Chapter 34 #2
‘But why was she there?’
‘Long story. Long, long story and one I’ve only just been told.’
‘Oh, hang on, Mina is Singleton’s new girlfriend? Lola seemed to think he’d got a new one.’
‘Bit more than that.’
‘Oh?’
‘Look, it’s not my story to tell…’
‘But you’re going to tell me anyway?’
George hesitated again. ‘Mina is Ruby’s mother.’
‘Her mother?’ Well, I wasn’t expecting that.
‘I was just as shocked as you when she told me.’
‘Do you mean a sort of stepmother? I think poor Ruby’s had several of those. The woman with the daft Pomeranians was one.’
‘No, actually her biological mother.’ George stood to make more coffee. ‘Hell, I could do with a proper drink.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Sun’s over the yardarm. Have you anything, or shall I go to the Co-op?’
‘I’ve a bottle of limoncello,’ I said. ‘About it, I think.’
‘Why not?’ George grinned tiredly, pulling a hand through the beginning of – rather attractive – stubble.
I stood and reached into the cupboard for both the bottle of liqueur Mum had brought back from somewhere years ago and a couple of glasses.
‘OK, so here’s the story according to Mina…
’ George began, after taking a sip of the drink.
He pulled a face, probably at the contents of the glass as well as what he was telling me.
‘And knowing Mina, I would estimate only half of what she tells is the truth. Anyway, Mina’s much older sister, April Ballantyne – another model – was married to Darren Singleton and living in London.
From what Mina told me, Singleton worshipped April.
Mina was struggling to follow in April’s modelling shoes, but April, now in her thirties and fed up with all the modelling and everything that went with it, just wanted to get out and settle down.
What she didn’t tell Singleton was that she couldn’t have children.
Whether that would have put him off marrying her, who knows. ’
‘How did she know? That she couldn’t have children, I mean?’
‘Born without a womb apparently.’
‘Oh, come on!’ I gave a little laugh. ‘That really is a made-up tale…’
‘What I thought. But Mina knows all the facts about MRKH.’
‘MRKH?’
‘Hang on, what is it?’ George took out his phone.
‘I googled it when she told me. Here we are: Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome. Apparently, April discovered she had no womb when, at sixteen, she still hadn’t begun to menstruate.
Their mother assumed it was because she was always dieting in order to be thin enough to be a model.
You know, living on champagne and cigs? An investigation showed she had this MRKH.
Mina was only a little girl at the time, but April told her later that, at sixteen, she wasn’t overly bothered – having kids was the last thing on her mind. ’
I nodded. ‘At sixteen, you do tend to live very much in the present.’
‘Anyway, Mina, struggling to make it big like her sister had – I reckon she was sliding into the porn film world, but she’s always denied it – ends up pregnant at nineteen.
April, seeing an opportunity, now confesses to Singleton that she can never have children.
So, they give Mina lots of money to keep quiet, adopt the baby and send Mina on her way.
Mina, in turn, makes it big, poor April dies of breast cancer not long after Ruby is born and Singleton is left, literally holding the baby. ’
‘You couldn’t make it up!’ I stared at George.
‘Knowing Mina, she has the capacity to do just that.’
‘Ruby told Lola her mother died at birth. That’s what she’s been told anyway.’
‘Tangled webs,’ George said.
‘So, OK, why is Mina back on the scene? Down at Queen’s Gardens? Does she want to claim Ruby as her own?’
‘I doubt it very much! Mina’s never wanted children.
It came as a total shock to me when she told me all this.
Mina’s career has taken a total nosedive over the past couple of years and, now I’ve severed our relationship, she’s running scared.
I’m pretty sure it’s money she’s after from Singleton.
She’ll be out for what she can get. Once she’d got wind that he and Ruby had left London and moved north, and were actually living here in Beddingfield, she’d have been right in there, trying to get whatever she can from him. ’
‘Why on earth did you stay with Mina all these years?’ I asked.
‘Why did your mum stay with Jayden Allen? Why did you stay with Dean, Jess?’
‘OK, OK.’ I put up two hands. ‘I get it. So, what happens now? Will Mina take Ruby on? Poor kid, poor, poor kid. What chance did she ever have with a drug pusher for a dad and a mother who didn’t want her? As well as all the stepmothers in between? Oh.’ I suddenly thought. ‘What about Kateryna?’
‘Kateryna?’
‘The housekeeper that Singleton employed to look after the house and Ruby.’
‘Was she there last night?’
I shook my head.
‘Wouldn’t surprise me if she was working undercover. Reporting back to the NCA on what Singleton was up to.’
‘You seem to know quite a bit more about all this than you’re letting on, George. Ralph the superintendent, for example? You obviously know him. And I saw the look that passed between you and Joel when we were at Sorrel’s breakfast leaving do. You’ve known him a while, haven’t you?’
George sighed and drained his glass of limoncello, wincing as it went down, but obviously needing the hit.
‘The police and Youth Justice Service round here came up with the idea, several years ago, of seeking volunteers to work with disaffected youth. Youth clubs, as such, don’t exist any more, so I went on board.
I was in a bit of a bad way myself when I knew my tennis career was well and truly over.
Working with these kids helped me out of my own anger and frustration.
I did some tennis coaching, a bit of football, you know?
And then I decided to do a mentoring/counselling course they offered one weekend.
I found I liked working with kids – especially kids who’d been thrown out of school and were on the streets, hanging around.
I met Joel then. He was troubled; his dad was – still is – in prison.
All he wanted to do was dance. I’d no idea Sorrel was involved with him – that you and your family had taken him in hand – until he arrived at Kamran’s the other day. ’
‘Right.’ I stared.
George suddenly stood up. ‘I should go.’
I felt a frisson of disappointment. I wanted to carry on talking, wanted to find out more about him.
‘I think you need to rest,’ he went on.
‘So do you. Besides, you’ve been drinking… You can’t drive anywhere just yet. Look, there’s a particularly comfortable sofa under the window. Close your eyes for an hour…’ When he didn’t say anything, I went on, ‘Although I’m sure you’ve things to do…’
‘Jess, there’s only one thing I want to do.’
‘Oh?’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Jessica…’ George reached out a hand, pulling me to my feet until I was so close to him, I could feel the steady beat of his heart. ‘Ever since I saw you for the first time…’ He started to laugh.
‘You mean wrapped round an orange Sainsbury’s carrier on Kamran’s carpet?’ Even while my pulse was racing at the nearness of him, knew he was about to kiss me, I still offered up a look of disdain, of disbelief.
‘You were so funny, so unaware of how utterly gorgeous you were…’
‘Gorgeous?’ Was George Sattar making fun of me? I leaned back to get a good look at his face, but while there was humour, there was something else.
‘How utterly gorgeous you are,’ George went on, smiling down at me. ‘And if I don’t go, well, I can’t be responsible…’ He moved a hand to my face, stroking my cheek oh so gently.
‘To hell with responsibility,’ I muttered, moving my face into his caress.
At exactly the same time, the kitchen door flew back and a most indignant Dean spluttered, ‘That kid of yours, that bloody lodger you gave my best bike to, has just had me arrested under false pretences…!’