Page 45 of Finding Love in Micklewick Bay

Johan looked startled at being pulled up in such a way. ‘Oh, yes, of course. I apologise, I was simply explaining how I felt at the time; it wasn’t personal.’ His eyes flicked quickly at Stella.

Wow! What a piece of work!Stella struggled to believe it could be anything other than personal. ‘So we’ve established youdidn’t want to be a father, which is why, I assume, you took off,’ she said calmly. ‘Where did you go?’ She’d already decided the best way to deal with this man was to take a detached standpoint, treat the situation as though it was one of her cases. His cold-hearted comment had proved her right.

Johan went on to explain in a waffling, round-about way how he’d headed back to his home town of Harderwijk in Holland where he found work as an odd-job man. Stella and Pim listened, exchanging knowing looks from time-to-time. Finally, Johan arrived at the point where he met Pim’s mother, Anouk, with whom he’d had a brief relationship. ‘Pim is the product of the few short months Anouk and I were together. She wanted a child, I didn’t.’ He gave another of his lazy shrugs. ‘She got her child, the relationship broke down soon after.’

‘“Her child”,’ Pim said, shaking his head.

Pushing down her feelings of repulsion, Stella said, ‘So, it would seem history repeated itself. Your girlfriend tells you she’s pregnant with your baby, and you do a runner; the “child” in the case you’ve just mentioned being Pim.’ Stella held him in a stony gaze. ‘Even you must be able to see there’s a pattern forming.’

Johan laughed, scratching his head. ‘Well, I wouldn’t describe it quite like that. It was different with Anouk. I stayed with her for a couple of weeks after the child, er, Pim was born, before I left.’

‘That’s big of you. Still sounds like you did a runner to me. And I’m interested to know how you would actually describe it,’ she said, his patronising tone grating on her like nails down a blackboard.

‘Yeah, I’d be keen to hear that too,’ said Pim, sitting back in his chair and folding his arms across his broad chest.

A thought suddenly struck Stella, and before Johan could answer, she jumped in, ‘Can I just ask, can we expect any more Johan de Groote offspring to make an appearance?’

‘Oh… I… um, a former girlfriend of mine has a set of twins in Roussillon in France.’ He was suddenly reluctant to make eye contact. ‘I … er… I believe I’m their father.’

‘Unbelievable!’ Pim pushed his hands into his hair.

‘Wow!’ Stella couldn’t hide her incredulity. ‘Youbelieveyou’re their father?’

He nodded sheepishly. ‘According to Sylvie, their mother, Iamtheir father.’

Stella shook her head. ‘And how old are these twins?’

‘I think they’ll be about eight or nine; something like that.’

‘“Something like that”?’ Stella shot him a look of utter disdain.

‘Yes, I’m not sure exactly.’

‘And are they girls or boys?’

‘A girl and a boy.’

‘And is that it? That’s all of us?’ asked Pim, his tone stern.

‘I have another daughter back in the Netherlands; Katrijn – her mother and I grew close when I was doing some odd jobs on her house – but that’s it. That’s all of you.’

‘That’s all of us.’ Pim repeated his words, his face a picture of disbelief.

Johan’s words tumbled around Stella’s mind. She’d gone from being an only child, to suddenly having four half-siblings in an unbelievably short space of time. Something told her there was a chance there could be more, judging by the way she and Pim had had to drag this information out of him. She took a sip of her coffee, peering over her mug, working out how best to move forward with this situation.

Johan shuffled in his seat, looking decidedly shifty.

Was there anything about him that she’d inherited other than her physical appearance? she wondered. She sincerely hoped he hadn’t passed on his appalling lack of conscience and deep-rooted selfish streak. He hadn’t once said he was sorryfor walking away from his children, for turning his back on his responsibility, for not caring what had happened to them. A thought hit her out of the blue. Had her reluctance to get involved in relationships passed to her from his genes? Her face paled at that, before sense kicked in, reminding her it was her mother’s advice that was responsible for her keeping relationships at arm’s length, and the reason was sitting right here in front of her; her father was the one with commitment issues, not her mum. Relief washed over her and she took another sip of coffee.

Setting the mug down, she turned to Pim who she noted was looking drawn, with no trace of his familiar ready smile. ‘Are you okay, Pim?’

He looked over at her and gave a weak smile. ‘Yeah, just a bit shocked, that’s all. How about you?’

Despite the information Johan had, reluctantly, delivered, Stella found she felt decidedly robust, her lawyer’s persona had served her well, providing her with some necessary bolstering. ‘I’m fine.’ She smiled back at him.

‘You’re a tough cookie, but I suppose I didn’t expect anything less.’ Johan gave a hollow laugh. ‘And I suppose no one is going to ask me how I’m feeling in all of this? After all, I’m the one who’s sitting here, being interrogated by two people, being ganged up on. I’ve just taken it on the chin.’

Stella and Pim exchanged looks of disbelief. The memory that her mum had described her father as a selfish man who didn’t care about anyone else’s feelings, crept into her mind. ‘And how exactlyareyou feeling, Johan? Please do enlighten us, we’re dying to know,’ Stella said calmly, not bothering to hide the note of sarcasm in her voice.

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