The Family Friend, C. MacDonald [ereader for android TXT] 📗

a mother. I have nothing else. Nothing!’ Fabian’s staring down and Erin realises she’s grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. His eyes are wide with shock. She withdraws her hand and places it on Bobby’s head as if that will excuse the indiscretion. Fabian steps back and points at a sign behind him that says ‘Any abuse of our staff will not be tolerated’. Erin’s winces in indignation and is about to tell Fabian to man the fuck up when someone grasps her upper arm firmly.

‘I think you need a coffee, Erin.’ Lorna’s there, without her mothership buggy. She must have been in the queue behind her. ‘Hi, Fabian, how you doing?’

‘Er, yeh.’ Fabian comes back towards them, his hackles drop. ‘Fine, fine, Lorn, how’re the kids getting on?’

‘Much better than poor Bobby. He doesn’t sleep a wink, does he, Erin?’ Lorna gives her a nod, she’s prompting her to use it as an excuse.

‘No, no. Lorna’s right. Think I need a coffee. Sorry. Sorry about –’

‘Give my love to your mum, Fabian,’ Lorna interjects, putting an arm around Erin, levering the broken sliding doors open, and shepherding her out into the street.

‘What a mess!’ Lorna says, picking out a hunk of melon from her fruit pot. Erin leans on the arm of a sofa in the coffee shop opposite the bank. Lorna marched her in here, bought her a cappuccino, and asked her if she wanted to talk about it. And even though most of it was said in a stage whisper in order not to wake Bobby, it seems that Erin did want to talk. She told Lorna everything and, contrary to her reputation, she doesn’t seem to have enjoyed hearing about what Erin thinks has been happening to her. And, like brainstorming a character’s motivations with a director, it feels like going through everything that’s happened since Amanda’s arrived has helped clarify everything for her, if not for Lorna. It makes so much sense, Amanda’s plan. Become a fixture at their home, gain their trust; when she saw that Erin wasn’t making as much money as she expected, she then actively facilitated her going out to work. She was always ushering her out the door, telling her not to worry. Then trolling her so she was distracted, so she wouldn’t think to check why she hadn’t been paid yet. But now she’s not on Instagram any more. Amanda must know that the money will dry up, Erin thinks. Has she gone already? Did she see Amanda last night? Has she seen her this morning?

‘So you haven’t got any money of your own?’

‘What?’ Lorna’s question snaps Erin out of her train of thought.

‘No savings, no credit cards? Nothing in your account?’

‘I’ve spent my month’s allowance.’

‘Allowance?’

‘I didn’t have a job before having Bobby so I haven’t had maternity pay. Raf pays into my account every month.’

‘How much?’

‘Sorry?’

‘How much does he give you?’ Lorna bites a grape in half. It seems that unburdening everything to Lorna, taking away any chance for her speculative mind to speculate, has changed their relationship and it now feels like she’s talking to a mortgage adviser.

‘Er, a hundred and fifty a month.’

‘That’s not much.

‘It’s normally plenty. We’ve got a joint account as well. It must be all the trains I’ve had to take.’

‘So you don’t –’ Lorna stops herself. Closes her eyes, does a little shudder of her head. ‘No, don’t worry.’

‘What?’

‘Well, are you sure it’s Amanda that’s stole from you?’ Erin stands up from the sofa.

‘Who else could it be?’

‘When we first met, that bloody awful walk on the beach when I was knackered and snippy and being a total bitch about everyone, you told me you’d been in loads of debt when you met Raf and he helped you out with it.’

‘I wouldn’t have told you that,’ Erin says. Lorna shrugs as if to say, then how did I know about it?

‘I just know that some men feel threatened if their partner suddenly starts earning lots of money.’

‘You think it’s Raf?’ Erin says, almost laughing, incredulous. What the hell was she thinking telling Lorna all of her problems, unburdening herself to the biggest gossip she knows? Of course she has a theory. There’s nothing she doesn’t have some wild theory about. Erin gathers her handbag up from the sofa.

‘I thought I’d got it wrong about you,’ she says, ‘but you can’t help yourself, can you? It was the same when you saw Amanda and Raf walking together, you were desperate to reveal some sordid affair. But it’s not there. Raf has never done anything to hurt me. He dedicates everything, absolutely everything to me.’

‘Erin –’

‘Thanks for the coffee.’ Erin slides past chairs and out towards the exit. Bobby’s stirring slightly with the movement. She looks back to Lorna, shaking her head, sadness brimming under her fringe of straw-coloured hair.

58

Erin has texted Raf. She’s texted Amanda. Which took an age to do on her terrible old phone. Bobby woke as soon as she went into the cold but has been babbling to himself contentedly as they’ve walked along the front towards home. They’re going to sit down, like adults, and they’re going to try and work it out together. Amanda will deny it and that’s fine. Erin is going to ask her to leave and tell her that the police will be informed.

She wanders up her street. Bobby seems to recognise it and bounces with excitement, reaching to grab clusters of leaves from the hedge that borders the house on the corner. His joy is almost infectious. She feels she finally has something. Before it felt like she was clutching at straws but, even if she doesn’t have proof it’s Amanda, she has the email. Someone has stolen from her and who else could it be? When she gets to their bungalow she sees Raf standing at the window, waiting for her. He doesn’t look amused. She wasn’t expecting him