Tangled Lives Read Online Free

meet,’ she said.
    Richard nodded approvingly. ‘Seems best for now.’
    She felt shaky and weak as she made her way slowlyupstairs to the bedroom. Jamie and Richard can’t possibly understand the real significance of that letter. I’m not sure I do either. Except I’m seeing my son, my very own firstborn, for the first time in thirty-five years.

3
    It was Monday night, and Ed was on his way home to his flat – now heated, thank goodness. As he walked from the Tube station he rang Emma for the third time to see if she wanted to meet up.
    He was sure she said she’d be at home tonight, but her phone went straight to answer. Where was she? When he got in he grabbed a beer from the fridge. His flatmate, Mike, was in his room on his computer. Mike was an addictive gamer, often playing war games late into the night, and they rarely saw each other except to squabble over who finished the milk. He checked the phone again. Nothing. The familiar twisting in his stomach started up again. No matter how much Emma said she loved him – and she’d said it a lot since they began dating three months ago – he found it hard to believe her. Ed knew her reputation, of course. Like the rest of the family, he’d listened endlessly to Marsha’s lurid stories of Emma’s love life as a teenager, but he understood. She’d had a rubbishupbringing – which was why she’d practically lived at their house – a mother who mostly left her with a string of au pairs, but when she was home flew into unpredictable rages and criticised her endlessly. And a father who lived in New Zealand with his new family and saw her once a year if she was lucky.
    He’d got together with Emma when she was on the rebound from that psychopath Lewis, who by all accounts had been hideously jealous when he was with Emms. It got to the stage where he didn’t even trust her to go out without him, and began stalking the TV production company in Soho where she worked as a researcher. Emma had been terrified. But now he was going out with her, Ed could almost see Lewis’s point of view. There was something so mercurial about Emms. You thought you were holding onto her, but she was never quite there, even when she was actually in your arms. And then your mind began to play tricks.
    He took a deep breath and called his sister.
    ‘Ed … how’s it going?’
    ‘Hi, sis … is Emms there?’
    There was a pause on the other end of the phone.
    ‘Mash?’
    ‘Sorry, I’m here. Just painting my toenails and it’s got a bit crucial. You can’t stop mid-nail or it goes lumpy, so I was wedging my phone on my shoulder. Go on …’
    ‘I was supposed to be working tonight, but I swapped tomorrow’s shift with Andy – he has to go to some familything. So I thought I’d see Emms and she isn’t answering her phone.’
    ‘Sorry, she’s not here. I haven’t spoken to her since this morning.’
    ‘No probs, I’ll keep trying. If you see her, let her know I called.’
    ‘Sure … see ya.’
    He hung up, embarrassed at his neediness, but he still couldn’t believe a girl as beautiful as Emma would give him a second glance. She was surrounded by those cool, Oxbridge media types at work, all of whom must be hitting on her twenty-four seven. Shut up! He needed distraction, and sat himself down in front of some ludicrous television show with another beer.
    The next thing he knew he was stretched out on the sofa, his phone, which he’d left on the cushion beside him, buzzing in his ear.
    ‘Eddie?’
    ‘Hi, babe.’ He sat up, glancing at his watch. It was midnight.
    ‘Sorry I didn’t get back to you. God, I am so bloody knackered,’ he heard her say.
    ‘Working late?’ he asked.
    ‘I had to stay to make a couple of calls to the West Coast. They couldn’t talk to me till their afternoon and of course they’re eight hours behind. Anyway, one of them didn’t even answer and the other was fucking useless.’
    ‘Is this for the prison doc?’
    Emma yawned. ‘Yeah