Page 50 of The Mother-in-Law

Diana shakes her head, looking away. But as she folds her hands in her lap, I notice they’re shaking. ‘Helping is the worst thing I could do for you, Nettie.’

‘In that case, you’ve been fantastic,’ Patrick says from his bar stool at the end of the table. He raises his beer, a ‘cheers’ to the room. ‘Merry Christmas to us, eh?’

28

LUCY

The present . . .

Patrick throws his head back and lets out a long, loud,wronglaugh. Gerard and Nettie and Ollie look away uncomfortably, but I can’t stop looking at Patrick. He looks . . . different. His lips move in jerky, twitchy movements, as if they can’t decide whether to curve up or down. ‘Are you saying Diana hasn’t left her childrenanything?’ He presses the thumb and forefinger of his right hand to each temple and shakes his head.

Gerard looks down at the documents in front of him. ‘Just some personal effects.’ He lifts a page and places his glasses on his nose. ‘Photo albums, furniture from your childhood bedrooms to be retrieved at your convenience. Nettie has been left Diana’s engagement ring and Ollie has been given his father’s cigar collection. Lucy has been left a necklace—’

Patrick releases a spasm of air that might be a laugh or possibly a gasp. ‘And the cash? The properties?’

‘Diana’s charity will continue operating and a board will be appointed to oversee the running of it. The cash will support the running of the business, as well as any other ventures deemed by the board to be in the interests of the charity. The properties will be sold and the proceeds will also go to the—’

‘I’m sorry,’ Ollie interrupts this time, holding up a hand. ‘Can we back up a second? We don’t getanythingaside from personal effects? No. This must be some kind of mistake.’

Gerard looks sombre. ‘I can assure you, there is no mistake. Diana made her wishes very clear.’

He blinks, pauses. ‘Can we contest it?’

‘You can,’ Gerard says, clearly expecting this. ‘But it wouldn’t be a quick process.’

‘Would we win?’

‘You might.’ He hesitates. ‘I can’t be the one to advise you on this, as the executor, but I suggest you get advice once you’ve had a chance to think it over.’

‘We don’t need to think about it,’ Ollie says. ‘We’ll be contesting it.’

‘I . . . agree,’ Nettie says.

‘So do I,’ Patrick says.

‘Lucy?’ Gerard says. ‘What do you think?’

I swivel in my chair and look from Patrick to Nettie to Ollie. Their faces are etched with hurt and bewilderment. There’s something else in their faces too, something ugly. So ugly, in fact, that I have to swivel my chair back again.

‘It has nothing to do with me,’ I tell Gerard. ‘Nothing at all.’

29

DIANA

The past . . .

Apparently our house has over thirty rooms. I still find that hard to fathom. The first time Tom brought me to look at it, I point blank refused to live here. I spend my days with women who live in homes the size of a carparking space, why should I live in a palace? But Tom, as usual, talked me into it. It’s funny how quickly things become normal. Funny how morals can bend.

Tonight, Tom and I are in the den. I’m down one end of the Chesterfield and Tom is down the other. His trousers are pushed up to the knees and I am massaging his calves. His legs have been giving him some trouble lately. (‘It’s the old age,’ he always says when I tell him to go to the doctor.) At night I often find him pacing around the bedroom, walking off cramps.

‘Mmm,’ he mutters now from behind his newspaper. ‘That’s better.’

It’s been two weeks since what Tom is calling ‘Christmasgate’ with a smile. Hecansmile, because the children are still speaking to him. It’s irritating. It’s easy to be popular if all you say is yes. In fact,he’sthe reason I have to be the way I am. Heaven forbid there was no bad cop. If they had two parents like Tom Goodwin, what kind of entitled brats would they be?

I haven’t told Tom what got me hot under the collar at Christmas lunch. In truth, I’ve hardly been able to process it myself. It was a few days before Christmas when Kathy called me out of the blue and suggested we meet up for a coffee.

‘Not with the girls,’ she said. ‘Just the two of us.’