Broke

by Mandasue Heller

  16

  Yates was pissed off. The nonces had demanded a refund, complaining about Amy’s baby-stretched fanny and saggy tits. He would ordinarily have kicked the shit out of the lot of them for daring to ask for their money back, but he’d agreed to a partial refund in the end, figuring that they were good regular customers – when the goods were satisfactory.

  Forced to rethink his plans, he decided to put Amy to work on the streets instead. But he’d been waiting in the car for ten minutes now and the stupid bitch still hadn’t shown her face. Infuriated to think that she was daring to disobey him after everything he’d said, he slammed his fist down on the steering wheel. Right, that was it! No more Mister Nice Guy!

  Amy was curled up in the corner of the kids’ bedroom, her face streaked with dried tears, her eyes so badly swollen that she could barely see. She held her breath when she heard Yates letting himself in through the back door, and covered her head with her arms.

  Yates stormed up the stairs and into her bedroom. When he saw that her bed was empty, he checked the bathroom. Then, finally, he burst into the kids’ room. Eyes quickly adjusting to the dark, he spotted Amy in the corner and marched over to her.

  ‘There you are, you little bitch!’ He seized her by the hair and hauled her to her feet, smacking her around the head and face. ‘Thought you could hide from me, did you? Thought I wouldn’t find you?’

  ‘He’s got my kids!’ Amy screamed, scratching at his hands and trying to get at his face as well. ‘He’s got my kids, and it’s all your fault!’

  ‘And how do you work that one out?’ Yates laughed, wrapping his arms around her and staring down into her eyes. ‘Wasn’t me who borrowed money and tried to weasel out of paying up, was it? Wasn’t me who broke my contract and ran away to avoid my punishment like a little wuss. No, it was that fucking husband of yours. He owes me, so now I own you. And I don’t give a flying fuck about your kids!’

  He dragged her out of the kids’ room now and threw her down onto her own bed. Winded, Amy stared up at him and tried to catch her breath.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she gasped, shoving herself up the bed with her heels when he pulled something out of his pocket.

  ‘Something I should have done at the start,’ said Yates, straddling her and shoving his glove into her mouth before grasping her wrists tightly.

  He looked around and, seeing a belt among the mess on the floor, snatched it up and tied her hands together. When she bucked beneath him and tried to kick out, he punched her in the face. Her head lolled to the side, and he climbed off her and went downstairs to get a spoon. Coming back, he took a syringe and a wrap of heroin out of his pocket and prepared a hit, using the faint light of the moon coming in through the window to see by.

  When it was ready, he rifled through the drawers until he found a scarf. He was tying it around Amy’s arm when she came to. Eyes bulging with terror when she saw the needle, she wet herself as he plunged it into her vein.

  When, seconds later, she sank down into the mattress like a deflated balloon, Yates smiled. ‘There you go,’ he said softly as he pulled the glove out of her mouth and untied her hands. ‘All better now.’

  Amy didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Her blood had stopped raging and was now flowing through her veins like a river of molten gold.

  17

  Jenny and Mark had just had sex and now she was snuggled up to him, playing her fingertips through the fine hairs on his chest. It had been a long day and they were both exhausted. But Jenny was especially so, having spent the last few hours trying to deal with Mark’s kids – neither of whom, despite her best efforts, seemed to like her. The boy had cried non-stop and kept soiling his pants. And the girl was a sullen little madam who hadn’t said two words all day, and had flat-out refused to eat the lovely dinner that Jenny had cooked so Mark had run out and got her a McDonald’s Happy Meal instead. Which had pissed Jenny off no end, because she saw it as the girl getting one over on her.

  Still, it was early days, and Jenny was nothing if not patient.

  ‘We’ll have to get another bed,’ she said now, already planning ahead. ‘And a waterproof sheet for Bobby’s.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Mark murmured. ‘But let’s not rush into anything. Amy won’t want them to stay too often after she gets them back, so I don’t think we should waste money on new beds, and that.’

  ‘But they’re not going back.’ Jenny gazed up at him. ‘You said we’re keeping them.’

  ‘Might not be that easy,’ said Mark. ‘She won’t give them up without a fight.’

  ‘She’s got no chance,’ Jenny asserted. ‘We’re a couple, and we can give them a clean, loving home. She’s been neglecting them, so no judge in his right mind is going to hand them back to her. That’s why you need to see a solicitor as soon as possible and start divorce proceedings.’

  Mark pulled a face. Jenny was getting well ahead of herself, and he wasn’t too happy about it. Divorce was the last thing on his mind. He was pissed off with Amy for finding a new man, and really pissed off that she’d supposedly left the kids on their own in order to go out with the bloke. But that didn’t mean he wanted to divorce her. Or keep the kids for ever. Sure, he’d said that when he’d first brought them home, but that had just been anger talking.

  ‘You do want a relationship with the kids, don’t you?’ Jenny asked slyly.

  ‘Yeah, course.’ Mark was starting to get irritated. ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

  ‘Just think you need to be careful,’ said Jenny. ‘She’s not going to be too happy with you for taking them today, and if she gets them back she’ll probably put a block on you seeing them again. You see these things on the news all the time: parents split, mum gets spiteful, and dad hasn’t got a leg to stand on. You need to think ahead, that’s all I’m saying. They were a mess when they came and, if they go back, they’ll be worse next time you see them – if there’s a next time. And what’s to say one of them won’t get seriously hurt in the meantime because she left them in the house on their own? Someone could break in and kill them, or abduct them, or anything.’

  ‘I need to go to sleep,’ Mark muttered. He felt like she was railroading him, and it was making him feel sick. Grateful as he was to her for welcoming his kids, he needed to think things through on his own, and come to his own conclusion about what was best for him and them.

  ‘Yeah, it’s late,’ Jenny agreed, sensing that she’d nudged him as far as she could for one night. ‘We’ll talk again tomorrow. But I still think we should get that bed, because Cassie’s a big girl and she needs her own space.’

  ‘Yeah, whatever,’ Mark conceded, rolling over. ‘Night.’

  ‘Night.’ Smiling to herself, Jenny put her arm around him and kissed his back before closing her eyes. One little step at a time was enough for now.

  In the next room, Cassie had been woken by Bobby crying. The room was icy cold, and the thin quilt was doing nothing to keep them warm but her brother felt hot and clammy in her arms.

  ‘Want Mummy,’ he sobbed, his little chest heaving. ‘Want M-Mummy.’

  ‘So do I,’ said Cassie, licking at her own salty tears as she rocked him.

  ‘Wan’ go home,’ Bobby croaked, his eyes drooping as she comforted him.

  ‘Sshhh,’ said Cassie, stroking his sweaty hair. ‘Go back to sleep, baby.’

  Through the wall she’d heard her father and his new girlfriend talking. She hadn’t been able to make out what they were saying but she hoped it was about taking her and Bobby home, because she didn’t like it here. And she especially didn’t like Jenny.

  Jenny had pretended that she didn’t mind when their daddy had brought them home from school, but Cassie knew different. Jenny had smiled and said nice things to them, but she’d called their mummy a nasty name to their daddy, and said that she was ugly and didn’t deserve to have children if she couldn’t look after them properly.

  Cassie hadn’t really understood that last bit, but she’d k
nown it wasn’t nice because of the nasty way Jenny had said it. She did, however, understand what ‘ugly’ meant, and therefore knew that Jenny was a big fat liar, because their mummy was the prettiest lady in the whole wide world – much prettier than Jenny, with her skinny hands, her mean eyes, and the orange stripe in the parting of her hair.

  Poor Bobby didn’t understand any of what was going on, so Cassie was having to look after him. She didn’t mind, because she loved him, but she really hoped that he didn’t wet the bed tonight because she had a feeling that Jenny was the kind of lady who would rub his nose in it.

  The talking had stopped now, and Bobby’s breathing had slowed. Cassie closed her eyes and tried to pretend she was in her own bed. When her daddy had first left home she had missed him like mad. But now they were with him, she was missing her mummy far more.

  ‘Night-night, Mummy,’ she whispered as another tear trickled out of her eye and rolled slowly down onto the pillow. ‘Love you the whole wide world.’

  18

  As the week rolled on with no word from Mark, Amy felt as if she was living in a nightmare from which she couldn’t wake up. Mark’s phone was still switched off, so she’d called the police to report him for kidnapping the kids – only to be told that he had equal rights, and therefore wasn’t committing a crime.

  She hadn’t eaten and had barely slept all week. It felt as if her heart had been ripped right out of her chest and a gaping hole left behind. She missed seeing her babies’ beautiful faces and hearing their voices; missed making their dinners and watching them eat, giving them their baths and watching over them to make sure they brushed their teeth properly. She even missed the tantrums and the mess. But most of all she missed the smell of them, and the feel of them in her arms.

  She had almost given up on ever hearing from Mark again, so when her phone rang now his was the last name she expected to see on the screen.

  ‘Where are you?’ she demanded, sitting bolt upright. ‘Why haven’t you been answering my calls?’

  ‘I didn’t want to talk to you,’ Mark replied coldly. ‘And I don’t want to now, so I’ll keep this short. I’m going for custody.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Amy gasped. ‘You can’t! I’m their mum – they need me.’

  ‘Don’t make me laugh,’ said Mark. ‘They were a mess when I got them, and I’ve got the pictures to prove it. I’ll be handing them over to the solicitor to prove you’re not fit. Oh, and while I’m at it, I’m starting divorce proceedings.’

  ‘What?’ Amy felt as if she’d been physically kicked in the stomach.

  ‘You heard me. You don’t seriously think I’m staying married to you after you cheated on me, do you?’

  ‘I didn’t!’ Amy protested. ‘You’re the one who left me.’

  ‘And who could blame me?’ spat Mark. ‘Marnie told me all about your fancy man sneaking in the minute my back was turned. I bet you were at it the whole time we were married, weren’t you? Slipping them in the back way every time I went to work, and shagging ’em in my fucking bed.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid!’ Amy snapped, offended that he could think such a thing when she had never even looked at another man in the whole time they had been together. ‘There’s never been anyone but you.’

  ‘Save it for the judge,’ Mark said coldly. ‘Doubt he’ll believe you, though, ’cos you’ve been lying through your teeth so long you wouldn’t know the truth if it walked up and bit your fucking nose off.’

  Angry now, because he seemed determined to twist everything around to make it look like she was the bad one, Amy said, ‘You’re the liar and the cheat. I can’t believe I kept forgiving you, and now you’re treating me like this.’

  ‘This is different. You’re a mother – you should know better.’

  ‘So it’s all right for you to shag that ginger bitch behind my back, but I’m not allowed to find another man?’

  ‘Never mind Jenny. Just tell lover boy I’ll be naming him in the divorce.’

  ‘Tell him yourself,’ snarled Amy. ‘If you’ve got the balls – which I kind of doubt, seeing as you were so shit scared of him you ran away and left me to deal with him.’

  ‘You what?’ Mark sounded far less cocky all of a sudden. ‘You’d best not be saying what I think you’re saying.’

  ‘What? That I’m shagging Lenny Yates?’ said Amy, digging the knife in and twisting it. ‘So what if I am? What are you gonna do about it?’

  Mark’s head started to spin, and he was momentarily struck dumb. He’d been jealous when Marnie had told him about Amy seeing someone else, but he’d managed to convince himself that it wasn’t true; that Amy had put her up to it to get a reaction out of him. That was why he had left it a week before contacting her, thinking that she would be so desperate when he finally did call she would beg him for forgiveness. He’d only mentioned going for custody and applying for a divorce to punish her for winding him up, but the last thing he’d expected was for her to admit that there was another man. And not just any man. Len Yates. The man who had kicked and beaten him to within an inch of his life.

  ‘You dirty fucking slag,’ he hissed when he recovered the power of speech. ‘You deserve everything that’s coming to you.’

  Before Amy could respond to that, she heard Jenny’s voice in the background: ‘Mark, sshhh . . .! The kids are in the bath, and they can hear you shouting.’

  White-hot with rage, Amy yelled, ‘What the fuck’s she doing bathing my kids? If she lays one finger on them, I’ll kill her!’

  ‘It’s none of your business,’ Mark said icily. ‘She’s their mam now, not you. And I was gonna let you see them but you can fuck that, ’cos there’s no way he’s going anywhere near them.’

  ‘You can’t do this!’ Amy screeched, tears cascading down her face. ‘They’re my kids!’

  When the line went dead in her hand she tried to call him back, but he’d switched his phone off again. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she jumped up and started smashing her way around the room.

  Next door, Marnie heard the commotion and jumped up off the couch. She and Amy still weren’t speaking, but it sounded like holy hell was breaking out in there and she couldn’t just ignore her.

  Afraid that Amy might be being attacked, Marnie ran round and banged on her door. But she got no answer, and the screaming and banging continued.

  ‘Amy, it’s me!’ she yelled through the letter box. ‘Let me in, or I’m calling the police!’

  Almost immediately, an ashtray flew through the window, sending a shower of glass every which way. Marnie jumped back in time to avoid being hit and was about to go home to carry out her threat when a car drove slowly past. She recognised it, and ran out onto the pavement, waving frantically at the driver to stop.

  ‘Oh, thank God!’ she cried, running around to the driver’s-side door. ‘I’m Amy’s friend, I live next door.’

  ‘Yeah, I know.’ Yates frowned up at her through the open window. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘I don’t know!’ Marnie glanced worriedly back at the house. ‘Someone’s smashing the place up, but Amy won’t let me in so I don’t know if it’s her or someone attacking her.’

  Yates switched the car’s engine off and jumped out, just as Gemma waddled over. ‘What’s going on?’ She stared at the glass littering Amy’s front lawn and path. ‘Shall I call the cops?’

  ‘No, I’ll sort it,’ Yates told her.

  Gemma squinted up at him. ‘You’re her new fella, aren’t you? I’ve seen you picking her up of a night. Decided to go public at last, have youse?’

  ‘Gemma!’ Marnie hissed. ‘She didn’t want anyone to know.’

  ‘Ah, well, no point hiding it if everyone’s already sussed us,’ Yates said philosophically. ‘I’ll go and see what’s up. Thanks for telling me, love.’ He nodded at Marnie, then took a run up to the locked side gate and hauled himself over.

  ‘Let me know if you need any help,’ Marnie shouted as he dropped down the other side.
>
  ‘Well, that’s a turn-up,’ said Gemma, turning to Marnie with a smirk on her lips. ‘No wonder she didn’t want anyone to fucking see him. Did you see the mush on it? Talk about ugly.’

  Marnie couldn’t disagree, but the man had seemed friendly enough, so she shrugged, and said, ‘Amy obviously likes him, so he can’t be that bad. Anyway, Mark was handsome, and look where that got her.’

  ‘Suppose so,’ Gemma conceded. ‘Never trust a good-looking bloke, my mam always used to say. If they’re not giving some other slag the glad eye, they’re too busy checking themselves out in the mirror to notice you.’

  ‘True,’ Marnie agreed, folding her arms and looking at Amy’s broken window. ‘Hope she’s all right.’

  ‘It’s gone quiet now, so I guess he’s got it under control,’ said Gemma.

  ‘He must really care about her,’ Marnie murmured. ‘Can’t think of many blokes who’d put up with her the way she’s been acting lately.’

  ‘Yeah, well, I did try and tell you what she was like.’ Gemma drew her chin in, instantly tripling it in size. ‘You lot might have fell for the Little Miss Sunshine act, but I had her number from the off. Snotty bitch, she is; looking down her nose at the rest of us just ’cos her hubby had a job. Well, she ain’t so fucking high and mighty now, is she?’

  Marnie shook her head slowly, then sighed, and said, ‘I’d best go in. Got a pot of soup on the stove – don’t wanna burn the house down.’

  ‘I’m going out in a minute,’ said Gemma, glancing at her watch. ‘But I’ll have me mobile on me, so make sure you give us a ring if anything else kicks off.’