Page 70 of Merrily Ever After
Tina shook her head and while she sipped her wine and listened, Emily told her what she knew. About Merry. About how Sam and Ray’s relationship had been over long he’d started dating Tina and how guilty he had felt.
‘Well, that’s something at least,’ Tina muttered. ‘But he was obviously in touch with the other woman over that Christmas.’
‘Sam,’ Emily supplied. ‘Merry’s mum is called Sam.’
‘Sam.’ Tina’s eyes narrowed as she wracked her brains. ‘It must be Sam Shaw. I remember your dad mentioning her when we first got together. She was the last girlfriend he had before me.’
Emily’s breath hitched; it hadn’t occurred to her for a second that her mum might have heard of her. ‘Dad didn’t mention her surname. So I guess that would make her Merry Shaw.’
Tina huffed. ‘Unless this Sam woman gave her child the surname Meadows, like I did. Although a fat lot of good it did me.’
Emily frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I thought if you had Ray’s surname, even though we weren’t married, that he’d feel a deeper bond with you. I hoped it would make him stick around. Fool that I was.’
Emily took her mum’s hand and squeezed it. ‘You weren’t a fool; you were a brilliant mum who always put me first. And maybe it’s a good thing that Dad was an unreliable partner, because it meant you met Ian.’
Tina nodded. ‘Life’s a lot more plain sailing these days. Having your father coming in and out of our lives was like being permanently strapped into a rollercoaster.’
Emily smiled ruefully. ‘That’s how I’ve felt since finding out about having a half-sister.’
‘Oh darling!’ Her mum’s face crumpled. ‘I’ve made this all about me when I should have been thinking about you. How do you feel?’
‘I’m not sure yet.’ Emily was conscious of not upsetting her mum, but she couldn’t see how discovering she had a sibling could be a bad thing. ‘It’s you I’m more bothered about.’
‘You know, funnily enough, I think I’ve always known on some level that Ray was hiding something from me.’She looked defeated. ‘When I first saw that photograph, it set the cogs whirring in my brain, remembering tiny moments that had given me pause at the time. He was always restless; he couldn’t even sit still for five minutes without jiggling his legs. Your dad was on the streets for a while, you know, homeless. I put it down to that.’
Emily gasped. ‘I didn’t know that.’
Tina nodded. ‘He said he wanted to put the past behind him when you were born. But I can’t imagine that sort of thing ever really goes away.’
‘Poor Dad,’ she murmured.
‘Your gran was horrified when she met Ray for the first time,’ Tina chuckled. ‘She soon came round. He was a free spirit, your dad. He was a rubbish partner, but I have no regrets.’ She looked up at Emily and touched her cheek. ‘Because he gave me you. The best thing in my life.’
Emily leaned into her mum, and they hugged for a long time.
‘I think I’d like to try to find Merry. Do you mind?’ Emily pulled back and looked into her mum’s eyes.
Tina blew out a shaky breath and Emily could see how much it cost her to say her next words. ‘How could I mind? You’ve always wanted a sister.’
‘Thanks, Mum.’
Emily left soon afterwards for her cottage in Wysedale, her head spinning with all this new information, her emotions all over the place. Tonight’s task would be to see what she could find on the internet about Merry Shaw. Googling her own sister – if that wasn’t the definition of a dysfunctional family, she didn’t know what was.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Merry
7 DECEMBER
‘Enjoy, everyone,’ said Cole, sitting down opposite his dad. ‘Eat it while it’s hot.’
‘Don’t worry, little chap, I’ll save you a bit,’ said Fred to Otto, who had a hopeful paw on Fred’s leg.
‘I’ve already put some in a dish for him,’ I admitted, giving Astrid a guilty look. ‘Is he allowed it?’
‘Of course,’ she replied, tickling her little dog under his chin. ‘It is almost Christmas after all.’
