Just a Family Affair by Veronica Henry

Author:Veronica Henry [Henry, Veronica]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: General, Fiction, Literary
ISBN: 9781409115588
Google: RNkUfT-_CY8C
Amazon: 0752883267
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2009-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

Shock, it seemed, was an even more effective hangover cure than rice and soy sauce.

Mayday sat in the chair that Patrick had sat in the afternoon before, staring at the red numbers, her head totally clear.

She was a millionaire. A multi-millionaire.

She’d phoned the lottery hotline earlier that day to check the numbers. They had confirmed the amount and were sending someone down with the cheque. A woman who was specially trained to deal with lottery winners, who could put her in contact with financial advisors, legal advisors, anything Mayday wanted. Yeah, she thought cynically. They’ll all be queuing up to give me bloody advice and get their hands on my money.

They’d asked her if she wanted any publicity.

‘Absolutely, definitely one hundred per cent not,’ she’d replied.

The last thing she wanted was for her mother to find out.

For now she understood. Her grandmother had found the means to protect her from beyond the grave. She’d hidden the ticket in the symbolic teapot, knowing this was the one way that Angela wouldn’t get her hands on it. And knowing that Mayday would be financially secure had given Elsie the courage to take her own life. This knowledge made Mayday feel overwhelmed with yet more grief. Yet, she told herself, the money would have gone no way towards relieving Elsie’s pain. She owed it to her grandmother to enjoy it. Spend it wisely.

There was, of course, one person she was desperate to call and share the news with. But she couldn’t pick up the phone to him. Not now. To protect herself, Mayday knew she had to keep Patrick at arm’s length.

Subconsciously, she’d always known that she and Patrick had no future together. Hadn’t she said as much to him the very first night they met? She was, after all, no better than hired help, even though she was no longer a mere barmaid, but management. Mayday was no fool. She knew these things still mattered. That Patrick Liddiard marrying Mayday Perkins, the scrubber from the council estate at the wrong end of the village, would have sent shockwaves through Eldenbury society.

She remembered his twenty-first birthday party. He’d given her a smart, engraved invitation, and she’d laughed. The parties she went to didn’t merit official invitations. He was adamant that she should come. She could remember her dilemma even now. She hadn’t wanted to stand out at the party. She’d wanted to belong. She’d wanted to be one of those shiny-haired, white-teethed beauties in their strapless silk ballgowns, careless and confident, still stunning even when they were cross-eyed with too much punch. But she couldn’t wave a magic wand and become one of them. She didn’t have the genes or the bloodline. So she’d turned up at midnight in a PVC minidress that was laced down the front, and bondage boots. And even though she had been the object of much admiration, even though legions of drunken boys were fighting for her attention, even though Mr Liddiard himself had dropped an admiring kiss on her shoulder, she knew it was only because she was a novelty.

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