Read The Faithless Online

Authors: Martina Cole

Tags: #Fiction, #Crime, #General

The Faithless (4 page)

Mary Callahan grinned suddenly. ‘You’re pregnant again, aren’t you?’

Cynthia closed her eyes slowly and nodded. ‘Yeah, I think so. Just my fucking luck.’

Mary hugged her, even though the hug wasn’t returned. ‘That’s what life is about, Cynthia! It’s about having babies, and living your life as best you can. Millions of women do it every day.’ She laughed then and said gently, ‘And you, Cynth, have it easier than most, love.’

Cynthia shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Well, that’s as may be, but I want a bit more than this, Mum. I never signed on for cheap and cheerful, and I’m not settling for anything less.’

Her daughter’s words wounded Mary, as she knew they were directed at her and the life she lived. The inference was that she had failed somehow, because the Callahans weren’t rich or important enough for her elder child. Oh, she was itching to slap that beautiful face, but she wouldn’t because she knew it would be pointless. She’d have a fleeting feeling of satisfaction, but it would also mean she wouldn’t see her beloved grandchild until her daughter felt she needed to get away from the poor child once again. So Mary took a deep breath and said matter-of-factly, ‘You got more than most women. Your trouble is you want the fucking earth on a plate. Well, as my mother used to say, you’ve made your bed, you better get used to lying in it.’

Looking around the kitchen as if it was the local dump, Cynthia replied, ‘Well, you would know more about that than I would.’

Mary wanted to punch her daughter’s lights out so badly she could almost taste it. Instead she said as coolly as she could, ‘Do you know something, Cynth, one of these days you are going to push me too far, and when you do . . .’ She was poking a finger into her daughter’s face now, the anger rising inside her like a tide.

‘Nana Mary, Granddad’s here!’

Gabby, having run into the kitchen, was beside herself with excitement. After her nana Mary, her granddad Jack was the next best thing in her world.

Mary took a deep breath to calm her anger before she turned to Gabby, saying with forced joviality, ‘Ah, sure, he’ll be thrilled to see you, young lady!’

But Gabby could feel the tension in the small kitchen and, as always, it frightened her. She hated it when her mummy was like this, grim-faced and hard-mouthed. She wished her mummy would laugh more; she had a lovely laugh, like she had a lovely face.

‘You better run, Mum, your better half just got home from the pub early. That must be a fucking first for you, eh?’ Cynthia couldn’t resist another jibe.

‘Oh, you’re a bitter pill, girl. At least your father
wants
to come home. More than you can say for poor Jimmy, I’m sure.’ Mary knew it was a cheap shot but she couldn’t help herself; sometimes Cynthia pushed you to the limit. Job himself would have struggled to be patient around her daughter.

Chapter Five
 

Jimmy Tailor liked all his in-laws. In fact, he was thrilled to be spending Christmas with them – anything was better than the silent dinner he would have had at home, with Cynthia sending him sneering, reproachful looks over the table. At least here he’d have a bit of fun and so would Gabby. Jimmy was especially fond of Celeste, his wife’s younger sister. She was a really nice girl, not as beautiful as Cynthia, but still very attractive. She had a generous nature and kind heart too, and that made her a joy to be around.

‘Hi, Jimmy, you look well.’

He grinned with pleasure. Celeste was always glad to see him. ‘So do you, love. In fact, you look wonderful.’

She almost shone with pleasure at the compliment. Jimmy would never understand his wife’s animosity towards her sister. It was beyond his comprehension. Jimmy didn’t have a jealous bone in his body, so he never understood the naked envy in his wife’s eyes when she looked at her little sister.

‘Don’t start her off, her head’s big enough as it is.’ He could hear the nastiness in his wife’s voice.

Celeste smiled at her sister and said sweetly, ‘You’d know all about that, Cynth. It’s a wonder you can leave the fucking house!’

Everyone laughed. Cynthia watched them as they laughed at her expense. She hated that they were her family, hated that these people were her blood, hated that she needed them, that they were the only people who really knew her. It was
the last place she wanted to be on Christmas Day but, then, she never missed an opportunity to lord it over them and look down her nose at them.

‘Ha bloody ha ha. What are you so done up for?’

Celeste grinned once more, she was always so good-natured it made Cynthia want to hit her.

‘Don’t you mean for
who
?
Didn’t you tell her, Mum?’

Mary flapped her hand with feigned discretion. ‘Why would I? It’s your news to tell.’

‘Come on then, Celeste, out with it.’ Cynthia sounded bored now, as if anything to do with her sister was beneath her. Which, as far as Cynthia was concerned, pretty much summed up how she felt about Celeste and her excuse for a life.

‘I’m seeing Jonny Parker, have been for a couple of months.’

Mary watched Cynthia as she digested this little bit of information, saw the shock as it occurred to her what that statement actually meant in real terms.

‘He’s too old for you.’

Celeste laughed, a happy, loud laugh, a natural laugh that made her look prettier than she actually was. She too had the arresting Callahan blue eyes and blond hair, although she didn’t have the striking glamour of her sister. She might be a pale imitation in looks but Celeste’s beauty came from within, from her nature. She had a wonderful lust for life, and she honestly believed that everyone was nice and kind, like her, and that if you treated people decently they would reciprocate.

‘What you talking about, Cynthia? He’s twenty-seven, and I’m nineteen. Eight years ain’t much now, is it? It ain’t like I’m thirteen and he’s twenty-one. He’s such a nice bloke, Cynth, treats me like a queen.’

Cynthia forced a smile on to her face; her sister couldn’t know how this news was really affecting her. ‘Well, you make sure he carries on treating you like that, OK?’

Celeste nodded happily, and Cynthia saw the genuine
pleasure on her face. She turned to her father. ‘What do you think about it, Dad?’

Jack Callahan shrugged. He was already half cut, having been down the local pub for the best part of the day. He tried to focus on his elder daughter for a few seconds before saying amiably, ‘What’s to think? He’s a nice enough fellow, and you can tell he thinks the world of her. Did you know he’s bought the bookies on the high street? He’s a dark horse, that one. He already owns a couple of pubs. This one here will be living the life of Riley if she plays her cards right!’

‘Oh, Dad!’

Celeste was crimson with embarrassment at her father’s words, and they all laughed at her discomfort at being the centre of attention, but knowing that she loved it really.

‘Gabby can be your bridesmaid, she’d make a gorgeous little attendant!’ Mary’s voice was loud, and she watched her elder daughter carefully; if Celeste decided to settle down with Jonny Parker, and it looked more and more like that was going to be the case, Cynthia needed to accept it as soon as possible. Jonny and Cynthia had a history, not that Celeste knew that, but Mary knew that Cynthia had set her cap at him years ago. He had not been averse at first – no bloke was when she looked at them with her lovely face – but he had realised very quickly that Cynthia was seriously high maintenance and had dropped her so fast it had made her head spin. She was now hoping Cynthia would not feel the urge to enlighten her younger sister of that fact. Not that Celeste would be all that bothered, but Mary suspected from her reaction that Cynthia had never quite got over Jonny. And, as much as her elder daughter aggravated her, she still wouldn’t like to see her hurt. But, more than that, she didn’t want her younger child’s happiness compromised because Cynthia was jealous. And jealous she might be, because Jonny Parker was going places, and that meant that Celeste would be going with him.

Mary Callahan looked at her granddaughter, the light of her life, and wondered, in the glow of her Christmas tree, what the future held for them all.

Knowing her elder child like she did, she knew that her younger daughter’s life could be destroyed in an instant. But, if that ever happened, Mary would retaliate in a heartbeat because, if push came to shove, her younger child would win hands down. Cynthia had been given her chance with Jonny Parker many moons ago, and she had played it all wrong. Now he was fair game, and her Celeste was welcome to him. If Cynthia felt the need to challenge that, then Mary would be only too happy to put the fucker wise. Cynthia needed a wake-up call, and this might just be it.

Mary had two daughters, and she loved them both in her own way, but she wouldn’t let one of them walk all over the other.

Chapter Six
 

‘He’s so handsome, Cynth!’

Mary wasn’t surprised that her daughter didn’t answer her, it was par for the course, but sometimes, like now, it grated. She looked down her bloody nose at them all, yet she still dumped the children on her parents on a regular basis. ‘He’s the image of Jimmy, but I can see you in him as well.’

Cynthia smiled but it wasn’t a real smile. She was just going through the motions.

‘We love having him over. Little Jimmy Junior!’

‘He’s James, Mum, he’ll always be James.’ Her daughter said it as if it was a matter of life and death. Which of course it was to her.

‘Well, that’s your call, love. He’s your son after all.’

Cynthia nodded in agreement. ‘Can you keep Gabriella for a few more days, just until I get into a routine?’

Mary nodded silently. She had been looking after Gabby for nearly six weeks now and, apart from Jimmy popping in most evenings to see his daughter, she might as well be an orphan, because Cynthia didn’t bother with her at all.

James Junior was now a month old, and it looked like Cynthia was going to be the same with this child as she was with poor little Gabby. She fed him, changed him, and washed him, he was immaculately turned out, and well cared for in every way – outwardly that is – but she never picked him up unless she had to. Cynthia only did what she felt was expected of her. It was
frightening to admit that his own mother, her daughter, had no real love for him. Because she knew that she didn’t. She didn’t truly care for either of her children. It was as if love was beyond her. Mary wished she knew how to stop it, how to make her daughter see the mistake she was making. Tell her how she saw through her – her life, her marriage and her sorry attempt at being a mother. She never comforted or played with her children, showed them any love or maternal instinct. Yes, she catered for their welfare, but she always kept her distance from them somehow. Cynthia always seemed to be on the periphery of their lives, never at the centre of it like she should have been.

Cynthia had always been a cold fish, she had never grasped the meaning of happiness. It seemed to have eluded her somehow, and Mary wondered at times if that was her fault. But she knew logically it wasn’t anything she had done – in the beginning she had loved Cynthia as much as she had Celeste. She had loved both her girls with a deep and abiding passion from the minute she had given birth to them. But Cynthia had always had this wall around her, and nothing Mary had done had ever broken through it. So she had eventually accepted her daughter’s personality, accepted that her Cynthia was not built for big displays of affection – in fact they troubled her, bothered her. Cynthia had always been a law unto herself, and it had been hard for Mary, a genuinely warm person, to be rebuffed by her own daughter from a young age. From then on, Cynthia had been a child who was difficult to love, really love. Mary had even disliked her sometimes, and now she wondered if that was why her daughter was such a hardcase. She’d tried to understand her daughter’s personality but, if she was honest, it was beyond her. Cynthia had never been an easy child, and she was not an easy woman.

But now, her daughter’s aloofness, and her complete indifference to her own children really worried her. She knew she couldn’t do anything about it, because outwardly Cynthia was
the perfect mother – who would believe her? But Mary worried that her grandchildren would suffer one day for their mother’s lack of genuine affection.

Jimmy tried to make up for it, she knew, she saw that every day, and she wished she could tell him that she understood what he was going through. But voicing her worries would be tantamount to treason, would be criticising her own flesh and blood, and she just couldn’t do that. It would be different if Jimmy came to her, and said it out loud. But she knew he would never do that. Cynthia had him well and truly under the thumb.

‘Are you all right, Cynth? You look so down, love.’

Cynthia looked into her mother’s eyes, the same deep blue eyes that her daughter had inherited, and she said in genuine bewilderment, ‘’Course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?’

Mary smiled sadly. This was hard for her, really hard – she didn’t know how she was supposed to deal with any of this.

Chapter Seven
 

Jimmy looked around the kitchen and made sure there wasn’t a cup out of place. He wanted Cynthia to come home from her mother’s to a spotless house and a nice meal. He had even cooked for them. He was looking forward to seeing her and his new son, of course. He just wished his daughter was coming home with them too.

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