On My Life by Clarke Angela

Author:Clarke, Angela [Clarke, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2019-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

Now

David shakes his head. ‘I know all about that criminal hothouse you came from. A delinquent estate full of illegal immigrants and god knows what kind of other people.’

I grip the table, trying to hold on. ‘I thought Robert told you?’

‘The dregs of society.’ David wrinkles his nose. Judith starts to cry. ‘You’re just a money-grabbing little tart with a filthy drug addict mother.’

I look to Judith. ‘He said you didn’t care.’ Judith looks away. And I realise. It was Robert who didn’t care. Robert who has never been judged based on where he was born, where he grew up. Robert who never had anyone form opinions on him, on his character, before he’d even spoken.

‘People like that,’ David looks round with a sneer, ‘are a drain on society. It’d be kinder to put them down.’

‘How dare you talk about my mum like that!’ Fury pours out of me.

‘Be quiet, woman.’ David’s voice is glacial, all traces of the jovial guy at the family barbecue gone. ‘You have taken everything from us. Everything.’

‘No.’ I shake my head. The chatter of the room drops away, and it’s just him and me, and hatred in his eyes.

‘I will see you rot in jail,’ he says.

‘No.’ I clutch my stomach. The baby. ‘I loved . . . love Robert. Loved Emily!’

‘He should have listened to me when I warned him about you.’ David stands.

He warned Robert about me? What did he say? What did Robert say? He never told me. He always said they liked me. He shielded me from this.

‘You will not keep that baby.’ David’s words explode between us.

Abort? They can’t force me.

‘You can’t look after it in here.’ Judith throws her arms up.

‘You won’t ruin another of my grandchildren,’ he says. ‘We will have the baby.’

David’s words break like waves over me, winding me, holding me under. They don’t think I’m ever getting out.

‘A baby can’t live here,’ Judith says, imploring, desperate.

There’s still some connection in her eyes, I haven’t lost her yet. ‘I’m its mother. You can’t—’

‘We will raise it,’ David says, pulling Judith brusquely to her unsteady feet. ‘I have already spoken to our lawyer. We have started proceedings.’

What proceedings? What does he mean? ‘The baby’s not even born yet.’ I clutch my stomach. The thought of being separated from my child, separated from the last part of Robert I have . . . no.

‘You have to see this is for the best?’ Judith says.

‘A child belongs with its mother.’ The words come rushing out. I think of Emily and her lost mother. Would she still be alive if her mother had lived? Could her mum have protected her more than we did? But I’m in here. I’m alone. ‘Ness can help.’

‘And what kind of upbringing would she give a child?’ Judith says.

David jabs toward my stomach. ‘That baby is mine.’

Panic floods like dirty water through me. He’s already started proceedings. He means custody. He is going for custody of my baby. David with all his money and his high-powered lawyers, and his beautiful house and parkland, and opportunity, and freedom.

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