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‘I have no idea what you’re talking about but you’re starting to worry me.’
‘God, this is hard. I don’t know where to start.’ He let out a sigh and put his hands into the pockets of his trousers.
‘The beginning is usually a good place.’
‘Yeah, the beginning.’ He nodded his head, looked like he was trying to compose himself.
‘Jonny, whatever it is, just tell me,’ Freya spoke.
‘My father was a labourer. You know that. He worked building sites. He earned OK money but he drank it away. My mother… well, I never told you… she… she was a prostitute.’
‘Oh, Jonny!’
‘She did quite well for herself. I mean, she started out on the streets, but then she managed to get herself a permanent place at the bar of one of the better hotels in that area of London. It paid OK, and when I was a kid, I never wanted for anything. I always had new clothes and football boots and a bike. Then I met you.’ He paused for breath.
Freya sat down on the other stool to listen to him.
‘I thought you were the prettiest girl I’d ever seen. You were always smiling and laughing… always. I don’t think I ever saw you without a smile on your face.’ He smiled and looked over to her.
‘I never smiled when I lost at bowling,’ she reminded him.
‘And that wasn’t often as I remember.’
Freya smiled.
‘That night, when you took me to meet Eric and Barbara, your parents, I remember thinking they weren’t so bad. They were nice to me and we had Chinese takeaway. I thought I could do a lot worse than to have in-laws like them. I was so excited it had gone so well, I went home and told my parents about us. I told them who you were and who your parents were and how much I loved you and how we were going to get married,’ he continued.
‘I never knew.’
‘Well, that’s when it all went wrong. My mother was furious. I’d never seen her that angry before. She told me I was too young to get married. She said it was a ridiculous idea and I had to stop seeing you immediately.’
‘What? Why?’
‘That’s what I said, but she wouldn’t answer me. She and my father had a blazing row that night. They were both drunk, throwing stuff around and acting crazy. And this was all caused by me telling them about our relationship.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘No, neither did I. Until she took me to the hotel the next afternoon. Your father was there. I don’t know which was worse: the look on his face or the expression I know was on mine.’ He sucked in another breath and blew it out slowly. ‘And my mother, she just turned to me and said… I’ll never forget the words. She said, “Jonathan, I think you met Eric last night, over Chinese. Well, love, he’s your real father”.’
Freya stared at him, unable to take in what he was saying as he continued with the story.
‘It turns out he was a client of hers, one of her regulars. Except that hadn’t been enough for him. He had paid her a small fortune to have her exclusively and he had been having her for some years. I can only imagine what my conception was like.’
Freya just looked at him, her expression frozen.
‘Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Eric did wave his cheque book around back then, but not in the way you thought. He’d been paying monthly instalments to my mother ever since he got his DNA confirmation. He never saw me though, not once, and he never even knew my name. In fact, the first time he set eyes on me was over dinner with you, although he didn’t know it at the time.’ He put a shaking hand to his bottle of beer. ‘So, after that afternoon in the hotel, he got my father a job on the other side of London and he paid for me to go to university. And that was that. I never saw him again until about five years ago.’
‘Is this some sort of sick game of his? Has he paid you to come here and tell me this bullshit to freak me out?’ She got down from the stool.
‘No, it’s the truth. Like it or not, you and I… we’re half brother and sister. And that’s why I had to leave. That’s why we couldn’t be together.’
Freya felt the nausea rise up in her throat and before she could stop herself, she was vomiting into the sink. She wretched over and over and panic overwhelmed her.
Jonathan moved to help her. He gently touched her arm and Freya removed her head from the sink. She stepped away from him like she’d been hit by a bolt of lightning.
‘Is everything OK in here?’ Roger queried as he and Jolie entered the room.
‘Yes, it’s fine. Just leave us alone, please,’ Jonathan spoke.
