Page 55 of The 3am Shattered Mums' Club

Sophy turned expectantly to Mel. She had been a bit off the last time they spoke about this. And so far this evening, she had said very little.

‘Mel? Thoughts please. Leave him to sweat it out?’

Mel was silent for a few seconds and then leant forward in her chair, her hands clamped into a half prayer fashion.

‘I too have come to respect and admire you both very much, and I have come to rely on our friendship. Especially at the latter side of the night, when things feel a little bit hairy, I’ve known I can pick up the phone and be connected to you two women. Which is why Sophy and Aisha, I think it’s only fair that I am honest with you.’

Aisha and Sophy looked at each other with worried expressions.

‘Mel, you’re scaring me a little,’ Aisha said.

Mel reached her hand out to Aisha who gratefully took it. ‘It’s okay. It’s my own fault. I have been holding on to it for some time, but I’ve had a word with myself and now I’m ready. Sophy, I have something to tell you and it’s about Jeff.’

* * *

Mel had stopped speaking a few seconds ago, and neither Sophy nor Aisha had said a word. Aisha sat open-mouthed and occasionally omitted a squeak, and Sophy had put her free hand – the one that wasn’t nursing Max – over her mouth and had yet to remove it.

Eventually, Aisha said, ‘So, he…’ then dropped her voice to a whisper ‘… raped you?’

Mel sat up straight. ‘Good god, no. I punched him in the face, good and hard. Well, the best way I knew how. I’ve never punched someone before, so I literally gave it my best shot. He stumbled back far enough away from me so that I could run down the alley and back into the club. He didn’t follow me back in, and I never told a soul.’

‘Oh my god, why not, why didn’t you report it?’ Aisha said carefully, glancing over at Sophy.

‘Because that club is my life, my livelihood, my family. It has never seen one hint of trouble in all the years I’ve worked there, and I didn’t want to risk it getting a bad name. Besides.’ Mel paused and cleared her throat. ‘I felt, that maybe – at the time, this was, mind you – that maybe I had encouraged it.’

‘What!’ exclaimed Aisha. ‘No, you can’t say that. You were just doing your job, performing. That doesn’t give anyone the right to…’ Aisha dropped her voice again ‘… force themselves upon you.’

‘I know but all I’m saying is, at the time, I wondered if I had encouraged it in some way with what I was wearing.’

‘No, no, no, Mel, you mustn’t say that. Did you invite him to the back door? Did you ask him to put his hands on you?’

Mel shook her head. Aisha moved over to the sofa and sat down next to Sophy.

‘Sophy, is there anything I can get you? Some tea? Something stronger maybe?’ Aisha carefully prised a now full and slumbering Max out of Sophy’s arms. Mel came and sat at her feet and gently pulled Sophy’s top back up.

‘I’m so sorry you had to hear it this way,’ Mel said, looking at Sophy. Waiting for a reaction.

‘He came home with a black eye a year ago,’ Sophy started speaking. ‘It must have been that night, because it wasn’t long before we went on our holiday when Max was conceived, and I said I didn’t want to turn up at the resort with him looking like Reggie bloody Kray.’

‘I knew it though. I knew it. Notthatobviously, but you know, I had my suspicions about him recently, that maybe he was seeing someone else?’

The other two women nodded slowly.

‘But I still thought he might want to make a go of it, even when I received that stupid message that said we needed to talk.’ Sophy shook her head.

Sophy heaved loud, heavy sobs. Mel glanced at Aisha, unsure what to do. Aisha stepped forward with Max in her arms.

‘Sophy, it’s okay. It’s a lot to take in.’

Sophy’s cries came to a sudden halt, and she stood up and brushed crisp crumbs from her trousers.

‘Girls, I am going to have to ask you to leave. I need a moment with this. I need to…’ Sophy’s lip trembled and Mel reached out to touch her. Sophy flinched and stepped back away from Mel, who shrunk backwards.

‘I just need to be by myself.’ Sophy took Max from Aisha’s arms and headed upstairs. She settled him in his SnuzPod, and a few minutes later, she heard the click of the front door as the girls left.

* * *

2.56 a.m. – Sophy:Is anyone there?

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