For a summary of what's happened in previous posts, please see author notes.

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1st September 2022

‘You never told me you were taking Susannah round to your dad’s,’ I say, as Joshua steps back into the hallway. I think back to the conversation Susannah and I had earlier, when Joshua was out getting fish and chips. ‘Susannah told me about it earlier.’

He’s just seen her off in an Uber, I’d said she could stay here tonight, as Joshua was, but she wanted to get back to her place. We’d spent a good two to three hours sitting out in the garden. I think we managed to polish off two bottles of wine. It’s not often I have a drink; I can feel it swooshing around inside me.  

He frowns at me. ‘It’s no problem, is it?’

‘No of course not, it’s just; she was asking me about my relationship with your dad earlier, it just bugged me a little bit. Things seem to be getting really serious between the two of you.'

I make my way into the kitchen. Even though we ate outside, the kitchen still stinks of fish and vinegar. It’ll still be stinking in the morning, it’s why I only ever tend to have fish and chips when I’m out at a restaurant now, I can’t stand how the smell lingers around for ages. I pick up the last couple of remaining chips, scrunch the wrapping paper up left on the kitchen worktop and stuff it into the bin.

‘Yeah they are; I really like her. What did she ask you?’ he asks.

I shrug. ‘Just general stuff, you know, like how we met, perhaps she was wondering how we ever thought we’d be a good match in the first place. If you look at it, we’re so unalike it’s ridiculous.’

‘Well, you stuck it out with him for a good ten years so there must’ve been some spark there.’ He grins. ‘She seemed to get on OK with Chloe.’

My skin bristles, like it always does at the mention of my husband’s partner. I should be over it by now, but I can’t help it. 

‘Oh, did she?’ I ask.

‘Well, if you think about it, there’s not much of an age gap between them, which is pretty gross when you come to think of it. It’s taken me a long time to come to accept her as my new potential, step-mum.’ He rolls his eyes at the first part of his sentence. ‘I think Rachel still hates her. Honestly, you should still see the way Chloe fawns over dad; he’s not exactly some Greek God, is he? I really can’t see what it is she sees in him, it’s not like he’s the one with the money.’

I smile. ‘Well, Rachel was a real daddy’s girl, wasn’t she, so I can understand her animosity towards Chloe. But then I remember what your dad was like when I first met him. He used to make you feel as though you were the only person he cared about. It was the way he looked at you, with his eyes, the way he spoke to you, that’s what made me fall for him. Girls still go crazy for him, don’t they? When we were young, after we’d first got together, I couldn’t believe I was the one who managed to snare him. I never thought in a million years I was his type.’

Joshua pulls a face. ‘Right, well, on that note, think I’m gonna go up. You going to stay down here for a bit?’

‘Might just catch the last bit of the news, I’ll be up in a sec,’ I reply.

Joshua gives me a kiss on the cheek then heads back out into the hallway. I grab the wine glass I left on the side and throw it in the sink. I pad out of the kitchen and back into the front living room.

As I sit down at the chair in front of the television and flick it on, I think back to the first time I met Daniel. We’d met at Ski resort in Switzerland; I was away with a group of friends, but the rest of the holiday, apart from the moments I was with him, are a blur. On our last day he’d given me his phone number and made me promise to call him the moment we were back in the UK. I shake the thought out of my head and focus on the last part of the news report in front of me.

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Characters:

Stacey (mother of Joshua) 

Lucie (foreman of the jury)

Joshua (Stacey's son)

Susannah (murder victim) 

Rachel (Stacey's daughter)

Daniel (Stacey's ex-husband) 

Ruth (journalist)