A Hidden Life Read Online Free PDF

wouldn’t hurt for Ellie to sound him out.
    â€˜I think you owe it to me,’ Nessa said.
    â€˜Oh, God, if you’re going to be injured all over the place, I’ll have a word with him. I’m not going to his office, though. Nor his house. He’ll have to come and meet me.’
    â€˜Ask him, then. See what he says. Bet you he’ll jump at the chance to escape the clutches of the NWS.’
    â€˜Which is?’
    Nessa laughed. ‘The Non-Wicked Stepmother. That’s what Justinand I used to call her sometimes when we were kids. She went to such lengths to be nice to us, it was quite unnatural. And we never did think of her as a mother. Constance was more like a mother than she was, whatever she did.’
    â€˜Constance was always a hard act to follow, and I don’t know whether I’d have been as tolerant as Phyl was with you.’
    â€˜You certainly wouldn’t. But thanks, Ellie, I’d be so grateful. Honestly.’
    â€˜I’ll fix up something.’ She left the room again, leaving the door wide open behind her.
    Nessa laughed aloud. What a nerve! If ever anyone had gone through life thinking about precisely no one but herself, it was Ellie. Still, she did say she’d speak to Matt and she was right about poor old Lou. What a slap in the face for her! Nessa decided to phone her sister and commiserate. And of course they could bitch about Justin. It was many years now since they’d lived under one roof and, while Lou wasn’t her best buddy or anything, Nessa had given her more squished-up baby meals than she cared to count and sung her more lullabies than anyone else except Phyl – that had to mean something, even though they’d hardly seen one another in the last couple of years. Nessa had been too busy setting up Paper Roses to get involved in the family drama surrounding Ray the Abuser, which was how she thought of him, a bit like Vlad the Impaler. Naturally she’d heard all about it from Phyl, whose anguish for Louise and for Poppy, her beloved grandchild, was natural and commendable but meant she didn’t have much time or energy left over to enthuse over Nessa’s new business.
    Nessa sighed. Fair enough, she told herself. And ultra-bad luck on poor Lou, falling for a bastard halfway through her second year at university. A waste of her brains, too, working part-time for that obscure film company for a pittance. Fleetingly, she wondered whether there might be a time when Lou might work for her. Not now, but when Paper Roses had expanded into more than a mail-order business and she took on a shop somewhere … No, that was mad. Louise wouldn’t see the point of the product she’d have to sell. She’ll be on her way back to Phyl’s now, Nessa thought. Or maybe back to London. Do I even have her mobile number? I don’t think so. Shestood up. I’m useless, she told herself. I’ll go and ask Matt. I’ll phone her.
    *
    Lou let herself into the flat, closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She’d lied when her mother urged her to stay the night with them, to take some days off work, even volunteering to go up to London the next day and bring Poppy back with her. Phyl would have done anything to keep her daughter near her at a time like this, needing to be cared for, looked after, cherished. As it was, Lou had to promise to go back the following weekend. Phyl announced that she was inviting everyone to dinner. They had to talk, they all had to
discuss
the will and its implications. Lou didn’t see the point of that, but agreeing to come down to Haywards Heath very soon had allowed her to escape now, when she wanted so desperately to be alone. She’d put on a much braver face than she thought she was capable of and promised her mother that she’d go straight from the station to Margie’s house. No way, she’d told her, will I be on my own. Promise.
    She’d known she