Page 78 of The Damaged Hearts Bargain

“Then she doesn’t,” said Lucy. “I can’t help that.”

It would hurt again, she knew that much. But she also knewthat she couldn’t let Cal live her whole life constantly thinking that she deserved less. She knew that Cal needed someone to stick up for her, someone to fight on her side. And if Lucy could prove that she was that person, maybe, just maybe Cal would end up happier.

Or perhaps even Cal would change her mind.

Chapter Thirty Two

After a very restless night, Lucy had come to no further conclusions as to what exactly she should be doing to make Cal’s life better. It wasn’t until she was sitting at the breakfast table with George moaning about another early morning that she had an epiphany.

“The worst part of being an adult is that you can do all the things you want, but now you’re old enough to know that you shouldn’t. It really is unfair,” George was saying.

Lucy rolled her eyes at him. “Honestly, George, if you want to eat biscuits for breakfast, then go ahead. I’m not going to stop you.”

“That’s my point though,” said George. “I do want to eat biscuits for breakfast. But I also know that if I eat biscuits for breakfast then at ten o’clock I’ll be hungry again and then I’ll be cranky, and then I’ll do something unspeakable to a customer just to get my hands on a croissant.”

“You could eat chocolates instead,” Lucy said, nodding at the box of chocolates that Billy had gifted to George just the other day.

“Don’t get me started on the chocolates,” George said. “I love Billy to death, but he knows my weak spots. One mouthful of something like that and I’ll weigh two hundred kilos by the endof the week.”

“No you won’t,” Lucy said. “Just eat them sensibly. One a day or something. Moderation in all things.”

“No, no, that’s not how it works with me. That box would be the start of a slippery, slippery slope.”

Which was when it happened. Boxes starting things. The words swirled around her head and she was unable to place them for a minute. Then she remembered. When Deb had come to claim a memento, she’d taken the jade box from Cal’s mother’s dressing table and said it was special. But Cal had said something along the lines of everything started with that box.

It had pricked up her senses at the time, but she’d already promised Cal that she wasn’t going to do any more digging. Now though, well, surely that promise was off the table? There was something about that box and the only person who might have answers and who wasn’t dead or an ex was Deb Manning.

“You alright?” George asked. “If you’re angling for a chocolate, you can have one, I won’t be horribly jealous or anything.”

“I’m fine,” said Lucy, getting up from the breakfast table. “Just going to be late if I don’t get a move on, that’s all.”

SHE WORKED HER morning shift so it was lunchtime before she could go off in search of Deb Manning. She didn’t have to search long though. Deb was in the pub for lunch, exactly where Lucy had suspected she might be.

“Is it alright if I sit with you a minute?” she asked.

Deb, who was forking her way through a ploughman’s grinned. “Happy for the company, have a seat.”

“I’ve got an ulterior motive, I’m afraid,” Lucy said. “Can I ask you a few questions?”

“Fire away, as long as you don’t mind me eating while you’re talking.”

Lucy smiled. “Not at all. I just, um, well, I was wondering, that box you took from Cal’s mum’s house, you said it was special. Would you mind telling me why?”

“I’m sure it’s worth nothing,” Deb began.

“Oh, I’m absolutely not saying it is. I’m not accusing you of anything or anything like that, I just… I’m trying to figure something out.” It was a weak excuse, but Deb seemed to buy it, she smiled.

“Well, in that case… Let me see. It’s common for dementia patients to have a sort of special place, a secret hidey-hole, a concealed stash, that sort of thing. I don’t know why, but there tends to be one place that sticks in their minds, long after a lot of other things are gone. The box was Pam Roberts’ special place.”

Gears were turning in Lucy’s head.

Everything had started with that box. The box that Pam kept special things in. Precious things.

“I don’t know much about dementia,” Lucy said quietly. “Does it take a long time to develop, or does it go quickly?”

Deb shook her head sadly. “That’s the worst thing for most, I think. The first signs can appear long before any crisis. It can take years and years to develop. Often, we just think that our mums or grand-dads are getting a bit absent-minded. But eventually we have to accept that they’re steadily losing pieces of themselves. It’s a hard thing to watch.”

A long time. But seventeen years? Lucy scratched her nose in thought. Things were starting to come together but she wasn’t sure that she had the whole picture. Wasn’t sure if what she was thinking was even possible.

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