Page 46 of Our Secrets and Lies

‘Yeah. Too much wine and the mention of Tom is a bad combination.’

‘I shouldn’t have suggested looking him up, that was stupid of me. I know how much she hates him.’

‘Ah, come on!’ Darren said.‘I get that she’s still furious, but she doesn’t have to go off the deep end at the mention of his name. It’s been nearly twenty years. That’s a lot of water under the bridge.’

‘It’s the twins missing out on a dad that hurts her most,and I get that,’ Sarah said. ‘Imagine life for our two with no dad. It would break my heart.’

‘Yeah, but I’m Superdad.’

‘Go on, Superdad, open another bottlethere.’ Sarah winked at him.

Darren didn’t need to be persuaded. ‘Will we look him up anyway?’

‘Tom?’ Jenny said.

‘Yeah, why not?’ He poured them all another glass.

‘I dunno. It feels a bit like betraying Lucy.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Here, give me that.’ Darren pulled the iPad towards him and began typing. ‘What’s his surname again? Some stupid double-barrel thing, isn’t it?’

‘Harrington-Black,’Jenny said.

‘Well, the good thing about having a ridiculous name is that you’re easy to find.’ Darren grinned and the two women rushed to his side to get a look at Tom’s Facebook page.

Tom Harrington-Black. Married. There were a few photos of him and a good-looking blonde woman, at a baseball game, walking on a beach with two dogs and skiing.

‘He’s not exactly Mr Facebook,’ Jenny noted. ‘Thelast time he posted was eight months ago.’

‘Interesting that he seems to have no kids,’ Darren said.

‘Well, he’s clearly not father material, so that’s a good thing,’ Sarah replied.

‘The wife’s not bad.’

Jenny slapped Darren on the arm. ‘She’s not a patch on my sister.’

‘No, obviously, I’m just saying.’

‘Zip it, Darren,’ Sarah warned him.

Jenny sat back. ‘Lucy needs more in her life.’

‘Lucy needs to get laid,’ Darren said.

‘No, that’s not it. Lucy needs love,’ Sarah said. ‘She needssomeone to put their arm around her at night and tell her how wonderful she is, how well she’s doing raising two kids on her own, how she works too hard and needs to give herself a break, how she needs to start living her own life because the kids will be gone soon and she’ll be alone.’

‘I keephoping she’ll meet someone at one of the ceremonies she does, uncle of the bride or cute groomsman or maybe even a hot brother,’ Jenny said. ‘I’d love to see her meet a really nice guy who’d sweep her off her feet and make her happy again. Like proper happy, giddy and silly. She’s too serious and too focused on the twins. I know she keeps saying, “When they’re in college, I’ll get my life back andI’ll travel,” but I bet she doesn’t. She’ll be making Dylan’s lunch for him and checking who Kelly’s out with when they’re thirty.’

Sarah nodded. ‘It’s just that she feels she has to be so perfect, always trying to prove that fecker Gabriel wrong. I wish she’d just forget about him and Tom. Put it behind her. They’re like a poison inside her. It’s not healthy. And now the twins going to St Jude’sseems to have brought all the old wounds back. I’ve seen such a change in her in the last few weeks.’

‘I know what you mean,’ Jenny agreed. ‘She’s so tense and uptight, these days, trying to make sure the twins prove themselves at St Jude’s. To who? What for? Gabriel is a dickhead and Tom is a pathetic coward. I wish Dylan hadn’t got that scholarship. It’s unsettled all of them.’

Sarah, too,was worried about how the three of them were coping with the new move. The pain and humiliation of Gabriel kicking her out of the house with the twins that day seventeen years ago had bubbled back up, she could see. Lucy seemed so raw with emotion, these days. Sarah thought her best friend was getting far too caught up in provingherself to the world and missing out on what was really going onwith the twins, especially Kelly.

‘Do you think we should try to say something?’ Sarah said to Jenny.

‘And be shot down and maimed?’ Jenny said. ‘No, thanks. Lucy is going to have to work through this herself. All we can do is be there for her and keep an eye out for the twins.’

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