The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) by T. Belshaw (the best books to read .txt) 📗

‘Tea?’ she asked.

‘If you’re making it?’

He looked around as he walked into the lounge.

‘She’s had the place knocked about a bit since the last time I came inside. The stairs used to come off the kitchen. There was no hall here, just a door out to the front yard.’

‘That was about twenty-five years ago,’ replied Jess. ‘The old stairway had a problem and had to be taken out, so she had the place redesigned. You can still work out where the old stairway used to be in the kitchen. Haven’t you been in here since then? I’m sure Nana said you and Mum came around to borrow some money when I was little.’

‘I didn’t come in. Your mother had to persuade the old witch to give us a few quid.’

Jessica’s lips became a thin line.

‘She helped you out, Dad, and what did you do? You gambled away the money she gave you to pay the mortgage, so we ended up getting evicted.’

Bill looked like he was going to argue the point, but decided against it.

‘Water under the bridge,’ he said.

‘There’s been a lot of water flowing under that particular bridge over the years, Dad.’

Jess walked into the kitchen, filled the kettle and switched it on as Bill walked around, opening a drawer here, a cupboard there.

‘It could do with a revamp,’ he said.

‘It’s having one,’ replied Jess. ‘I got Robin’s Kitchens to do an estimate.’

Her father whistled. ‘That won’t be cheap.’

‘It won’t,’ Jessica agreed as she poured boiling water into two mugs.

Bill pulled out a chair and sat down at the huge oak table. He rubbed his hands over it as Jess put his tea in front of him. ‘I bet this has lived through some interesting times.’

‘Nana gave birth to Grandma on that table,’ Jess replied, running her own hands over the surface.

Bill pulled his hands away as if he’d received an electric shock.

‘She always was a strange one. Can you remember? Martha and Marjorie used to claim she was a witch and practiced magic in the loft.’

‘Of course I remember. I remember everything.’ She curled up her lip as she looked across the table at her father. ‘I remember the Christmases with no presents. I remember the birthdays without parties and just a second-hand book or two as a present. I remember going to school hungry because there was nothing in the cupboard for breakfast, I remember—’

‘All right, all right. Times were hard. Lots of families suffered back then.’

‘Yes, but in our case, there was no need for anyone to suffer. You had a good job but you spent all of your wages at the bookies or the racetrack. You sold, or pawned everything we ever owned to fund your habit. You lost our house. You made our lives a living hell, never knowing what depths you would stoop to in order to put your next bet on.’

Bill reached out a hand. ‘Come on, Jess, it wasn’t all bad. You had some good times too. Didn’t you?’

‘All my good times were spent here with Nana.’ Jess felt a lump in her throat, so sipped at her tea to hide it.

‘I wasn’t the best father, or husband, Jess, I admit that, but I did want the best for you. That’s why I was always chasing the impossible dream. To enable us to have nice things.’

‘You were an addict, Dad. There’s no getting away from it. I was lying in bed last night thinking about it all.’

‘Forgive and forget, eh, Jess? A lot of water—’

‘The bridge flooded, Dad. then it collapsed under the torrent.’

‘Jess.’

‘Last night, I remembered something I had buried so deep I hoped I’d never get a hint of it ever again.’

‘Don’t…’

‘You tried to get my mother to go on the game just to raise a few quid for a bet on the three-thirty.’ Jess almost spat out the words.

‘Now, that’s not true, Jess.’

‘I remembered it like it happened yesterday. I had to come to your bedroom door, pretending to be sick or you were going to take her out onto the streets.’

Bill’s head fell.

‘I wasn’t in a good place then, Jess.’

‘You’re not in a much better place now by the sounds of it. How much do you actually owe?’

Bill shrugged.

‘How much are you asking me to raise, Dad?’

‘Forty thousand.’

‘FORTY THOU—’

‘I was going to buy into a card school, Jess. A big one, with big gamblers. It would have been a regular event. My share would have been twenty percent of the deposits every night. Punters had to pay us to take part. I couldn’t lose.’

‘But you managed to drag victory into the gaping jaws of defeat, yet again. You really are the world’s biggest loser, aren’t you?’

‘It really wasn’t my fault this time, Jess, honestly. I borrowed the money for my stake, but, the night before I was due to hand it over, there was a dummy run, with some of the prospective clients. I sat in… The whole thing was rigged, Jess. I was set up.’

Jess looked away and shook her head.

‘You stupid fool.’

‘I know, I wasn’t thinking straight, Jess. They screwed me good and proper, but the thing is. I owe them now, they want their money, and these aren’t people you can say no to.’

‘I can say no, and I’m going to. Sorry, Dad, but you made your bed, now you can lie in it.’

‘Jess. Please. I’m begging you.’ Bill’s eyes became liquid pools.

‘No. Even if I could get the money from the trust, I wouldn’t. What the hell would I say to the other trustees?’

‘Make something up. Say you want to invest in a business venture I’m setting up. You’ll think of something.’

Jess walked into the lounge with her father in pursuit.

‘Goodbye, Dad.’

‘Don’t you dare treat me like this, after all I’ve…’

‘After all you’ve done for me? My God, that’s rich.’ Jess walked down the hall and yanked open the front door. ‘OUT!’ she commanded.

Bill walked slowly out of the house. On the bottom step he