The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) T. Belshaw (management books to read .txt) 📖

at the tears running down her cheeks. ‘It seems to me that you got what you wanted and now you’re looking for a way out. Well, you don’t have to look any longer. You’re out.’

‘Jess, please, let me explain properly.’

‘Do you think I’m stupid or something, Bradley? You explained it all perfectly. You see me as a liability. Well, that’s fine. You’ve just got rid of that problem. Now, if I need to sign anything agreeing to Sarah taking on the trust role, post it to me, I’ll sign it and send it back. Actually, thinking about it, it might be best for her to take on the role permanently.’

‘Oh, Jess, don’t be—’

‘Goodbye, Bradley.’

Jess hit the red button on the phone to end the call. Then she walked through to the front room, threw herself on the sofa and let the tears flow.

Chapter 35

At seven-thirty, with no tears left to cry, Jess got up from the sofa, picked up her car keys, grabbed her coat and walked out to the car. A frost was already beginning to form on the roof and bonnet of her Toyota. Jess looked up to a cloudless sky to see the universe open up before her eyes. The farm was well away from the light pollution of the town and she had a clear view of the ancient, blinking stars that had emitted their twinkles billions of years ago, arriving just in time for her to see them.

Still thinking about the vastness of the universe, she started up the car, switched on her lights and drove to the Tesco Direct store in town where she made her way to the wine aisle and picked up two, mid-priced bottles of Pinot Grigio from the chiller cabinet. On the way to the checkout, she suddenly thought of her mother and the alcohol problems blighting her life. Jess could remember her mum drowning her sorrows in a wine glass when she was growing up, and making a quick decision, turned around and placed one of the bottles back in the chiller.

At the counter, she produced her card to pay for the wine, then, seeing the glass cabinet behind the till operator, she ordered a packet of twenty cigarettes and a disposable lighter.

Back in the car, Jess switched on the radio just as the weather forecaster was speaking.

As temperatures plummet to minus five degrees overnight, residents of the area are being asked to keep an eye on their energy use as one of the region’s power stations is shut down for maintenance.

Jess shivered at the thought even though her car heater was on. The farmhouse was centrally heated, Alice had installed a new boiler only three years previously, but the old place had many a draughty corner.

When she arrived home, she poured herself a generous glass of wine, picked up the cigarettes and lighter and closing the back door behind her to keep in the heat, she sat on the back doorstep and spent half an hour stargazing as she smoked cigarette after cigarette.

She had given them up, supposedly for good when she first met Calvin who hated the smell of tobacco smoke, but quitting had always felt more like a bereavement than an achievement. She had often thought about grabbing a packet as she stood at the supermarket checkout during a particularly difficult time in her relationship with him. She had always managed to overcome the urge, telling herself that it was stupid to take up the habit again after the horrendous time she’d had getting over her addiction. Tonight, felt different for some reason. Maybe it was the absence of Calvin’s accusing look as he sniffed her clothes when she got back in from shopping, or a trip to the library. Maybe the stress of all that had happened over the past few weeks had finally got to her. Whatever the reason, she thoroughly enjoyed the three cigarettes she had smoked and stubbed out on the concrete floor.

Craving sated, she picked up her empty glass and stepped back into the kitchen where she took off her coat and hung it on the back of a chair before pouring herself another glass of wine. Carrying it through to the lounge, she placed it on Alice’s old lion’s foot coffee table and picked up her phone, intending to call her best friend, Sam. Noticing the black screen, Jess cursed and pressed the start button only for a charging bar to appear, showing her that her phone was almost completely dead.

‘Damn,’ she said as she plugged the USB cable into the mobile and sat it on Alice’s writing bureau to charge.

Picking up her glass, she sat on the sofa and wriggled her bottom about until she became comfortable and picking up the remote control, she switched on the TV and flicked to Netflix.

Selecting an episode of The Crown that she had already seen. Jess leaned back into the cushions and thought about the ramifications of what Martha had done.

She decided that she would call in on her grandmother in the morning for the heart to heart she had allegedly been craving. She was just working out which approach would work best, when the power went off.

Chapter 36

Jess suddenly found herself in total darkness. Easing herself off the sofa, she took baby steps across the lounge until her knee made sharp contact with the corner of the coffee table. Cursing, she reached down and rubbed her leg, then placed her hand on the edge of the table as she worked her way around it. Trying to visualise the room that she had spent so many hours in with Alice, she edged sideways until she bumped into the wall, from there she felt her way along until she found the frame of the kitchen door. Trusting her judgment, she stepped through, turned slightly to the left and groped her way across the room until she found the big, oak table. She ran her hands over the surface carefully