The Girl She Left Behind by Jo Bartlett

Author:Jo Bartlett [Bartlett, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

By the time Phoebe met up with Jamie again to go through to the main part of the care home, where the lounge for the specialist Alzheimer’s care was located, she was feeling far more confident. There wasn’t the same sort of meaningful conversation she’d had with Olive, of course, but the residents were just as delighted to see Norma and they made even more of a fuss of her if that were possible, with one old gentleman singing the same song to the little dog over and over again, so that even Phoebe knew all the words of the previously unfamiliar tune in the end. Norma was obviously in her element and Jamie had been right about that as well.

‘Phoebe! Scarlett told me you were back.’ Before she even had the chance to respond, Scarlett’s mum, Christine, had folded her into a hug and held her for a good ten seconds before she let go and took a step back. ‘It’s been too long; I was always hoping we’d see a bit more of you in the village, but I hear you’ve been busy building a brilliant career in London.’

‘Who told you that?’

‘Scarlett and Lucy.’ It wasn’t a surprise to hear that Scarlett had been singing her praises, but the fact that Lucy had too made her heart feel heavy. There were so many missed opportunities to say how proud they were of one another when they still had a chance.

‘I’m not sure you can call designing data analytics systems brilliant, but it pays the bills.’

‘Don’t sell yourself short – you were always doing that!’ Christine wagged a finger at her affectionately, before donning a more serious expression. ‘And how are you? With everything that’s been going on?’

‘Worried sick about Lucy half the time and walking around like a zombie the other half.’ Christine wasn’t the sort of person who could be bought off with a half-truth, so she might as well tell it as it was.

‘Oh darling, I wish there was something we could do.’ Christine pulled her into her arms again and this time Phoebe didn’t even stiffen.

‘I wish there was too, but Scarlett’s been great and being back here has reminded me that there was always more to life in Appleberry than Mum and Dad.’

‘I know you had a difficult time, sweetheart, but don’t cut them off completely, will you? Deep down they’ll be worried about Lucy too, and I know your dad doesn’t always know how to show it, but I do think he loves you both.’

‘You always did see the best in people, didn’t you?’ Phoebe couldn’t help wishing that her experiences hadn’t made her so different to Christine. After what Janet had put her through, she tended to assume the worst of people until she was proven wrong, rather than the other way around. ‘Sadly I don’t think my relationship with my parents is ever going to change. I might as well go into the woods beyond Lake Pippin and talk to one of the trees, for all either of them are prepared to listen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.