The Woman Next Door

by Natasha Boydell

  ‘Ellie,’ Freddy said, pulling out a chair and sitting down without waiting for an invite.

  ‘That’s it, Ellie! Bloody hell, how are you? Do your parents still live in Pemberton Road?’

  ‘Oh they’ve been divorced for years, after you know what, but Mum still lives there.’

  Katie had no idea what he was talking about, so she just went for a sympathetic look. ‘I’m really sorry to hear that.’

  ‘It’s fine, they get along pretty well actually. Dad remarried about five seconds after the divorce, some blonde ex-model. What about your folks? Are they still together?’

  What an odd question. ‘Erm, yes,’ she replied.

  ‘Well, props to them, for being able to get past it all,’ Freddy said.

  ‘I’m sorry, Freddy, I’m a bit confused, I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,’ Katie said with a nervous laugh, starting to feel unsettled by the odd conversation with this blast from the past.

  Freddy frowned at her and then his expression changed. ‘You don’t know,’ he said.

  ‘Don’t know what?’ Katie was getting exasperated now.

  Freddy shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. ‘Forget I mentioned anything.’

  ‘Well I can’t now,’ she said. ‘You’ve worried me. What are you talking about?’

  Freddy glanced at his phone. ‘Look, I can’t talk now, I’ve got football practice in twenty minutes but give me your number and I’ll call you later. Perhaps we can meet for a coffee?’

  Katie nodded reluctantly and read out her number to him.

  He typed it into his phone. ‘It’s good to see you, Brennan,’ he said, and then he was gone.

  ‘What on earth was that all about?’ Freya asked her.

  ‘I’ve got absolutely no idea.’

  ‘Why was he asking all that stuff about your parents?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Katie was starting to get a bad feeling. She tried to think back to when they lived in London but she remembered so little of her life before Cambridge. They had moved there when she was eight and it was the only place she had thought of as home in a very long time. It was only now, after seeing Freddy again, that she remembered long forgotten memories of life in London, of playing with the neighbours’ kids.

  They had a treehouse and a really cool den with a big TV and loads of toys, she thought. Yes, it was starting to come back to her now! There were some older siblings too, a boy and a girl. Was there a gate? A gate between the gardens? Yes, there was!

  They had been such good friends, she remembered now. Her mum had been really close with their mum, whose name she couldn’t recall. Why hadn’t they kept in touch when they moved away? She’d have to call her mum and ask. But Freddy’s words had freaked her out.

  Across the table, Freya started talking about her course timetable and Katie nodded in all the right places, but her mind was racing as she tried to think back to the old house in Pemberton Road, clutching at the various straws in her memory to find the one that made Freddy’s words fit. But she’d been so young and the only images she could conjure up were of happy days spent playing, splashing in the paddling pool, scooting to school together. She certainly didn’t remember anything bad. None of what Freddy had said made any sense to her.

  She drained the last of her drink, eager to get to the bottom of the mystery. ‘Sorry, I’ve got to dash. See you tonight,’ she said to Freya as she ran for the door.

  As soon as she was outside, she called her mum’s mobile but she didn’t answer. She tried the landline next but it kept ringing on and on, and she was about to give up when she finally heard someone pick it up and then the breathless sound of her dad on the other end.

  ‘Dad, it’s me.’

  ‘Oh hi, love, sorry, I’ve just got in.’

  ‘Is Mum there?’

  ‘No, she’s at the pool, she’s got coaching all afternoon. Anything I can help with?’

  She loved her dad but it was probably wiser to wait and speak with her mum. But curiosity got the better of her and she couldn’t resist bringing it up. ‘Something weird just happened.’

  ‘What happened? Are you okay?’

  ‘I’m absolutely fine, Dad, don’t worry. I just bumped into someone from the past and he said something a bit strange.’

  ‘Who was it?’

  ‘It was Freddy, you know the boy who used to live next door to us in Pemberton Road?’

  There was silence on the other end of the phone.

  ‘Dad, are you still there?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m here.’

  ‘Anyway, he was asking if you and Mum were still together and talking about something that had happened and then when he realised I was confused, he kind of legged it.’

  More silence.

  ‘Dad?’

  ‘You stay away from that boy, Katie, you hear me? He’s bad news. His whole family is bad news.’

  Katie was alarmed by her dad’s reaction. She’d never heard him talk like that before. ‘Dad, you’re scaring me now, what’s going on?’

  She heard him sighing. ‘I’m sorry, love, I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m just shocked that’s all. We haven’t seen or spoken to that family in over ten years.’

  ‘But we were friends with them, weren’t we?’

  ‘We were once, a long time ago. Not anymore.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Perhaps you should speak to Mum.’

  ‘Why can’t you tell me, Dad?’

  ‘I just think it’s better if you speak to Mum. I’ll get her to call you as soon as she gets back.’

  Katie was even more worried now. ‘Okay,’ she said.

  ‘Seriously though, Katie, stay away from him, okay? You’re in Oxford to start your exciting new life, don’t go digging up skeletons from the past. It will only cause trouble.’

  ‘Except that I’m studying archaeology, Dad, so that’s literally what I’m here to do.’

  He didn’t even laugh. Something was very wrong. ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘Not really, no. You’re talking in riddles.’

  ‘I’m sorry, love, I’ll get Mum to call you.’ She heard the click as he rang off.

  She stared at her phone, completely dumbfounded. What did she do now? On impulse she called her brother but, unsurprisingly, he didn’t answer. He never did. She had no choice; she’d just have to get on with her afternoon and wait for her mum to call back. But as she started heading back towards her college, trying to focus on the thrill of her new surroundings, all she could think about was the boy who had appeared out of nowhere and opened up a rusty door to the past, which she had a nasty feeling she wouldn’t be able to close again.

  She was getting ready to go out for the evening when her mum finally called sounding flustered. ‘Dad’s just told me you saw Freddy Taylor?’

  Taylor, that was it. The Taylor family. ‘That’s right.’

  ‘What did he say?’

  ‘He asked if you were still together and made some comment about some drama from the past that seemed to involve us. What’s going on, Mum?’

  ‘Can I come up and see you? I can drive over tomorrow morning?’

  Katie felt dread in the pit of her stomach. If her mum didn’t want to have the conversation over the phone it must be bad. ‘Can’t you just tell me now, Mum? It’s starting to stress me out.’

  ‘I’d rather talk to you face to face. I’ll head over first thing. What’s an acceptable time for a fresher to meet their mother in the morning?’

  ‘I’ve got a few induction things I have to go to actually, but I can meet for lunch? Midday?’

  ‘Okay, text me the address of where you want to meet and I’ll see you there.’

  ‘Mum, is everything okay?’

  ‘It’s fine, love, it’s fine. Please don’t worry.’

  Katie put the phone down and continued applying mascara to her eyelashes. Whatever this big secret was, it would have to wait until tomorrow but she didn’t lik
e the sound of it. Not one bit. She thought of her dad’s bizarre warning to stay away from Freddy Taylor. She couldn’t believe that he had actually tried to forbid her from seeing him, it was like something out of a soap opera and so unlike her father. He was one of the most easy-going people you could ever meet. In any event, she didn’t think it mattered as she had no intention of seeing Freddy again.

  She heard a knock on her door and Freya popped her head round. ‘Ready to go?’ she asked.

  Katie gave herself a quick once-over in the mirror and grabbed her bag. ‘Let’s do it.’

  The revelations would have to wait for now.

  ‘Angie and Jack Taylor were our neighbours in Pemberton Road.’

  Katie’s mother was clutching her coffee nervously with both hands. Katie nodded for her to continue.

  ‘They moved in when you were about five, Tom was seven. We became friends, close friends. They had four children and you and Tom used to play with the younger two, Ellie and Freddy, all the time. You were as thick as thieves.’ She smiled at the memory. ‘We even had a gate put in between the two gardens. Do you remember? We used to wander in and out of it all the time. It was one of the happiest times of my life.’

  Her mum took a deep breath. ‘Then one day it came out that Dad and Angie had been having an affair. It was a very brief thing, over before it started really.’

  Katie stared at her mother, open-mouthed. Had she just heard correctly?

  ‘As you can imagine I was furious when I found out. I was hurt and humiliated and I couldn’t believe that Dad – or Angie – could have done that to me and Jack. You’re old enough to hear the truth now so I’ll give it to you straight. The reason your father and I stayed together at first was because of you and your brother. I didn’t want to break our family up.’

  Katie was numb with shock. ‘Are you telling me that all this time, you and Dad have just been pretending to be happy for our sake?’

  Sophie shook her head. ‘Not at all. You’re the reason why we stayed together at first. But we were both committed to fixing the damage and we worked hard to save our marriage. Eventually we found a way through it and found each other again, as cheesy as that sounds. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that we’ve been very happily married for the past ten years, Katie. It’s important to me that you know that.’

  Her dad, her lovely, reliable, trustworthy dad, had an affair with the neighbour? Katie tried to remember Angie. She had a hazy memory of a glamorous looking woman but it was the exotic scent of her perfume that she remembered the most. She could almost smell it now.

  ‘Oh, Mum,’ she said. ‘I can’t believe it. I had no idea that any of this had happened.’

  ‘Well, you were too young. Dad and I tried our best to keep things as normal as possible. He stayed at home, with us. We stuck together. But living next door to Angie was too hard. I couldn’t escape it; it was like torture. After a few months we decided to sell up and move to Cambridge for a new start. It was the right decision for us.’

  ‘How could you forgive Dad though?’ Katie genuinely couldn’t understand how she could get past a betrayal like that.

  ‘Marriage is hard, Katie. Real life isn’t a fairy tale, you know, human beings are imperfect, we all make mistakes. But I had a choice, did I let your father’s indiscretion destroy ten years of a happy marriage and break the home we’d created for you and Tom, or did I forgive him? I knew I had to at least try and so I did. I’m not saying it was easy but we got there in the end.’

  ‘But how could you trust him?’

  Her mother smiled at her. ‘I don’t know really. Of course I didn’t at first, it takes a long time to rebuild trust once it’s been broken like that but I knew deep down that he was still the wonderful, kind and thoughtful man that I loved. He just made a mistake.’

  Katie couldn’t decide if her mother was the saintliest person in the world or the stupidest. ‘Does Tom know?’

  ‘No, he doesn’t.’

  Katie thought back over her childhood, seeing it with a fresh pair of eyes. It had been a happy one, she thought. Surely that wasn’t an illusion. There had never been any hint of animosity or resentment between her mum and dad. They had just been normal parents – happier than most normal parents, in fact. How had her mother hidden this secret for so long?

  ‘Well, it seems Freddy knows all about it,’ she told her.

  ‘I don’t know how he knows. He was the same age as you when it all happened. What’s he like, anyway?’

  ‘He’s okay, I only met him for a couple of minutes,’ Katie replied with a shrug. ‘He’s good-looking,’ she added grudgingly.

  ‘That doesn’t surprise me one bit, knowing the gene pool that he came from.’

  ‘What was his dad like?’

  ‘Jack? Cocky, immature, a total flirt, but all talk and no trousers really.’ Sophie chuckled to herself. ‘Funny that he was the loyal one out of the two of them in the end.’

  ‘Dad told me to stay away from Freddy.’

  ‘Do you have plans not to stay away from him?’

  ‘I don’t know, Mum! I literally bumped into the boy in the coffee shop yesterday.’

  ‘Dad’s upset because it’s opened up a whole can of worms after we put it all behind us. But he has no right to order you to stay away from anyone. Only you can make that decision.’

  ‘I doubt I’ll see him again anyway,’ Katie said. ‘I don’t think he’s in my college.’

  ‘Listen, Dad’s really upset about all of this. You know he loves you so much. Perhaps you could give him a call? Just to clear the air?’

  Katie thought about it. ‘Maybe, but not just yet. I need some time to get my head around it all. I feel like he’s not the man I thought he was anymore.’

  ‘Oh, but he is Katie, he is, trust me. He is exactly that man.’

  ‘Not to me, Mum.’ Tears pricked at her eyes and she tried to wipe them away.

  ‘Oh, Katie.’

  ‘Sorry, Mum, I’m just a bit shocked that’s all.’

  ‘I understand, love, but please remember what I said. Your father and I love each other very much and we love you even more. This all happened so very long ago. It’s ancient history.’

  Katie nodded through her tears. ‘I will call him, Mum; I just need some time.’

  ‘Take as much as you need.’

  After her mum had left, Katie wandered around the city on her own for a while, watching all the other students around her, walking in groups or riding their bikes through the narrow side streets. Her brain was spinning at a thousand miles per hour as she digested everything she had just learned. She couldn’t help but feel resentful that her blot-free memories of her childhood had been irrevocably spoiled. She was angry with her dad and also, probably unfairly, with Freddy and her mum too. They were all part of the deception to some degree. She had been left completely in the dark for all these years, unaware of this momentous thing that had happened.

  She was desperate to talk to someone about it but she felt so far away from her friends, who were scattered all over the place, settling in at different universities, embarking on gap years, interning or starting new jobs. Apart from the few people she’d met over the last few days, she didn’t know anyone in Oxford and she felt horribly alone. If it was any other type of problem she’d probably have got the first train back home to her parents for some comfort but given that they were the problem, that wasn’t an option.

  She found an empty bench and sat on it, lost in her thoughts, until a new one popped into her head. She did know someone in Oxford. Someone who might actually be the only person in the world who could understand what she was going through. She reached for her phone, pulling it out and going to her missed calls. There it was, at the top of the list, Freddy’s number. He had called her, letting it ring once, so that she could save the number but she hadn’t bothered. She had assumed at the time that she’d never see him again.

  She looked at the number, knowing that if she went ahead with what
she was considering, she would be going against her father’s wishes and digging up things that were probably best left in the past. Was it really worth the trouble? Before she could stop herself, she pressed dial.

  22

  They met in a city centre pub. Freddy put his pint and her white wine spritzer on the table and sat opposite her. They smiled at each other and she wondered if he was as nervous as she was. He certainly didn’t look like it. He had an easy confidence about him that suggested he would be comfortable in any situation, even the odd one that they found themselves in.

  ‘Cheers,’ he said, raising his glass and she lifted hers up to clink it. She wondered whether they should start with the usual small talk before deciding to cut straight to the chase.

  ‘I’ve spoken to Mum now, so I know what you were talking about yesterday.’

  His smile faltered. ‘I’m really sorry, Katie, I just assumed you knew, which was stupid of me. I felt like such a douchebag afterwards.’

  ‘How did you know?’ Katie asked. ‘We were so young.’

  ‘Indie told me about it a few years ago,’ he said. ‘Of course she and Benji were old enough to remember the whole thing but they’d been under strict instructions not to drag me and Ellie into it. When I was about fourteen or fifteen I started asking questions about why Mum and Dad had split up and Indie was more than happy to fill in the gaps.’

  ‘Your parents must have been furious with her.’

  ‘Not really, by then I was old enough to know the ugly truth. I think Mum was relieved more than anything that it was all out in the open.’

  ‘I don’t remember anything about it at all. I can’t believe I had no idea.’

  ‘I think I always knew something was up,’ Freddy said. He took a sip from his drink and continued. ‘I had no idea it was that but even as a young child you can sense tensions in your parents’ relationship. I think the affair was the straw that broke the camel’s back.’

  ‘So did you parents split up straight away?’

  It felt strange asking someone she barely knew such intimate questions but Freddy didn’t seem rattled. ‘Pretty much. Dad moved out and we all stayed on with Mum at Pemberton Road. Dad got a flat up the road in Crouch End, although he often came to spend the weekend at Mum’s. It sounds weird, I know, but they’ve always been friendly. They probably weren’t when it all kicked off but I don’t remember. Now I think they get on better as friends than husband and wife.’