Chapter 56
56
GEMMA
Half-sisters. I pondered on this, trying to settle my fevered brain as I drove back to the nursery to collect my darling Poppy. One of my regrets, once I’d realised my relationship with Jack was definitely over, had been that Poppy would never have a brother or a sister. But she did, now – a half-sister so like her in looks that, if it weren’t for the three years’ age difference, they could have been twins. How would she react, when – if everything went the way Crystal hoped, and Evie came back to live with her – I told Poppy she had a big sister? Would they be friends? Would the likeness extend to their personalities?
I wondered, too, whether Evie would like having a little sister. Perhaps it might help her to adapt to being back with her mum, starting a new life, at a new school – all of which would be hard for her, of course. I felt a sudden new burst of sympathy for Crystal – for everything she’d been through, all the trauma she’d now told me about, and on top of everything else, being separated from her beloved daughter for four whole years. Thank God it looked as if things were now improving. I hoped with all my heart that Evie would soon be back permanently – perhaps even in a matter of months.
The afternoon certainly hadn’t gone the way I’d anticipated. I’d imagined saying goodbye, relinquishing forever the friendship that had meant so much to me just six months earlier. Instead, I’d come away with a whole new perception of everything. A whole new version of my own story, as well as Crystal’s. It was going to take time to come to terms with what Jack had done, the reality now making him even more despicable in my eyes than I’d already realised. On top of all this was the fact that he’d now gone on to father another child somewhere in Australia. That little boy was also a half-brother to Poppy and to Evie. Would they ever meet? I doubted it. But when Jack was finally forced to pay up for all of his responsibilities, I wondered whether his current relationship would also be cast off like unwanted baggage. Poor woman, poor little boy.
It was going to take time, too, for Mum and Dad to accept Crystal. She knew she’d made that difficult, and I could already imagine my parents’ scepticism when I told them the latest revelations. But they’d come round. They were decent, loving people and all they cared about was protecting me and Poppy. They’d understand, they’d even sympathise, once they’d got over the shock.
But even though I was still reeling from everything I’d been told, I somehow found myself smiling as I went to collect Poppy and helped her into the car for the short drive home from the nursery.
‘Did you have a nice time today?’ I asked her as I pulled away.
‘Yes. But I’m very tired. Did you have a nice time at your meeting, Mummy?’
‘I did, sweetheart. It was… very interesting. And I’m quite tired now, too.’
‘Shall we snuggle on the sofa when we get home, and watch some Peppa Pig ?’
I laughed. ‘Do you know what, Poppy? That sounds like the nicest idea I’ve heard for a long, long time.’
Jack could easily have ruined my life as well as Crystal’s, and he could have blighted my daughter’s life, the way he’d blighted Evie’s. But I wasn’t going to let him – because I was going to make a good life for us both, and be happy. And if I could, I’d help Crystal do the same, too. That probably wasn’t going to be easy – I knew it might be hard to completely believe in her again, after all the mistakes she’d made. I understood some of the things, now, that had raised alarm bells before. She’d never taken Poppy to her own flat; that photo was of Evie. She’d never even taken her to her own part of town. Crystal had explained now that the woman on the bus who said hello again to Poppy, must have remembered seeing Crystal with Evie, years earlier and was too muddled to think about the age difference. The ‘mother and daughter’ outfit was bought for Evie, who never got to wear it when it would have fitted her – that broke my heart, but Crystal should have known it was a terrible error of judgement to give it to Poppy. Yes, for sure, she’d been too over the top with Poppy; I’d have to be sure she was going to calm that down in future – it had stopped her from thinking rationally about what she was doing. But I had a feeling we were going to put a lot of effort into making our friendship work now. And perhaps, in time, we could start to feel like a little family of our own.
But however much I pondered and wondered about the future – whether things would work out with Crystal, whether Evie would become part of our lives, whether I’d reunite with some of my previous friends and whether I’d eventually get enough money from Jack to actually make a difference to my life – I knew that none of this really mattered, as long as Poppy was happy. She might not have her daddy any more, but she had me, she had her grandparents – soon to be together again – and her friends at nursery, who were gradually becoming more important to her as she grew up. But her little world centred on me, and mine on her. Being the centre of somebody’s world was a privilege I’d never take lightly.
We were going to be OK. I’d make sure of it, no matter what. Jack would never know what he’d missed, and frankly I didn’t care. I’d promised Poppy I loved her more than all the daddies in the world could ever love her, and I was never going to forget that promise. Poppy and I were moving on. Together.