Page 108 of How Good It Was (Excess All Areas 3)

Cerys wandered over to them, looking gorgeous in her gunmetal grey dinner jacket with nothing underneath and slim pants. “What should you have done in a nightclub?”

“This,” she gestured around furiously.

Cerys shook her head. “Nan probably wouldn’t have come if you’d held it at the nightclub.”

Chaya looked to where Nan sat in a floral dress. Next to her were Ben and Alex’s parents, both of whom looked subdued. “And then, we would have missed out on the fairy cakes with our initials on it.”

“They are so freaking cute.” Willow had taken a photograph of them. Two fairy cakes for each person with their initials on it in little silver balls. There were even a little CE and CH to make sure Cerys and Chaya didn’t take the wrong ones.

“Watch when the lads get here,” Cerys added. “They are like putty when it comes to Nan’s fairy cakes. Rumour has it she has extras in that ginormous shopping bag of hers.”

“It looks beautiful,” Zoe said as she joined them.

“Thank you,” Willow signed in response. She couldn’t expand much beyond that because she’d only just started to learn sign language, but she wanted to try whenever she could.

“Shouldn’t you be sitting down or something?” Izabel said as she bounced over in a pretty pink dress.

Willow laughed and pointed down to her toes, which she wiggled. “I’m living up to the whole barefoot and pregnant stereotype.” Her phone vibrated in her palm. “Oh, this is probably Simon letting me know the guys are on their way. One second.”

She answered her phone as she stepped away from the group. “Hello.”

“Willow, it’s mom.”

Tears pricked Willow’s eyes, and the same time, anger churned in her stomach. “Mom. You haven’t called or replied to any of my texts. I’ve been worried. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, sweetheart. But I’m worried about you. All of this is so unlike you. Everyone is worried.”

“Why didn’t you call me back? Did Dad tell you not to?”

There was a pause, too long.

“It’s complicated. The lawyers and things. You understand.”

“No. I don’t understand, Mom. You had to know. All the money I earned paid for your lifestyle. Please, help me get what’s mine. I won’t leave you broke and out on the street. That’s not what I want.”

“It’s not what I want, either. I want us all back together ... well, I ... you have to stop this lawsuit. It’s not good for the family. And I saw your post. I can’t believe you didn’t tell us in person that you were pregnant.”

“Did you know what Dad was doing?”

Another pause. “Your dad didn’t do anything wrong. We gave you every opportunity to film when you were younger. It’s only right that we were entitled to some payment at the time for the sacrifices.”

“Do you really believe that, Mom?” She’d always hoped that her mom loved her. For who she was, not what she could do for her. To hear her confirm that she’d been in it for the money severed the last thread of hope Willow ever had.

The pause was long, but this time, as the noise in the room ebbed momentarily, she heard it. A whisper so faint she almost missed it.

“Dad,” she said, realising her mom sounded hollow because she must be on speaker phone.

“Willow. You’re a hard girl to get hold of.” Her dad’s voice grated over the phone line, and she was relieved she couldn’t see his face.

“We aren’t meant to be talking directly to each other.”

“Oh, I know. I just wondered if our messages were getting muddled when we talked through lawyers.”

Willow sighed as she glanced out of the window. “What do you want?”

“You need to drop this action by Friday, or I’ll be changing track in how I make this problem go away.”

“All you need is a fake evil laugh at the end of the sentence, Dad. Are you trying to be threatening?” she said, her voice sounding way more confident than she actually felt.

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