Page 78 of Guilty Mothers
‘Must have been hard,’ Kim said.
‘It was. She insisted on watching me practise for every sport I tried.’
Kim had been thinking more about how difficult it must have been for Sally-Ann, facing sudden exclusion from her daughter’s life once puberty came along.
‘It was just embarrassing. I told her hundreds of times to just stay home. I lied; I made stuff up. I gave her the wrong locations for some of my games.’
Kim tried not to picture the woman turning up to dark and empty venues.
‘And then I’d have to lie and say I’d never told her that to get myself out of the shit.’
Great, gaslighting as well, Kim thought, trying her hardest not to dislike the girl. From the sound of it, she’d not been exactly sensitive to her mum’s attachment.
‘Anyway, to cut a long story short, she never gets the message. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell her, she tries to involve herself in every part of my life. She just happens to be walking past Nando’s when I’m due on my break or driving past the pub when I’ve been out with my mates.’
The ironic half-smile told Kim that Lottie didn’t yet comprehend that that was never going to be a problem for her again. The concept of permanence didn’t always land immediately with people in their mid-twenties.
‘And did that lead to the two of you not talking?’ Kim asked.
Lottie nodded. ‘I told her I needed a boundary break.’
Something about the phrase felt off, but Kim couldn’t work out what it was.
‘What exactly did that entail?’
‘No contact. No phone calls, emails or visits until she could learn to respect my boundaries.’
Kim opened her mouth to ask another question when two things happened.
Bryant appeared at the door with an apologetic look on his face, and every ounce of colour faded from Lottie’s cheeks.
Mr Davis entered the room carrying his daughter’s glass of water. ‘Lottie…Lottie…what’s happened?’ he asked, seeing the stricken look on her face.
‘Sh-She’s gone?’
And there it was. The cold hard truth had landed and would be followed by some pretty ruthless emotions.
There was just one more question Kim needed to ask before she left this family to grieve in peace. She wanted to know who had suggested the boundary break in the first place.
She would ask it, but she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.
FIFTY
Olivia heard the key in the lock at 12.59p.m. Logan always liked his lunch at dead on one. He never wanted anything fancy. Just a snack; one of his childhood favourites. It made him happy when she got it right.
‘Ahh, cheese-and-bean toastie, thanks, Mom,’ he said, grabbing the plate as if this was all perfectly normal, as if she had fixed the meal willingly, lovingly. As if she wasn’t trembling with fear that she had got something wrong or that she’d done something to displease him, or that within an hour she’d be locked back inside her room.
‘What the hell is this?’ he asked in that low, calm voice which touched every nerve ending in her body.
‘Wh-What?’ she asked, without turning from the sink.
‘The toast is burned.’
‘Sorry, love, let me put some more bread in the—’ She stopped speaking as his plate flew across the table and then crashed to the ground. Her body tensed in anticipation.
‘Are you really so useless you can’t even fix a decent snack?’ he thundered, rising from the chair.
‘Ju-Just g-give me a minute to?—’