Read Online Stop the Clock by Alison Mercer - Free Book Online Page B

taken it in entirely good spirits when she’d turned him down; that week’s work experience, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and eager to please.
    Tina closed her personal organizer and forced a smile.
    ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Time to get out of here.’

4
The haunted house
    A MONTH HAD passed since Lucy had kicked Adam and Hannah out of the house, and so far she had managed to avoid telling anyone what had happened. She’d headed off potentially awkward questions from the school-gate mums, who were best placed to notice that something was up, by telling them that Adam had been seconded to another office and was away a lot. She had also said that Hannah had moved on. She had avoided mentioning Hannah and Adam in close succession; she didn’t want anyone to make a connection between their disappearances.
    She was still wearing her wedding and engagement rings. It felt too weird without them on.
    If she’d revealed even a fraction of the truth, the reaction would have been overwhelmingly sympathetic. But she wasn’t ready yet to lay herself open to others’ attempts to comfort her. It wasn’t so much that she wanted to keep up appearances, more that she wasterrified of what would become of her if she let them go.
    Everything had become unreal; it was as if she had turned into a ghost, and nobody else had noticed yet. Force of habit kept her moving, and her shadowy half-life was both less vivid and less painful than being fully alive.
    She had decided to ignore other, older friends for the time being, and had even managed not to give away anything to her mother. This was quite an achievement, given that Hannah had pitched up on Ellen’s doorstep, and Ellen plainly smelt a rat. Her father was at a safe distance in Spain, and wouldn’t expect to hear from her until Christmas.
    There were no relatives on Adam’s side of the family to worry about. Adam was an only child, and had lost his mother when he was twenty; his father had survived her long enough to hold both his grandchildren, but had passed away soon after Clemmie was born.
    She would never forget the look on Adam’s face when he first told her about his mother, and the cancer that had killed her. Was it their second date, or perhaps their third? It had certainly been the moment when she had known for sure that she was going to fall in love with him.
    It was much harder, now, for her to feel sorry for him; she could no longer trust him to let her make it up to him. She didn’t want to tell anyone, ever, what had happened between him and Hannah. However, she knew that there were two people who were owed some kind of an explanation, and who needed it sooner than later.
    Her daughters.
    And so, when Adam rang one school-day afternoon, she steeled herself to broach the subject.
    They were going to have to make it official.
    They started with a brief discussion about money. He was still paying the mortgage and household bills; she wanted instead to receive a fixed sum as maintenance each month, and have their family solicitors draw up a formal separation arrangement on her behalf. He said, ‘If that’s what you want.’
    Then he said he had to go away on a business trip over the weekend, and would it be possible for him to see the girls tomorrow evening instead?
    ‘That’s fine,’ she said, ‘a bit short notice, but still, it’s fine. They’ll look forward to it.’
    Something stopped her from adding, ‘They miss you,’ though this was unquestionably true.
    Clemmie, who had always been outspoken, had become downright stroppy – burst into loud tears at the least provocation, and kept having nightmares. Lottie had gone the other way, and was quieter and paler and more withdrawn than ever.
    Instead she said, ‘We need to talk to them.’
    ‘Oh . . .’ He swallowed. ‘Do we? What do you think we should say?’
    ‘We have to tell them you’re not coming back. As far as they’re aware, you’ve just been staying somewhere else for a while. They need to know