Chapter 5 #3
‘Sorry if I caught you all unawares, but I had to take the opportunity to pop out while I could, so I didn’t raise any suspicion with your mum. She’d gone to her meeting at the W.I.’
‘She’s going to wonder where I am, I’d better text her and explain why I’m not there, before she has the chance to text me.
’ Two spots of scarlet coloured Linda’s cheeks.
Bex clearly wasn’t the only one feeling as though she was cheating on Donna.
‘I’ll have to tell her I’ve got a migraine or something. ’
‘It’s a good job none of us tried to become a spy, I don’t think we’d make it past day one of basic training.
’ Rowan exchanged a look with Bex, and they both laughed.
They really were rubbish at this, but she had a feeling they wouldn’t have to keep up the secrecy for much longer, and the tension that had been weighing her down since her mum’s diagnosis already felt as though it was lifting off her shoulders.
‘I might as well tell you, but we’ve been trying to find Briony.
I know it’s not what Mum wants, but I can’t stand the thought of just waiting around and doing nothing while the cancer progresses.
Or watching her go through chemo when there’s another solution.
’ Bex stood up and walked towards her stepfather.
‘Neither can I and that’s why I wanted to give you this.
’ Ken handed her a piece of paper. ‘It’s got the only contact details I have for Briony, her email address.
I don’t know where she is right now, because she travels around to quite remote places and she relies on this satellite thing that sits on top of her campervan to get online, because the phone signal is often non-existent. ’
‘But you must have her mobile number.’ Bex was incredulous at the idea that he didn’t, but then she could probably count on the fingers of one hand how often her stepfather had called her on the phone. He’d just always let her mum take the lead on being the communicator.
‘You know me and mobile phones, and how I feel about Facebook and all that social media stuff.’ He shuddered and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, remembering a conversation they’d once had when she’d offered to set her parents up with Facebook accounts so they could contact old friends.
Ken had told her he had no interest in seeing photographs of what someone he’d gone to school with fifty years ago had eaten for their dinner, and her mother had agreed.
Mobile phones were for emergencies as far as they were concerned and the handsets they had were virtually museum pieces.
Her mum had an iPad that Bex had bought her and which she mostly seemed to use for watching films and probably emailing Briony, but other than that neither of them were really part of the online world.
So she had no doubt he was telling the truth when he said he didn’t have any other way of contacting Briony, but she couldn’t believe that her mother didn’t at least have a contact number for her sister.
‘What about Mum?’
‘Briony calls her sometimes, but when I checked your mum’s phone, there was no number stored in it for Briony. I’m not sure if it’s because Donna suspected we might try and contact her, so she’s deleted it, or whether she never had the number stored in her phone in the first place.’
‘Knowing how determined Mum can be when she makes up her mind about something, I suppose none of that should surprise us.’ Bex was trying to keep a lid on her frustration, but she wanted to scream and Ken must have picked up on her irritation, misinterpreting it as being directed at him, rather than the situation.
‘I know I should probably be reaching out to Briony myself, but I’m terrified that your mum might be so angry that she pushes me away and the thought of not being there for her when she needs me most is unbearable.
It’s wrong of me to ask you to put yourself in that position, but I don’t know what else to do. ’
‘It’s okay.’ Bex wrapped her arms around him and realised he was shaking, despite the warmth of the kitchen. Stepping back, she looked him in the eyes. ‘I won’t even tell Mum that I got Briony’s email address from you.’
‘I would say it doesn’t matter, but if your mum follows through with her threat…
’ Ken’s voice faltered and part of Bex wanted to thrust the piece of paper back into his hand and tell him that contacting Briony was his responsibility.
Even if Bex tried to save her mum by contacting her estranged sister, she could still end up losing her, but she knew that Ken was right and that she had to be the one to take the hit.
‘It’ll be worth it as long as Mum gets the treatment she needs.
’ Looking down at the email address Ken had handed her, Bex realised her hand was shaking too.
So much was depending on this, and if she had to sacrifice her relationship with her mother to save her, it was a price worth paying.
It would hurt her far more than she could put into words, but she’d survived unimaginable pain before, and she could do it again.
She had to face the prospect of inviting Briony back into her life and all she could do was pray that her sister wouldn’t let her down all over again.