AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I like living here.’ She felt pathetic, once again finding the need to justify her life choices. Why did she feel like she was being told off?
‘Be that as it may, it’s hardly full of eligible bachelors. You’re not likely to meet anyone like Jordan there.’
The name made her flinch. ‘I don’t want to meet anyone like Jordan.’
‘You don’t want to meet anyone rich, handsome, with their own hair and teeth and a successful business to boot?’ June sounded sceptical, like the fact Sophie had any interests other than finding a husband was outrageous to her.
‘Are you forgetting that he left me?’ Sophie snapped, thumping the steering wheel. ‘He left me at the worst possible moment, when things got tough and I needed him the most.’
‘Things were horrible, yes.’
Sophie’s eyes pricked with tears. She said nothing.
‘Was it really the loss that drove him away?’
Sophie laughed. ‘Drove him away? You think it was my fault?’ Sophie could feel her blood pressure rising and her voice grew higher.
‘Well, you did take a long time to get over it all. It was probably very difficult for him to support you. You wouldn’t let me help, even though I wanted to. I’m just saying that Jordan was a good one and perhaps you shouldn’t have let him go.’
‘Wow.’ Tears smarted at her eyes. How could her mother be so insensitive to what had happened? ‘Bye, Mum.’ She said it through clenched teeth and swiped to end the call, throwing her phone down on the passenger seat.
Swearing to herself, she put the key in the ignition. It took three goes for the engine to turn over, by which time, Sophie had to turn it off again to cry out her tears.
Chapter Six
‘Oops. ’Scuse me!’
The pile of tissue paper and tinsel Sophie was holding fell to the floor in slow motion as the child who’d bumped into her said nothing and rudely walked off down the corridor, hands in her pockets. Cassie again. Sophie was yet to understand why her behaviour had been so off recently.
She knelt down on the floor to gather up her resources and put them down on a chair once she’d finally made it to the staffroom. She tried to resist the urge to tidy up the pile and fold the tissue paper neatly again – in rainbow order, of course – knowing that if she did, Kate and Tom would mock her, and she had more important things to discuss.
‘I’m getting really worried about Cassie,’ Sophie said, pouring water from the kettle into the three mugs that sat waiting on the countertop in the staffroom.
‘In what way?’ asked Tom. He dropped a tea bag into each mug. Completing the trio, Kate stood ready with the milk (and probably the cold tap – it wasn’t long until afternoon lessons began, after all).
‘She’s been really withdrawn since the fight the other day. I wonder how her dad handled things at home afterwards. Her behaviour had gone downhill a little before then too, if I’m honest. And she just barged into me and trudged off down the corridor without a word. I’m worried something’s going on that she’s not told us.’
‘Well, now you know who her dad is, maybe that explains it,’ Kate said, dropping milk into each cup.
‘What do you mean?’ Tom asked, stirring his drink vigorously with a teaspoon.
‘Mr Hawthorn is the parent who shouted at me in a meeting. Kate thinks the reason he’s so angry is because he’s dealing with a difficult divorce,’ Sophie explained. She took her tea and sat down on one of the worn chairs, purposefully turning her back on the untidy pile of craft resources.
‘It could explain why Cassie is so unhappy at the moment, I guess,’ Tom said.
‘But, Kate, you said he’s been a single parent since she started school in September. Divorces don’t take that long, do they?’ Sophie said.
‘All right, Columbo.’ Kate sat down opposite her, leant back in the chair and balanced her mug on her pregnant belly. ‘Some children go through phases like this. It could just be hormones or something. Maybe she’s just growing up, or perhaps it’s to do with the move here. Sometimes children struggle to adjust to big life changes like that.’
‘Mmm, maybe,’ Sophie said, but she wasn’t sure she agreed. Something wasn’t right. Now she looked back objectively, Sophie could see that Cassie had changed in the last few weeks. It wasn’t just the fight. Something else must have happened, and Sophie was determined to find out what it was.
‘So, why was the meeting with her dad so horrible?’ Tom asked. He joined them, sitting down in another of the mustard chairs and landing with a bump as if he’d not expected it to be so low. His tea spilt onto his trousers and he swore.
Sophie and Kate shared a look and Kate held out a hand as if to offer Sophie the stage.
‘It was pretty awful,’ Sophie said, sipping her tea.
‘How come?’ Tom asked.
