Miranda's Big Mistake - Jill Mansell [33]
Chapter 14
Chloe had known she was making a big mistake when she phoned her mother the night before. But some things - no matter how much you didn't want to do them - had to be done.
`What do you mean, he's left you?' Pamela Greening had barked when she had finally managed to stammer out the words. `Chloe, don't be ridiculous, is this your idea of a joke? Why on earth would Greg want to leave you?'
Quailing in the face of her mother's wrath, Chloe had promptly chickened out of telling her about the baby. Instead she had mumbled something feeble about not getting on and things not really working out.
`My God, that boy has a nerve! You just wait until I get my hands on him, I'll make him realise-'
`Mum, please, there's nothing you can do,' Chloe had begged. `He's gone. It's not the end of the world. Marriages break up all the time.'
`Not in our family they don't,' her mother had grimly replied. `Never before in our family.'
`Well, one has now.'
`You give up too easily, my girl. You always have.' `Oh, for heaven's sake,' Chloe had yelled, exasperated,
`what was I supposed to do, tie him up and lock him in the broom cupboard?'
`Now you're just being stupid. There are ways and means, Chloe. If you want to keep your husband there are always ways and means.'
Her mother had sounded almost crosser with her than she was with Greg.
That had been last night. And now it was about to get worse.
As she rounded the corner, Chloe saw the familiar outline
of her mother standing on the pavement outside her flat. `Mum, you didn't have to do this. Truly, I'm fine.' `You've put on weight.'
No kiss, no reassuring hug, thought Chloe. No words of comfort either.
Oh well, no change there.
`A bit.' She sucked in as much of her stomach as she could.
`Come on then, where's your key? Three hours on the coach, this trip's taken. You can make me a cup of tea before we get down to business.'
`What business?' Fumbling, Chloe fitted the key in the lock. The flat wasn't hideously untidy, but her mother wouldn't be impressed when she spotted last night's saucepans still lounging in the sink.
`Greg, of course.'
`But-'
`Don't even try and talk me out of it, Chloe. That lad stood up in church and made public vows. Marriage is for life,' she wagged a terrifying finger at her daughter, `not for
as long as it suits him. He needs to be reminded of that,' she announced ominously. `And if you won't do it, I will.'
After a long day at work, Chloe was exhausted. To give herself a bit of breathing space, she went on ahead into the kitchen.
`I'll make that pot of tea. If you're staying the night, you can have my bed and I'll sleep on the sofa.' Since her mother was carrying a small suitcase, she guessed this was the plan. `But you aren't going to be able to lecture Greg about his wedding vows,' she called over her shoulder - quite bravely for her - `because he isn't here.'
`We aren't all as useless as you,' her mother retorted. 'I'm going to pay him a visit, aren't I?'
Startled, Chloe looked around. Her mother was standing in the kitchen doorway like Wyatt Earp in a crimplene shift, brandishing a notebook in one hand and a biro in the other.
`You can't do that!'
`Just give me his address.'
`I don't have it.'
`Don't be ridiculous.'
`I'm not,' Chloe lied, her palms beginning to sweat. `I don't know where he is.'
She did. Word had filtered through on the local grapevine that Greg had moved in with Adrian, but she'd had enough pride not to contact him.
Largely because there was no point.
And if there was anything more publicly humiliating, thought Chloe, than turning up on the doorstep of the husband who'd dumped you, begging him to change his mind and come back… well, it was having your mother do it for you.
`I can always tell when you're lying,' said Pamela Greening. `Of course you know where he is.'
Chloe's hands shook as she poured boiling water into the sugar bowl. Oh God, how much more of this could she take?
`Mum, Greg's gone. He didn't tell me where. I haven't seen or spoken to him for weeks.