Chapter 11
ELEVEN
LIANE
Another day begins with me coming downstairs to another mess.
I already know it’s a mess that has Haven’s fingerprints all over it, not that I’ve hired any forensic experts to actually check the plates and glasses for those.
I just know it was her because this is exactly like the mess that existed the other morning, so once again, she and Joel have come down here in the night and then gone back to bed leaving the place looking untidy.
At least I’m not alone this time. Frederik is still at home, and I better get used to that after the discussion we had last night in bed.
‘Send your manager an email and tell him that you won’t be coming back to work,’ I had urged him as we lay on our pillows with the lights low. ‘I’ve already done the same with mine.’
‘That’s a little hasty, don’t you think?’ Frederik had replied.
‘No, it’s not. You hate that job and now we have Mum’s money, you don’t need to do it anymore.’
‘We don’t have the money yet,’ he had reminded me.
‘But it’s coming.’
‘Yes, it is, but until it’s in our bank account, we still need to keep paying our mortgage and our bills, so I still need to go to work,’ Frederik had said rather sensibly.
But never one to be deterred easily, I had increased my efforts to show how much more fun his life could be if he stayed home with me rather than spend forty hours a week with his boss.
It started by employing a few seduction techniques and rather than the two of us going to sleep at the same time we did every night, we tried something a little more fun.
The kind of fun that we got up to a whole lot more in our younger days before real life quickly got in the way.
By the time we had finished, my husband’s attitude had changed somewhat. Maybe it was the endorphins or maybe he had just relaxed a little more. Either way, he said what I was hoping to hear.
‘Okay, I will quit my job,’ he declared triumphantly, prompting me to give him a big kiss on the cheek.
‘I’ll phone in sick tomorrow so we can go over the finer details of it together and then I’ll officially hand in my resignation next week.
Hopefully the inheritance money will have been transferred to you by then too, so it’s not quite as stressful.
Then we’ve still got the money from the house sale to come after that. ’
‘Yes!’ I had cried, although not too loudly as to risk waking up Joel or Haven in the bedroom down the hallway.
That was assuming they were asleep and not doing the very thing that we had just been doing in here.
Hopefully not, because no mother likes to think of their son like that, although the shower surprise earlier had left me in no uncertain terms about how intimate the young couple in my home liked to be.
‘When do you think we will receive the money?’ Frederik had asked me. ‘Should it be by next week?’
‘Jane said it shouldn’t take long at all because my mother’s will was very clear,’ I had told him. ‘The only thing we have to consider is inheritance tax, but there’s not much we can do about that in this country.’
‘A small price to pay for living the rest of our lives in freedom,’ Frederik had decided, and I had to agree with him there, although it wouldn’t be such a small price when the tax bill came.
With that, we turned off the lights, and I snuggled into his shoulder until the pair of us had fallen asleep.
But now it’s the morning and the warm glow of what occurred the previous evening has been well and truly replaced by the reality of a messy kitchen and the reminder that I am going to have to face Haven again very shortly.
Any hopes I might have had that her and my son would have enjoyed a long lie-in are dashed when I hear them coming down the stairs, and I prepare myself to put on a friendly face and welcome them into the kitchen for breakfast. But it quickly becomes clear that they aren’t hanging around to eat.
Even more so when they start to put their coats on.
‘Morning,’ Frederik says as cheerfully as he can, but I’m not sure if it’s a genuine attempt at masking the awkwardness from yesterday or if he’s just really chipper from his coffee and phoning in sick to work today.
‘Morning, guys,’ Joel says.
‘Good morning,’ Haven adds and now I’m the only one who hasn’t spoken.
‘Did you both sleep well?’ I ask because that’s the kind of thing a loving parent with nothing to worry about would say.
‘Yeah, it was all right,’ Joel replies. ‘I think we’re both finally over our jetlag.’
‘That’s good,’ I say, noting that my son does look far less exhausted than he has done on previous days.
As for Haven, she looks as immaculate as ever, her make-up already applied and her shiny hair smartly tucked into a ponytail.
I guess she found the time to wash her hair in the shower, in amongst the other things she was getting up to in there.
‘Do you want some breakfast or are you going somewhere?’ I ask them both. ‘I can make you something if you like.’
I notice Frederik give me a wry smile; it’s not lost on my husband how hard I am trying right now. At least he is getting some amusement out of all this because I’m certainly not.
‘Thanks, but we’re going to go into town,’ Joel tells me as he zips up his coat. It’s the coat he didn’t take to Australia because he didn’t think he would need it and, based on the suntan he has come back with, I guess he was right.
‘Oh, okay,’ I reply. ‘Any particular reason?’
‘We’re going shopping,’ Haven tells me and then she flashes that smile again, the one that I’m sure quickly put my son under her spell, but it doesn’t have quite the same effect on me.
‘What are you shopping for?’ I ask.
‘I don’t know, we’re just going for a look around,’ Joel replies. ‘We can’t buy much yet. Not until Grandma’s money comes through.’
I’m almost relieved that it hasn’t arrived yet because if it had, I’d fear Haven buying herself all sorts of fancy things with that money and I imagine Joel not possessing the strength to say no to her. Not if she kept showing him that smile. Certainly not if she keeps joining him in the shower.
‘Would you like me to drive you into town?’ Frederik offers, and Joel quickly accepts that invitation, so my husband goes to put his coat on too.
I decide this is not the time to broach the subject of the untidy kitchen again, and as the three of them go to leave the house, I realise I’ll be all by myself in just a moment.
‘Have fun,’ I call after them, again trying my best to be friendly.
‘I’m sure we will,’ Haven replies cheerfully and, with that, they are gone.
I watch from the window as Frederik reverses his car off the driveway before it disappears down the street.
‘Well, that could have gone worse, I suppose,’ I say quietly to myself before leaving the window to get started on some of the chores I need to complete today.
I begrudgingly spend the first fifteen minutes tidying up the kitchen that I had previously tidied last night, before I go upstairs to clean the main bathroom.
I feel like this shower could do with a scrub.
Once that is done, I decide to do some washing, although there’s not too many items of clothing that require a wash in mine and Frederik’s basket.
But as I pass Joel’s bedroom, it’s easy to imagine there is a rather big and growing pile of dirty clothing in there, as there has always been ever since he became a fixture in this house.
I briefly question whether I should enter his bedroom after recent events, only to shake my head because it’s foolish of me to even debate it.
This is my house and nowhere should be off limits to me.
Entering the bedroom, I see that the wash basket in here is as full as I imagined it to be, so I pick it up and carry it downstairs.
Unloading the various clothing items from the basket and putting them into the washing machine, I check the pockets of Joel’s jeans, aware that he often has a habit of leaving things in there that should not come into contact with water.
Headphones, bank cards, important documents, things of my son’s that have all been ruined by this washing machine in the past, so I am always careful to check now, just in case he’s as forgetful as ever.
Miraculously, there is nothing valuable or important in my son’s jeans, so I throw them in the machine.
Then I come across another pair of jeans, and absent-mindedly check the pockets of these too.
When I do, I feel a piece of paper inside and take it out, figuring I’ve just saved it from being ruined by the water when the machine turns on.
But when I open it, I find it has come from the pocket of Haven’s jeans, not Joel’s.
I didn’t realise she had put some of her clothing in this wash basket too, which meant I didn’t know I was rummaging around in her belongings. But now I have the piece of paper, I can’t help but read what is written on it.
Be careful and call me if you’re ever in trouble again.
The strange message is followed by a mobile phone number.
As I re-read it all, I have so many questions.
What is she supposed to be careful about?
Who is this person she is supposed to call if she is in trouble?
What kind of trouble are they assuming Haven might get into?
And why does it say ‘again’?