Vivi Misti - Book 5, The Porth Kerensa Series

Flat Two, Vivi Misti

Sadie and Faith Jackson

“Good morning, Faith,” Harry called out to the little girl running down the path towards the lavender patch he was tending.

“Hello, Mr Harry,” she cried, happily. Pleased, as she always was, to see her dear smiling friend. Faith loved the hours she spent in the garden with her next door neighbour, tending the pretty flowers and shrubs that Mr Harry and Rachel had planted for her.

“Where’s your mam?” Mr Harry looked around for Faith’s mother. Faith knelt beside him and carefully picked her trowel out from Mr Harry’s tool basket.

“She’s still indoors, on the phone,” Faith said, pointing at the open patio doors of her living room before busying herself digging up a dandelion. Mr Harry lifted a hand in greeting to Sadie, who had come to the door with her phone pressed to her ear. She waved back distractedly and turned away again.

Faith looked up at Mr Harry and smiled sadly. “She told me to come outside. I think she’s talking to Marcus.”

Mr Harry sighed and ruffled Faith’s hair. “You’re a blessing for your mother, Faith.”

Sadie switched the phone to her left ear and fumbled in her handbag for the pack of cigarettes she hadn’t been able to throw away.

“Damn ex-husbands,” she thought, angrily as she stood outside the patio doors and lit her first cigarette in three days.

“Are you listening to me, Sadie?” Marcus was abrupt, his coldness flowing easily down the phone line.

“Yes, Marcus,” she muttered and inhaled.

“You’re smoking again,” he said, moodily.

“So what if I am? What the hell has it got to do with you?”

“I thought you might have learned there’s always a price to pay for indulging vices, Sadie,” he said, quietly.

“Don’t you dare,” Sadie hissed. “Don’t even think about walking that path with me, Marcus Jackson.”

His silence was loaded, even over the phone. They listened to the sound of Sadie smoking whilst she watched their daughter down in the garden with gentle widowed Harry Sparkes.

Eventually, Marcus spoke again, “Are you going to make a contribution towards Jake’s expenses at uni?”

“Are you going to make a contribution towards Faith’s expenses at life?” Marcus sighed impatiently and Sadie inhaled sharply. “I didn’t think so. The answer is no. We agreed you pay for Jake and I pay for Faith. That’s the way you wanted it, darling.” Angrily she killed the connection and switched her phone off.

Who could have known it would end up like this? All the dreams they had shared and the life they had planned together; where had it all gone? They were a family divided in two, separated by distance and the birth of a child Marcus had never really wanted. Would she have believed that the man she loved could walk out on her and their children when they needed him most? No, she wouldn’t have believed it. Even when he had been gone a week she still hadn’t really believed he was never coming back.

Sadie had always been a fool for Marcus. She had always been the follower and he had dominated their relationship. He had decided everything about their life together. He had picked their home, planned their wedding and decided when it was the right time to try for their one perfect child. He had controlled everything, except for one errant sperm and one worn out aging egg on a drunken night in the heat of their holiday to Corfu.

Sadie had refused the test to determine whether their unborn baby was definitely Down's Syndrome. Marcus tried everything he could think of, but he could not change her mind. He’d pleaded, argued, cajoled and shouted, but Sadie could not be swayed. Why risk harming the safety of their child when they would love her no matter what? Marcus didn’t pluck up the courage to admit that he couldn’t love Faith no matter what. He didn’t admit anything, until he’d already paid a deposit on a flat in Surrey and secured a job there. Faith was almost two years old.