Redemption by Heather Burnside

Author:Heather Burnside
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781801107952
Publisher: Head of Zeus

34

Feb 1989

Alan gave Joanne a look of contempt as he asked, ‘So that’s who Mark is, is it? That bloody lowlife scum who lives on the estate? Is that who you’re seeing?’

‘He isn’t lowlife, and he isn’t scum.’

‘Don’t bloody bandy words with me. I know exactly what he is. What I want to know is why you’re covering for him.’

Joanne could feel a flush creep across her cheeks as she lied. ‘I was with him.’

‘Well how come you told us you were going out with Sonia from work?’ Gillian chipped in.

‘Because I knew he’d go mad,’ Joanne replied, placing emphasis on the word he as she referred to her father.

‘Don’t you dare take that tone when referring to me!’ blasted Alan. ‘Do you bloody wonder why I’m angry? Not only have you chosen to knock about with one of the estate’s criminals, you’re also lying to the police. And it was bloody obvious you were lying. It wouldn’t surprise me if you end up getting into trouble over this especially when the police find out that he wasn’t with you at all.’

His words struck fear into Joanne and for a moment she didn’t say anything. She loved Macca to bits, but she didn’t want to risk getting into trouble for him. Her father took her silence as a sign of compliance, so he continued to chastise her.

‘I want you to finish with him,’ he demanded.

Despite her fear of repercussions for what she had done, Joanne couldn’t bear the thought of losing Macca, so she snapped back at him. ‘No, no chance. I’m not finishing with Macca. You don’t even know him. He’s really nice. You won’t even give him a chance, just because his family aren’t well off.’

‘It’s got sod all to do with that! I know exactly what he is. I’ve seen him and the band of thieves he hangs around with. The bloody lot of them are jailbait and I won’t have you hanging around with the likes of them.’

‘You can’t stop me. I’m nearly eighteen.’

‘Oh yes, I bloody well can. While you’re living under my roof, you’ll do as I say. I don’t care how old you are. I can’t have my reputation tarnished because of who you choose to hang about with, not to mention the trouble you might get into.’

‘Right,’ said Joanne. ‘Well, in that case, I’m leaving.’

She stormed out of the room and dashed up the stairs to her bedroom, dragging a suitcase off the top of the wardrobe and throwing clothes into it haphazardly. She was sick to death of her father telling her what to do. She was almost an adult now and it was about time she was treated like one. Besides, he had no right to judge Macca, who had always been good to her and never done her any harm.

In her heart of hearts though she knew that the amount of money Macca flashed about was more than he could earn from doing a few odd jobs for friends.

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