Unspoken: A story of secrets, love and revenge by T. Belshaw (best reads of all time .TXT) 📗

arrived at six. She handed her a cheque for five hundred pounds that the carer at first refused to accept, threatened to tear up, then, after a candid lecture from Alice, decided to accept.

She wiped away a tear as she stuffed it into her bag.

Jess got her things together, gave Alice a hug and a wet kiss on the cheek and left to go home.

Gwen busied herself warming up a beef and onion pie she had made that afternoon. She whipped up some instant mash and warmed up a small tin of mixed vegetables before making a third of a jug of the thickest gravy she could manage. Alice was delighted and ate every last morsel.

When Gwen came back in from tidying in the kitchen, she sat on the arm of Alice’s chair.

‘Jessica did say you were looking better today and it’s true. You are. Your appetite is back too. Long may it continue.’

Alice smiled thinly as Gwen stood up and carried the dinner tray to the kitchen. When she was napping, the tunnel had appeared during the daylight hours for the first time. In the soft white light was a figure and it was beckoning her towards it.

Chapter 19

Jess

When Jess arrived home, Calvin ushered her to the dining table and a few minutes later produced a homemade pizza and a bottle of decent wine.

They made small talk during the meal, just as they had when Calvin had first moved in, some six months before.

When they had finished, he insisted on clearing the table and washing the plates.

Jess sat on the sofa, sipping her wine staring at the TV but not taking in what was on the screen. She wanted to bring the events of last night up, but she was unwilling to risk changing his mood.

It can’t go on like this, she thought. It was like walking on egg shells all the time.

Calvin came through from the kitchen, stood between Jess and the TV, leaned forward a little and gave her a half smile.

‘How’s Nana? … do you know, Jess, thinking about it, that’s a really childish name to give someone of her years. Wouldn’t great gran be better or maybe just call her Alice? That is her name after all.’

Jess frowned. How can a person’s mood change so quickly? He had gone from loving partner to nasty git in the time it took to toss a coin.

‘She’s Nana because she’s been Nana ever since I was a toddler, what’s more, she’ll always be Nana.’

Calvin slapped his forehead.

‘But it’s so bloody childish.’

‘I don’t care what you think it is, Calvin. She’s my relative not yours. Do I tell you what to call your gran?’

‘No,’ he replied, ‘and that’s because I call her Gran, not bloody Nana.’

Jess looked away.

‘I’ve had enough of this. It’s ridiculous.’

‘Here we go again,’ Calvin jeered. ‘Jess loses an argument and goes off in a sulk.’

‘I am not sulking,’ Jess replied, wondering how the conversation had managed to turn so quickly. ‘You’re just being mean. I do have feelings you know?’

‘So do I,’ said Calvin, ‘not that you ever notice. It’s always, Me, Me Me.’

He began to pace back and forth. Jess shrank back into the cushions on the sofa. This was never a good sign.

‘It can’t always be about you, Jess.’ Calvin’s voice raised a level. ‘You seem to think you’re the only person with feelings, but you’re not, you trample over mine whenever it pleases you.’

He stopped pacing and leaned towards her.

‘I’ve been under so much pressure recently, my confidence has been shot to pieces, but do you care? Just take last night for instance. In the space of a few minutes, I was embarrassed by you on two occasions and insulted by a man I don’t even know, then we get back and you can’t even give me a proper apology, it had to be forced out of you.’

Jess said nothing, she put her wine on the side table and waited for the storm to ride out.

Calvin began to pace the room again.

‘You really will have to start thinking about other people, Jess. Their lives matter too.’

‘I do,’ said Jess quietly. ‘I think about Nana all the time. Then there’s my family—’

‘You never talk about your family,’ shouted Calvin. ‘I can’t remember the last time you bought any of them up. It’s like they don’t exist, the only one you ever mention is your precious bloody Nana.’

He spat out the word Nana like an abusive term.

‘That’s because you always mock them when I do,’ said Jess. ‘You don’t like any of them.’

‘Well, that’s hardly surprising, they’re the most unlikeable bunch of misfits I’ve ever met.’

‘I’m not going to argue with you there,’ said Jess, trying to lighten the mood a little. ‘I love them all, they’re my family after all, but I don’t actually like any of them.’

‘You never talk about my family either,’ said Calvin, moving the argument along. He only had two surviving relatives: his mother and his gran, who he hadn’t seen for months. ‘Mum may as well not exist as far as you’re concerned.’

Jess and Calvin’s mother hadn’t hit it off from the start. She thought her son was wasting his time on Jess, a failed writer and a girl with no breeding to boot.

‘I sent your mother a birthday card only two weeks ago. And I rang her to wish her a Happy Birthday, which is more than you did.’ Jess wasn’t going to let him get away with that one.

‘Don’t try to turn this around to me,’ Calvin spat. ‘We’re discussing your behaviour.’

He stood in front of her again.

‘Why didn’t you stick up for me when Jamie was having a go at me last night?’

‘Did he have a go?’ Jess looked puzzled.

‘About the golf. The bastard set me up good and proper. Why didn’t you tell me he was a golf pro? I offered to give him tips for Christ’s sake.’

‘I didn’t know he was a golf pro and I don’t think he was offended