindeer keeper’s son.’
    ‘You
have
to talk to him before you go through with this hare-brained plan of yours, you have to,’ Liv exclaimed. ‘At least give
him
a chance to fix things and take control.’
    Anna chewed hard on her lip, as the debate between logic and irrational reactions raged in her head.
    ‘But what if I do accidentally kill him?’ she mumbled eventually, glaring at the door.
    ‘I’ll help you dissolve his body in the bath in acid. We’ll find any old person to marry you, you’ll get the dress, the reindeer, the kid will get his games console, you’ll have the party followed by a quickie