Page 36 of Good Sisters

‘Calm down, Pippa,’ I said briskly. ‘It was an accident. He fell off a swing. Robert’s fine. He’s just got a broken arm.’

‘Just a broken arm.’ Pippa sneered. ‘He could have been dead if he’d hit his head. And who was looking after him?’

‘I was.’ Jess raised her hand.

‘You?’ Pippa’s eyes flashed. ‘You’re a teenager obsessed with TikTok and lip-gloss. Who the hell thought it was agood idea to have you look after Robert?’ Turning to Jack she hissed, ‘How could you leave Robert with her?’

Jess sobbed. ‘I’m sorry, Pippa, it was –’

Jack held up his hand to stop Jess speaking. His face was red. Grabbing Pippa by the arm he pulled her out of the cubicle to one side. I followed them. I wasn’t going to miss this.

‘Don’t you ever criticize my daughter again. She stood up and collected her brother from school because you, mother-of-the-year, dumped him on our doorstep again this morning. I’m sick and tired of you dropping him over whenever it suits you. You expect me or Sophie to leave work to pick up the pieces when you couldn’t be arsed to look after your own child. And don’t insult my intelligence with your “working” bullshit. You stink of alcohol and, judging by your bloodshot eyes, you’ve been on the sauce all day.’

‘How dare you speak to me like that? I’ll take you to court, Jack, and I’ll get full custody.’

‘Really, Pippa? Which judge in the land is going to give Robert to a mother who is more interested in partying than looking after him? I’ve kept an account of every single time you’ve left Robert on our doorstep and, believe me, they add up and they do not reflect well on you. Now go home, sober up and pick up our son tomorrow.’

I punched the air. Finally! Finally, Jack had stood up to her.

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t you dare threaten me! I’d be very careful if I was you, Jack. I have a very rich friend who’ll pay for the best lawyers in town to take Robert away from you. Everyone knows that kids are better off with their mothers.’

‘That very much depends on the mother.’ Jack was not backing down. ‘I don’t think feeding your son crackersbecause you forgot to buy him any food shows you in a very good light.’

‘Don’t push me, Jack, or you’ll regret it. How do you think Robert would feel if he only got to see you once every few months? Do you want to hurt your son? Do you want to lose joint custody? I could make life very hard for you after this negligent accident, Jack. Robert has never had a potentially fatal accident on my watch.’

The conniving bitch would use this accident against us.

Jack said nothing but I could see his hands clench into fists. ‘Let’s focus on Robert’s best interests, shall we?’ he hissed.

‘Fine by me,’ Pippa said.

‘I’m taking him home to look after him. I think we need to keep him off school tomorrow,’ Jack said.

‘Fine. I’ll be over at about eleven.’

‘Could you make it nine so I can get to my ten o’clock meeting?’ Jack asked tersely.

Pippa reapplied her lip-gloss. ‘No. Eleven is the time that suits me.’ Glancing round the curtain at her son, she waved. ‘Bye-bye, sweetie-pie. Mummy’s going now but I’ll see you tomorrow. Okay?’

Robert nodded. ‘Okay, Mummy. I love you,’ he called, but her back was turned and she was already halfway down the corridor.

Jack clutched my hand very tightly. ‘How did I ever get involved with that woman?’

‘There was a time when you loved her,’ I reminded him.

He shook his head. ‘That was seriously bad judgement on my part. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking. I was a bloody idiot.’

‘I agree completely.’ I smiled at him.

‘Thank God I saw sense and won you back.’

I put my arm around him. ‘I’m very glad you did. Now, come on, let’s get our kids home, order take-out, open some wine and put this day behind us.’

‘Can we open lots of wine?’ He grinned.

‘Absolutely.’

Jack held Robert and Jess slipped her arm into mine as our little family unit walked out to the car to go home.

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