Page 129 of The Reboot
Ella shook her head. ‘No. I promised your mum I wouldn’t tell her she’d sent him money. She said Christine would just over-react.’
‘And you didn’t sneak off behind her back and tell Nan anyway? Well, that’s something.’ He saw her flinch at that.
‘She said it’s just a loan, and he’ll pay her back as soon as he gets here.’
‘There you go, then.’
‘Do you have any photos of him?’
‘Me? Why would I have photos of my mum’s boyfriend?’
‘I don’t know.’ She shrugged. ‘I just thought she might have sent you one in a WhatsApp message or something.’
‘Why do you want a picture of him anyway? Are you thinking of printing up a Wanted poster?’
She didn’t laugh. ‘If you had a photo of him, you could do a reverse image search – see if that picture has been used on different profiles. Do you know how to do that?’
‘No, and I don’t intend to find out.’
‘There’s no harm in checking, is there?’
‘Well, I can’t anyway because I don’t have a photo. Have you said anything to my nan about this scammer theory?’
‘No. I didn’t think it was my place to.’
‘Well, you got that right at least.’ He sighed. He knew she was genuinely worried about his mum and she was trying to help. He shouldn’t be so hard on her. It was just Ella being Ella.
‘Look, I know you mean well. But Mum isn’t as clueless as Nan makes her out to be. She knows this guy, she’s spoken to him loads of times. She’d have a better idea if there’s anything dodgy about him than you would.’
‘Okay. Right.’ Ella nodded, but he could tell she wasn’t convinced. He didn’t blame her. He wasn’t even convincing himself. ‘I hope you’re right. Well, bye.’
She turned and walked away, and he went back into the house, cursing her. Damn her! Why did she have to go and plant that doubt into his mind? He tried to shake it off, to tell himself she was jumping to conclusions. But now that the idea was there in his head, he couldn’t dislodge it.
‘I can’t believe you’ve been seeing Ella behind my back,’ he said to his nan when he went back into the kitchen. He was still fuming and confused, and on edge now about what Ella had told him. It wasn’t fair. His nan should be onhisside. But then, he’d never told her what Ella had done.
‘It’s not behind your back,’ she said. ‘You just saw her.’
‘You know what I mean. You never told me you were still seeing her.’ He sat down beside her in the seat vacated by Ella.
‘Oh, I wasn’t aware I needed your permission.’ She poured a mug of tea and handed it to him.
‘She’s my ex, Nan. It’s weird for me seeing her here.’ He took a sip of tea. ‘The thing is, I never told you why we broke up.’
‘No, you didn’t. But Ella did.’
‘What?’ He hadn’t expected that. ‘So you know what she did?’
‘I do, yes,’ she said calmly, reaching for a biscuit.
‘And you still want to be friends with her? She ruined my life, nan! She’s the reason that photo got out, she’s why I got kicked out of the band!’
‘She’s the reason you went to rehab,’ she said quietly. ‘Oh, Roly.’ She put a hand over his. ‘We were so worried about you – me and your mum. We didn’t know what to do. We tried – remember? We tried to talk to you, tried to persuade you to get help. But you wouldn’t listen. You were too far gone.’ To his horror, her eyes welled up with tears. He’d hardly ever seen her cry. ‘We were beside ourselves.’
He swallowed hard, tears pricking his own eyes at the thought of all the hurt he’d caused the people he loved most in the world, the pain he’d put them through.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—’
‘I know you didn’t, sweetheart.’ She squeezed his hand on the table. ‘You weren’t yourself. The boy we loved was … gone. It was like you’d vacated your body and there was just this empty shell walking around where you used to be. We were at our wits’ end. We thought we’d never get you back.’ She wiped her eyes and stood. ‘So yeah, I know what Ella did,’ she said in a firmer voice, ‘and I’m bloody grateful to her. Because I’m not sure you’d be sitting here today if that photo hadn’t got out.’
