“You don’t belong in this family!”
“You don’t belong here!” Helen’s voice trembled with fury. “Understand? You are no longer part of this family!”
“Helen, please calm down,” Michael tried to interject, but his wife cut him off.
“Quiet! Years of your silence told her she could get away with anything!”
Sophie stood in the doorway, clutching a holdall. Her face was pale, lips trembling lips, but her gaze held defiant pride.
“Fine, Mum. Whatever you say.”
“Don’t call me Mum!” Helen shot back. “I have only one daughter, and that’s not you!”
Michael sank heavily into his armchair, covering his face. Sophie looked at her father, waiting for him to speak one word in her defence. The man stayed silent.
“Dad?” she called softly.
Michael finally lifted his head. “Sophie, maybe this is too harsh? Let’s talk reasonably.”
“What is there to discuss?” Helen snatched a framed photo from the sideboard and hurled it to the floor. Glass exploded into shards. “She has disgraced this family! Half the town is gossiping!”
Sophie stared at the shattered frame. Inside was last Christmas’s picture – a happy family all smiling. Now it seemed like a cruel joke. “Mum… Helen,” she corrected herself, “this isn’t my fault.”
“Not your fault?” Her mother stepped closer. “Courting a married man! Destroying a family! And now carrying his child!”
Sophie instinctively pressed a hand to her stomach. The pregnancy was early, but word had flown through their small Cotswolds market town.
“I love him,” she whispered.
“Love!” Helen mocked. “A forty-three-year-old man with three kids? What’s so special about you that he’d leave his wife?” Sophie blanched further.
“He loves me. We’re going to live together.”
“Where?” Helen sneered. “Here? In *my* house? Think I’ll let you bring that… that…”
“Helen, enough,” Michael interrupted. “She is still our daughter.”
“*Our* daughter?” His wife spun around. “I never raised a daughter like this! Put her through university, helped her find a job! And this? Running off with the first bloke?”
Sophie placed the bag down. “Richard wasn’t just any bloke. We’ve known each other over a year.”
“Oh, over a year!” Helen threw her hands up. “So you lied to me for a whole year! Said you were working late! But secretly running to your lover!”
“I didn’t lie, I just…”
“Just hid it? That *is* lying!”
Michael rose and went to the window. Outside, rain drizzled, grey clouds hanging low over neighbouring rooftops.
“Sophie,” he said without turning, “What does this Richard say? Is he really divorcing?”
“Of course he is,” Sophie replied. “He filed the papers.”
“Filed the papers,” Helen repeated. “But the family’s already broken. Children left without their father.”
“They weren’t happy,” Sophie explained. “Living like strangers for years. Richard says they married for convenience.”
“Convenience!” Helen laughed bitterly. “That’s what they all say! Don’t love the wife, the kids weren’t planned! Then when they tire of the mistress, they crawl back!”
“Helen, please,” Michael murmured.
“Richard isn’t like that,” Sophie insisted stubbornly.
“They’re *all* like that!” Helen snapped. “Think I don’t know life? Seen enough of it! Promising pie in the sky one minute, vanishing the next – especially if they hear about a baby!”
Sophie flinched.
“He knows about the baby. And he’s thrilled.”
“Thrilled? Then where is he now? Why isn’t he standing by you?”
“He’s… away on business. Back next week.”
“How convenient,” Helen retorted acidly. “Off just when everything hits the fan.”
Sophie looked down. She’d been surprised Richard left on the very day she planned to tell her parents. He’d claimed the trip was unavoidable.
“Helen, perhaps we shouldn’t rush?” Michael pleaded. “Give Sophie time to work things out.”
“Work things out?” His wife stared at him as though he were mad. “She’s decided everything for us! Pregnant by a married man! Now half the town knows Michael Sullivan’s daughter is carrying some other husband’s child!”
“We aren’t living together,” Sophie said quietly.
“A child changes that! A child born out of wedlock! Understand what that means?”
Sophie lifted her head. “It means I’ll be a mother. And I don’t care what the neighbours think.”
“You don’t care?” Helen clutched her chest. “*I* care! I live here! People will talk! Say I failed as a mother!”
“Mum, it’s the twenty-first century…”
“The twenty-first century!” Helen cut her off. “Think people changed? They gossip more than ever! Especially in a town like this!”
Michael sank back into his armchair. “Sophie, how will you manage? Your job pays peanuts. Children cost a fortune.”
“Richard will support us,” Sophie replied.
“Support,” Helen echoed. “And if he doesn’t? Changes his mind? If his wife takes him back?”
“She won’t. They’ve lived apart a year.”
“A year apart, but only filing now?” Helen asked incredulously.
Sophie stayed silent. She’d wondered why Richard delayed too. He’d claimed it was for the children.
“See?” Helen said. “Can’t even answer. Because it’s a lie. He’s lying to you, like they all lie.”
“He isn’t!” Sophie flared. “We love each other!”
“Love!” Helen snorted dismissively. “At your age, you should think with your head, not your hormones.”
“Helen, that’s unkind,” Michael protested.
“Unkind?” His wife rounded on him. “After she shamed us? Look at her! Twenty-five years old, acting like a reckless teenager!”
Sophie picked up her bag. “Right. I understand. I’ll go, save you the embarrassment.” “Go then,” Helen said coldly. “And don’t come back without coming to your senses.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I have no daughter.”
Michael stood up. “Helen, what are you saying? She’s our child!”
“Our child wouldn’t wreck another family!” Helen retorted sharply. “This one… this one is a stranger to me.”
Sophie felt tears sting her eyes. She turned to the front door.
“Sophie, wait,” her father called.
She stopped, back turned.
“Maybe it *is* too hasty? Think again. This man… he’s much older. Different life, different obligations.”
“He loves me,” Sophie repeated.
“Loves you,” Michael sighed. “And later? When the
Suddenly gripping her mug, Emma knew she must uncover Victor’s true colours before this unborn child faced the world she’d chosen.
