Unspoken: A story of secrets, love and revenge T. Belshaw (good books to read for beginners txt) 📖

I got a letter from the building society, demanding the last three months’ mortgage payments or they were going to send in the bailiffs to recover the sums, and if that wasn’t possible, they would seek a repossession order.’

She passed the letter to me.

‘I got one from the bank as well, asking me to pay off the unauthorised overdraft charges that were accruing at ten pounds a day and had built up to the sum of nine hundred pounds. They also demanded that the overdraft itself, along with a substantial loan, which amounted to six thousand pounds, should be paid back within the next calendar month or, just like the building society, they would send in the bailiffs.

‘I rang them to say this wasn’t reasonable and they had to give us time to sort out the problem. The manager told me that they had written to us on seven occasions over the last month.

‘Bloody Owen had been getting to the post first and filtering out the letters. When I confronted him, he burst into tears and begged me to forgive him. I asked him where he thought we were going to find over eight thousand pounds in the next month. He just sobbed and said he didn’t know.’

I asked her why, if the debts were between eight and nine thousand pounds, she was asking me for twenty thousand.

‘Because, Gran, he’s maxed out five credit cards that I had no idea he had… and…’ She began to cry. ‘He’s been to the bloody money lenders again.’

I admit to feeling sorry for her, and I allowed that sympathy to cloud my better judgement. I asked for her bank details and told her that I’d go to my bank that very afternoon and get the money transferred over. I also told her that this was a one-off favour and if he had any more problems with gambling, she’d have to look elsewhere for help.

She almost fell over in her haste to hug me. She was still sniffling when she left five minutes later.

‘This afternoon, for sure?’

I told her the money would be transferred today, but I wasn’t sure how long it took to clear at her end so I advised her to give it until Wednesday to be sure. I also mentioned that her bank would probably clear their own overdraft and charges before anything else could be taken out.

She blew me a kiss and departed. I looked out of the front window to see her run across the drive. Owen was hanging out of the driver’s side of the car. She shouted something to him and his face erupted into a gash of a smile.

Two weeks’ later I received a telephone call from your mother, requesting a loan of ten thousand pounds, and could she have it immediately.

‘He withdrew a lot of the money that was left after the bank had taken its share and he wrote a stack of cheques that pretty much cleared the rest of it. The bloody fool gambled it all away in one crazy night at the Grosvenor Casino in Maidstone. He claimed he was four thousand pounds up by midnight, but his luck turned. I asked him why he didn’t leave when he had four thousand pounds in his pocket. He said, because I was winning.’

I told her that I was going to refuse the loan because I couldn’t trust them. I was sure he’d find a way of getting hold of the money, or some of it at least and I wasn’t about to fund the local loan sharks. I did offer to look after you while they found somewhere else to live.

They wouldn’t make any money from the sale of the house. It was mortgaged to the hilt. I thought Nicola had been strong and had tried to curtail his spending, but I was wrong. She had no sort of control over his habit at all. He didn’t care whether his own daughter starved, providing he could get his fix. She had done little to rein him in this time around.

So, they went to Martha, who at first told them where to go, but then, after hearing how I had flatly refused to help them out, gave them a couple of hundred pounds which your mother used to pay the removal company’s fees.

Your father left not long after that and your mother got a job at, of all places, the local bookmakers. She needed benefits to top up her earnings so the rent could be paid.

I never heard from her again, but I did hear the rumours of my miserly nature. Of how I refused to help out my own family in a time of crisis. Twice!

Your mother has never bothered with men since. She is a one-man woman, just as I am, allegedly, just as my mother was. Martha has had two, but only really cared for one. As for Marjorie, well, she wasn’t allowed to have one at all.

Don’t be a one-man woman, Jessica.

Chapter 40

Calvin

Calvin woke early as he usually did. He checked his watch, six thirty-seven.

He had slept facing away from Tania, just as he did with Jess. He eased himself onto his back and watched the rise and fall of her breasts under the single white sheet. Watching her face closely, he took hold of the seam of the sheet and inched it down, leaving her chest exposed. As he slid his hand across her arm to fondle her breast, she opened one eye.

‘Not a chance, Mister. Can’t you ever get enough?’

Calvin grinned. ‘Not of you. I’ll never get enough.’

Tania looked at the clock. ‘Christ, Calvin, do you suffer from insomnia or something? The sun hasn’t taken its pyjamas off yet.’

‘I’m an early bird,’ replied Calvin. He lifted the sheet so she could see his naked body. ‘Looks like my brains were awake before me.’

Tania snorted. ‘You won’t let that joke go, will you?’ She slid out of bed and with her back to him, slipped on the