Brick by Brick

Part One

Marcus' family, well they had surprised them the most, she thought that they would share their grief, she had been invited into the family with open arms when she had started a relationship with their oldest child, they'd treated her like a daughter. But she had barely seen them other than the funeral. She'd thought it would change when her darling little girl came along, but the Turner family were noticeable by their absence. In fact her own mother had actually visited her after becoming a grandmother. That swung the balance and she started to feel completely alone in the world.

That was until a few weeks after her birth and his slightly younger brother Daniel arrived at the home she'd shared with her husband.

By then she hadn't wanted to give him the time of day, too much time had passed, and she was bitter and angry as well as still distraught, and lonely, isolated, scared. Sammy had watched him sceptically as he explained that his mother was struggling with depression, his father rarely left the house. But she wasn't that forgiving, she'd been through her own hell, and the Turner's were the only grandparents that Ellie would ever know and they'd snubbed her. Their first grandchild.

Despite her animosity, Daniel had been persistent over the last couple of months and she had started to let him into her life a little. In fact, purely by chance he had been the person who turned up at her door as she stood stunned looking at the letter she'd just opened from an anonymous property company that was giving her six weeks to vacate her apartment. The apartment they'd moved into so happily almost two years earlier was about to be snatched away. The last link to the man she'd loved and lost.

"I thought that this belonged to Marcus, that he owned it, he always told me we'd be safe here forever. When we moved in I told him I was never moving again...he told me I'd never have to."

Daniel had grimaced at that, and she felt ill. Slumping to the sofa she'd stared at the letter again, she couldn't go back to Cornwall, other than Corinne she'd burned every bridge there, plus she felt close to Marcus here, the apartment was filled with memories from their tragically short time together. She couldn't lose it; if she did she might lose her last link to him too.

"It was a work property I always thought that, I don't think he took out a specific mortgage, but it's part of his pension surely?"

Sammy knew her face was as expressive as an open book, she'd had nothing from her husband's 'estate', she'd been too bereft to worry for the first few months, then Ellie arrived. They had a healthy balance in their current account, but other than that, she had no new income, and so the balance in that account had almost diminished, her expenses weren't high, but it wasn't an endless supply of money.

"What? No pension?"

She shrugged, "I'm not really up on financial stuff."

"You've had NOTHING since...?" The question hung unfinished, neither of them wanted to say...or hear the end of that sentence and she flinched, then shook her head as she really hadn't had anything.

He shook his head angrily, almost vindictively, "it'll be that bastard Vaughan. 'Supposed' best friend! I'll go and sort him out."

She picked through the anger, the animosity, Marcus' best friend had disappeared at her arrival in his life. She was the common denominator, and if her being evicted from her marital home, the place her husband promised would be safe for her, was down to him, then she was going to be the one to deal with it. She was going straight to the lion's den to confront him herself.

Suddenly, as Sammy stood along the corridor from said Lion's Den her bravado seemed to ebb. She wasn't ready for this, dealing with the aftermath of Marcus. She could escape, get outside, breath the 'fresh' air of central London, avoid the situation and run away. But that had never been her way. Then she felt her daughter wriggle against her, stretching in her sleep. She was the difference. Alone Sammy could run back to Cornwall, to cope, to live a life, rebuild. But she couldn't do that with Ellie, she deserved more, and she was her father's daughter, there must be some financial security left in his wake. She'd been too upset to think about that, but now, well now she had to pull up her socks and face up to the man that was the key to it all, regardless of the memories he'd recreate, despite the way he'd make her feel..