Page 102 of Lipstick Kiss

Chapter Thirty-Two

Freddie

It was the last Sunday before he was heading back to the rigs. Thankfully he’d only had to see his father once, and that was to report on the latest with what was happening on the rig. When he had discussed that he was making his career on the oil rigs, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the Turners owned an oil rig in the North Sea.

Freddie wanted to go overseas to work, but his father and grandfather had other plans. He was to inherit the Turner fortune so he would work on a Turner rig. It was the compromise Freddie would accept so he could earn a living. In the beginning, he gave money to Cynthia, but over time and her bitterness seeping through to everything she laid eyes on, he stopped the flow of funds.

Cynthia didn’t seem to care, meaning she was getting money from her father.

What for?

He didn’t want to know, but he hated to think about what she had to do with a son and partner to support.

Pete Boyle, Imelda’s father, had been worried about his daughter since she’d given birth to Daisy. He wasn’t convinced it was post-pregnancy issues. He felt it was more serious. The doctor had seen Imelda countless times and had ruled out any serious illnesses. Freddie suspected Cynthia was up to no good but didn’t think she would make Imelda ill. Seeing his wife scared and cowering in front of Turner Hall terrified him. Imelda had never said Cynthia had done anything bad to her, but was she hiding it, fearing it would get worse?

Freddie didn’t want to find out.

“I’m going to take the kids out into the sunshine,” Betty said once the dessert bowls were licked clean.

“Okay, lovely. We won’t be long and will come and join you,” Pete said, squeezing her hand as she got up.

“Who wants to kick a ball around the garden?” Betty said to the boys.

They all cheered. Archer took Luke by the hand, and they scrambled out of the dining room of Pete and Betty’s house and out the back.

“So we’re going to do this?” Imelda said.

She was back to her old self. Freddie made sure she didn’t eat or drink anything unless he had made it. He bought bottles of water from the town and only allowed her to drink from the bottle. If his sister was slowly poisoning his wife, which was Pete’s guess, then it probably wasn’t the food or drink but what she ate or drank from. There was no way Melly or Maggie would allow Cynthia anywhere near the food, not that his sister or father would entertain the idea of going below stairs.

“We have to, for the sake of your health. I’m terrified Cynthia is going to kill you,” Freddie said.

“I’m going to miss the kids so much.”

“I’ll keep you updated with everything that goes on with them. As soon as Daisy is old enough, we will make sure you two have a close relationship. I’ll raise the boys, and you can raise Daisy.”

“I’m scared.”

“It won’t be for long. It will be like we’re sending them to boarding school. Then, we can make plans when they’re out of school.”

“That’s ten years for Archer. So I will not see my kids for ten years?” Imelda wailed.

“You’ll see them, I promise,” Freddie said.

“But not as their mother. It will be from afar. They won’t be able to see me or hug me like their mother. I won’t be able to wipe or comfort their scraped knees.”

“But you’ll be alive, Imelda,” Pete said.

“Maybe we could try it for a year? Then, we could say I was sent away to get well, and we can make plans to permanently get off the island,” Imelda said.

“I can’t leave Copper Island, love,” Freddie said. “If I leave, this island and all who live on it will suffer if they don’t have me heading it up after my dad dies. Can you imagine Cynthia running things? How will people suffer? She isn’t running things now, and look what’s happening.”

“I know. I just wish there was another way,” Imelda said.

Freddie yanked her hand until she moved off her chair and onto his lap.

“We’ve bought two houses next door to each other. One you’ll live in, and I’ll come and spend the first three days of each three weeks off I have, then come down to Copper Island. Once the kids are old enough, they’ll join the rigs with me, although they won’t know it’s a Turner rig and then when we have our downtime, we’ll spend a couple of days at the house next door, and they’ll think nothing of it. You’ll be the next-door neighbour. We’ll colour your hair, hide all the photos of you in the house so their memories will fade, and when the time is right, we’ll reveal all, and they won’t realise you’ve always been in their lives. We cannot risk Cynthia moving to harm our children. Her fixation is with you. If you’re out of her sight, then I believe our kids will be safe.”

“I know we’ve been over this so many times. I feel like I’m trapped. If I stay with you, then I have to live at Turner Hall and accept my fate in the hands of Cynthia and your father, but if I leave, I won’t see my children.”

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