Read The Faithless Online

Authors: Martina Cole

Tags: #Fiction, #Crime, #General

The Faithless (5 page)

Jimmy found he was shaking, and he
hated
that he was so nervous about something so normal. His wife had only been for a visit to her mother’s – it wasn’t as if that was something outrageous. But she was so difficult these days, even making a cup of tea was like a military operation around her. He loved his new son and he adored his daughter, but Cynthia made everything awkward, he felt unable to enjoy being with his own family. He hated that he was so weak, and he knew that
she
hated that he was so weak. But he didn’t know how to fight her, he had never known how to fight for anything. That was the trouble.

He had always been the type of person who would do anything to keep the peace. That was all he had ever wanted, peace and quiet. How had it turned out so wrong? When did he realise that his life was a sham, and everyone had known long before he had that his wife was a nightmare?

As he heard the taxi pull up outside, he walked out into the hallway and said a silent prayer that his wife would be in a good mood for once. That she would walk into their house with a smile on her face, and tell him how much she had missed him.

But he didn’t hold out much hope.

Chapter Eight
 

Jack Callahan was watching
Rainbow
with his granddaughter on his lap. He loved this little girl, and he was loathe to send her back home to her mother. He didn’t think Cynthia was strange – he thought she was a complete fucking nut-job. And he was very vocal about his opinions, much to his wife’s chagrin.

‘Listen, Mary, the trouble with Cynthia is she’s self-obsessed, always was, and always will be. There is nothing you can do about it, so let it go, will you?’

Mary didn’t answer her husband; she knew from experience that he had said all he was going to say on the subject. Unlike her, he never made any allowances for his elder daughter, in fact, he was quite happy to denigrate her on an almost hourly basis. He had no time for Cynthia whatsoever and, as she had no time for him either, it was a very mutual arrangement. But it hurt Mary, because she loved her family, and she hated that her elder child had ruined everything with her toxic personality. She had left this poor child with them and, as much as she loved her, she knew that Cynthia should have wanted her own daughter at home with her, along with her new son. But Cynthia had never wanted Gabby, not really, and Mary knew she mustn’t think about that too much. It just hurt her feelings, hurt her inside.

Thankfully she had her younger daughter to take her mind off it. Celeste had just got in from work, and she was beaming, as always, with happiness. Smiling widely in response, Mary
looked at her younger daughter and said with determination, ‘You look happy!’

Celeste grinned back at her, and Mary decided that this child at least was going to be all right. Celeste was the antithesis of her older sister – she had no side to her, what you saw was what you got.

‘I’m all right, Mum. I take it Cynthia hasn’t taken poor Gabby home?’

Mary shook her head. ‘I think she’s still a bit tired after the birth of young Jimmy . . .’

Celeste frowned then, very theatrically, in a perfect imitation of her older sister, said ‘Don’t you mean
James,
Mum!’

They both laughed. Cynthia hated the child being called ‘Jimmy’. She had given birth to a James, and James was his name, that was the end of it.

‘Yeah, James! Like anyone will ever call him that.’

Celeste stopped laughing and said seriously, ‘Cynthia will, Mum, you know what she’s like.’

‘That’s true. Like anything else where the kids are concerned, we can only do what she wants.’

The laughter stopped completely then, even the pretence of it. They had often laughed about Cynthia and her ways, mocked her even – behind her back, of course – but suddenly it was as if they had decided to stop playing the game, as if they had all realised that, in reality, none of it was actually very funny. In order for Mary to see her grandchildren she had to go along with Cynthia’s rules – they all did. She used the children like a weapon. And they let her, they
allowed
her to do it, because they knew that without them in the background the children would have nothing.

‘Do you think she’ll ever be all right, Mum? Because she seems to me as if she’s getting unhappier by the day.’

Mary flapped her hand in annoyance. ‘She’ll never be happy, Celeste, it’s not in her nature.’

‘Well, that’s as may be, Mum, but at least she has a husband, and a family who care about her.’

Mary smiled sadly. ‘Well, for the time being anyway, eh, love?’

Jack Callahan, who had been listening to this exchange with half an ear, looked at his wife and daughter and shook his head in disbelief. Gesturing at Gabby, whose eyes were still glued to the TV, he said loudly, ‘Look at this little one here, would you two rather she went home with that hard bitch?’

Celeste sighed heavily at her father’s words. ‘I think you should think a little about what you say in front of the child, Dad, you know.’

Jack Callahan laughed uproariously, amazed at his daughter’s stupidity where her elder sister was concerned, and he said as much. ‘Oh, fuck off, this little one here knows the score. For fuck’s sake, she spends half her life here with us! As small as she is, she knows the score with that mad fucking whore.’

Mary Callahan shook her head in exasperation and, looking at her husband, she said seriously, ‘Will you ever stop calling your daughter a
whore
?’

Jack Callahan took a deep breath and, after exhaling loudly, he said in a very quiet voice, ‘And would you two ever fuck off? This child knows that she’s safe here with me. Because her father, God forgive him, is as frightened of her mother as everyone else is. Well, I ain’t, and I told him, poor fucker that he is, that if he was any kind of man he would batter her on a daily basis. Women like Cynthia need that. They are like poison, and you have to sort them out from the off. She looks down on us, and she looks down on
everyone
around her. If he had any fucking gumption he’d leave her, and do you know what? I’d be the first one to shake his hand if he did.’

Celeste looked at her mother and shrugged in resignation. Then Jack Callahan dropped his bombshell.

‘And you, Celeste, had better watch your back because, mark
my words, she doesn’t like what’s going on between you and Jonny Parker. As long as she leaves this little one here with us, I’ll swallow me knob, but I’m telling you now, I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could kick her.’

Gabby looked up at her granddad and smiled happily. She knew that he would always stand up for her. As young as she was, she knew, deep inside, that her mummy didn’t love her properly. She only felt truly loved and cared about when she was with her father, or her grandparents. Her daddy, she knew already, was too nervous of her mother to be trusted completely. Her granddad, though, would fight for her with everything he possessed. It was a good feeling, cuddled up with him, because she knew that he was the only person in her little world who wasn’t scared of her mummy.

Chapter Nine
 

As Jimmy watched Cynthia kneel down at the altar, ready to receive Holy Communion, he wondered at how they had ended up like this. They were like strangers. She avoided him at every opportunity, slept in their spare room, and tried to convince him it was because it was easier to see to their son. She shrugged off any attempt he made to discuss their financial situation – which, thanks to her, was dire – and she continued to spend money at an alarming rate.

Looking at her like this, from a distance, he understood how he had fallen in love with her. She was still beautiful, her body was hardly changed by childbirth. If anything, she looked lovelier. She had filled out somehow, and her curves were all in the right places. But now he knew her properly, and that, in all honesty, meant he knew that inside she wasn’t in any way beautiful. In fact, as far as her personality went, she was ugly. Ugly and hateful. Dissatisfied in every possible way with her life. And with him. She told him over and over again, how bored, disenchanted, and completely disillusioned she was with him and the life he had tried to give her. She made him feel as though everything he tried to do for her was pointless.

Now, as he watched her accept the communion host and look up at the cross of Christ, he wanted to slap her across the face. Of course he never would, he knew he wasn’t capable of that kind of display of emotion, not outwardly anyway. He seethed inside though, and imagined slapping her across the
face again and again. Oh, how he dreamt of that, how he dreamt of putting her firmly in her place. But he didn’t know how to.

He waited for her to come back to the pew beside him and, kneeling down, he prayed to God to give him strength. The strength to fight against this wife of his, and the strength to fight for his children, because he knew that, if he wasn’t careful, she would hurt them too, just as she had hurt him.

Chapter Ten
 

Jonny Parker looked at Celeste as she walked back to the table and sat down and wondered at how much his life had changed through meeting this girl. She was lovely, really lovely. It wasn’t so much her looks – though she was certainly the prettiest in the pub tonight – but she was lovely
inside.
There wasn’t a bad bone in her body. He loved that she saw the best in everyone, even that leech of a sister of hers. What a narrow escape he’d had there!

All those years ago he had been blinded by Cynthia’s beauty, but then so had a lot of men. She had been cold-blooded though, so he’d had to get shot of her. In the end she went for a man she believed would give her the life she craved. Unfortunately, it seemed, she had made a serious fuck-up in that respect, and now she was tied to that poor bastard come hell or high water. But that wasn’t his problem – he’d wiped her from his memory. His love for Celeste was completely different. Of all the women he had met, slept with, and gone through, she was the only one who had kept his attention, kept him interested, and kept him enthralled. He loved her with every fibre of his being. He just hated that he had been with her sister first, that Cynthia was a part of his life still, because she was there whether he liked it or not. And he didn’t like it, not one bit.

He was making a name for himself, becoming a Face of sorts, making himself important to the right people. He could give Celeste a good life, a good home, and a good seeing-to as and
when she needed it. He also knew that Celeste was the kind of girl who would appreciate that – and welcome it. She didn’t have any hidden agenda, she just loved life itself. And he loved her for that.

His mother was a drama queen. He loved her of course, but he knew that he could never live with all that himself. Celeste was a real woman, as innocent and unassuming as she was. Jonny knew she would never understand how marvellous she really was. He also knew that Cynthia, her older sister, would never accept that he had chosen Celeste over her. But he had, and he would never regret that decision. Cynthia still bothered him though, if he was truthful. For some reason he knew that Cynthia would make them pay for their happiness. He didn’t know how, or why, but he knew Cynthia would somehow extract her pound of flesh. It was in her nature. He had fallen for Cynthia, sexually and mentally, for a short while, but he never wanted Celeste to know that. Cynthia was poison, she was not someone anyone in their right mind would have kept in touch with. And she was dangerous, because she had no real care for anyone or anything, except herself. He had realised overnight how one person could change your life, not for the better, but for the worse. Because that was what people like Cynthia did, they tainted everyone around them, and they made sure that everything and everyone they touched would be as broken as they were.

Back then he would never have dreamt that he would one day meet her sister and fall so deeply in love with her. To be truthful, if he had known the connection that first night he met Celeste, he would have walked away. But it hadn’t happened like that. He
had
met her, and he had fallen for her. And now he couldn’t imagine being without her. If Cynthia caused any aggravation whatsoever, if she made his relationship with Celeste a problem in any way, he would happily wipe her off the face of the earth. Because, unlike Celeste, he knew the
real
Cynthia, and he had no intentions of making any kind of excuses for her.

She had nearly got her claws into him once before, and he would never ever let her do that to him again.

Chapter Eleven
 

‘Come on, Cynth, let’s go out for a couple of hours? Your mum’s happy to have the kids.’

Cynthia looked at her husband and stifled the urge to take him out once and for all. She pictured herself taking a knife from the wooden block she had paid so much for, and running him through with the boning knife. She knew she would never use the boning knife otherwise; after all, why would she ever feel the need to bone a piece of meat? That knife was obsolete, she would never use it, no more than she would use most of the other knives in the set. She had bought them because they were expensive, and would give her kudos should anyone visit her kitchen. But sometimes, like now, she felt that she could happily use a couple of the knives on her lawful husband.

She was getting more and more worried, because he had no idea about how much debt she was actually in. He didn’t understand how hard it was for her when she wanted something new, because he couldn’t earn enough money to keep them afloat. Oh, it was so unfair! Here she was laden down with two children, a house that had a kitchen worth more than their car, and a husband who was never going to go up in his world because he didn’t have the fucking brains he was born with. She was now lumbered with a moron, who she had never really even liked, if she was totally honest, let alone loved, but who, until recently, she had believed would give her the life she craved. The life she had
deserved
because, after all, she was very beautiful
and very shrewd, and she had made a point of looking out for a man she was certain would give her what she wanted – a life of luxury and ease.

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