Someone Else's Son Read Online Free PDF

the place down,’ Brody said.
    Max laughed, picking it up and flicking his ash. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘I brought you a present.’ He touched the box against his dad’s hand. Brody took it and shook it. He felt the size of it while holding the cigarette between his lips.
    ‘Not another blood-pressure monitor, I hope.’
    For a second, Max looked crestfallen. ‘It’s an electric whisk. You can beat eggs with it. Or froth milk.’
    ‘Why the fuck would I want to do that?’
    ‘Omelette? Cappuccino? I dunno.’ Max felt like taking it back. But his mother wouldn’t want it either. ‘I’ll put it in the kitchen cupboard. Get Fiona to show you how it works. It could be useful.’ He tried to refer to her with less resentment. Thing was, while she was in his father’s life, there was no chance of a reconciliation between his parents. A crazy idea, he knew, and although he didn’t want to dislike Fiona, he simply couldn’t help it. She was the one who had replaced his mother when things had gone bad.
    ‘No space in the kitchen ’cos of all the other shit you gave me. No more kitchen gadgets, son, OK? Don’t mind the mobile phones or the music, and the weekend break was a nice touch. But no more electric griddles or bread-makers.’
    Max squinted. They’d always been honest with each other. ‘Sure, Dad.’ He stood. ‘I’ll get on with the washing-up.’
    ‘Fuck you will,’ Brody said, rearing up and grabbing his son with a lucky lunge at his arm. ‘We’re going out to celebrate.’
    ‘Celebrate what?’
    ‘That my little protégé cracked something that simply shouldn’t have been cracked by a kid. And you, son, have a new woman.’
    Max stopped dead. ‘New woman?’
    ‘Don’t deny it, Maxie. You smell like a duty-free shop. Calvin Klein? Armani?’
    ‘Beckham.’ Max pulled on his hoodie.
    Brody grinned, white teeth flashing, proud as hell. ‘She hot? Got big—’
    ‘No, Dad. You’re wrong.’ Max sighed heavily. He threw his father’s leather coat at him, gathered the bunch of house keys from the window sill, quite unable to explain why he was suddenly thinking of that weird girl at his new school again.

THE PAST
    Carrie Kent had worked in television for only three years – first as a news anchor woman and then as assistant presenter on Crime Hits , a late-night satellite production tailing the Met as they made live arrests – when Reality Check first went to air. That’s how she’d met Dennis. With a few years’ experience and a desire to succeed, she pitched her show idea to the station and it was snapped up, leaving the senior commissioners wondering why they hadn’t thought of it before.
    Carrie, they said, would become a household name. They would make her a star. She would be the most talked about female presenter with the highest rated daytime show ever. And it was true. It happened, and quickly. Never once did she consider that the price she paid for fame would far outweigh her astronomical earnings.
    Reality Check first aired on 3 September 1999. It was initially commissioned for a twelve-week run but was so popular, it hadn’t missed a slot since it began. When Carrie took a holiday or was ill, re-runs were aired to sate the public’s hunger for real-life drama, misery and crime.
    ‘We just hit the formula,’ Leah boasted as Carrie’s best friend and producer. Having pursued a career in journalism, radio production and then children’s television, Leah was Carrie’s right-hand woman. The women were inseparable both in and out of the studio. ‘It’s all about the presentation and style. That’s down to Carrie’s talent. Without her, we wouldn’t have a show, we’d have a news bulletin.’
    Every women’s magazine in the country had run interviews with Carrie Kent over the years. Each time they’d attempted an insight into her private life, the secret side of Carrie Kent, and each time they’d failed. Her divorce from Brody was covered with double-page splashes of