The One

by John Marrs

  ‘OK. Well, it turns out I’m going to be a dad. Sumaira’s pregnant.’

  ‘Oh, Deeps, that’s fantastic!’ Nick said with genuine enthusiasm. He leaned across to shake his hand, delighted for his friend. ‘How far along is she?’

  ‘She just got past the first three months and they’re all doing great.’

  ‘All?’

  ‘She’s expecting twins. Apparently they run in Sumaira’s side of the family.’

  ‘That’s incredible! I can’t wait to see you juggling one dirty nappy let alone two,’ Nick joked. ‘That’s no more five-aside for you, no more getting hammered on a weeknight, no more sneaky spliffs on the balcony when you think she isn’t looking …’

  ‘Tell me about it. She’s already started putting on weight and our sex life has gone to nothing. If this is the future, I’m going to be hammering the hell out of Tinder.’

  Nick waited for Deepak to laugh or indicate he was joking, but he didn’t.

  ‘Well, it’s going to be a hell of an adjustment for the both of you, but I’m sure you’ll get through it,’ he added.

  ‘I reckon my life’s in for a bumpy ride from here on out.’

  ‘You’re telling me,’ Nick replied, and downed the rest of his beer.

  Chapter 50

  ELLIE

  Ellie tapped her restless foot absent-mindedly against the mat in the Range Rover’s rear footwell.

  In ordinary circumstances, her first trip home to see her family in almost a year was enough to make her anxious. But for this outing she had brought Tim. Sensing her trepidation, Tim placed his hand over hers, gave it a squeeze, and smiled to offer his reassurance.

  ‘You know I’ve been certified as a safe bet to introduce to parents?’ he began. ‘Honestly, I’ve been tested and probed and it’s highly unlikely I’ll steal anything or call your nana a whore.’

  ‘My nana’s dead.’

  ‘Then she won’t care what I call her, will she? Come on, give me a smile.’

  ‘I’m sorry, it’s just that I haven’t seen them for a while and, the longer the gap between visits, the harder it is.’

  ‘How painful can it be? They’re your family.’

  Ellie sighed. ‘We don’t have much in common these days and it’s not their fault – it’s mine. When my business started taking off, I had less and less time for a private life.

  ‘I began to think that to be a successful businesswoman, I had to put my personal life on hold. I assumed that to be taken seriously I had to act in a certain way or be seen in the right places and with the right people, and that came at the expense of my family. Then by the time I realised I was being an idiot, I’d missed too many weddings, christenings and Christmases. I bought them cars, paid off their mortgages and set up trust funds for my nieces and nephews, but it didn’t make up for it.’

  ‘But what they really wanted was for you to be around, right?’

  ‘I suppose, yes.’

  ‘Well then, let’s make tonight the start of a new chapter. You’re lucky you have a family. It was just my mum and me my whole life until she died, and now it’s just me.’ Tim gave a meek smile.

  ‘No, you’ve got me too,’ Ellie said, and tilted her head to rest on his shoulder.

  It had been almost four months since she’d appeared on Tim’s doorstep and revealed she was the scientist who discovered the Match Your DNA gene. He’d forgiven her for lying about it and, now with the playing field levelled, the two tentatively embarked upon their relationship. Tim was a little rough around the edges and certainly wasn’t her usual type. But once she’d allowed herself to open up to him and let their genetic link lead the way, none of their contrasts mattered. She had been drawn to him like a magnetic field and it felt wonderful.

  They spent many of their after-work hours living a comfortable, pedestrian life at Tim’s Leighton Buzzard home. Twice a week she’d send a car to pick him up so they could stay at Ellie’s London townhouse. However, she often felt self-conscious spending time in the home she’d created for herself. The £5,000 spent on a single roll of wallpaper, imported Italian marble flooring, the basement cinema she rarely used, were all reminders of a time when she assumed that a beautiful home was the equivalent of a meaningful life.

  Along with curtailing her working hours – she’d imposed a new rule to leave the office at six o’clock – Ellie had also turned her back on the trendy London eateries she frequented in favour of small, provincial pubs, watching Sunday league football games and nights spent curled up on the sofa watching box sets. Only the presence of Andrei and his colleagues, keeping guard in their vehicles outside Tim’s home, reminded her that their relationship was out of the ordinary.

  ‘We’re almost here,’ Ellie announced, as they pulled into the street where she’d spent her childhood. Little had changed in the Derbyshire suburb of Sandiacre, where she’d spent the first eighteen years of her life; the 1950s-built detached houses remained virtually untouched by progress, with the exception of replacement PVC windows and block paving over lawns to make room for more cars. It had been a safe, nurturing environment for her and she was ashamed for having turned her back on everything that made her.

  ‘Oh my God, make way for the Queen’s arrival!’ yelled her sister Maggie from the doorstep as she flung her arms open wide and squeezed her younger sister. ‘And she’s brought someone with her!’

  A cheer rang out from the lounge of Ellie’s mother’s house as her family and neighbours descended upon their guests. Take That’s Greatest Hits blared from a hi-fi system and there was a sign that read ‘Happy 70th birthday, Mum’. The dining-room table was pushed against the wall and was covered in napkins, party foods, plastic cups, cutlery and paper plates.

  ‘Ooh, let me get a look at you,’ Maggie continued and grabbed Tim, spinning him around like a lazy Susan so everyone could size him up. ‘You’ve done well there,’ she said to Ellie and clutched her sister’s arm.

  ‘Come here, girl.’ Her mother grinned as she walked in eying her daughter up and down. ‘You need a bloody good meal inside you; you’re looking right skinny. And who’s this handsome lad?’

  ‘This is my boyfriend, Tim,’ Ellie said.

  ‘Nice to meet you, Mrs Stanford,’ he began, and went to shake her hand.

  ‘Call me Pam,’ she replied. ‘Now let’s get you a drink and you can tell me all about yourself. At least you look normal, you should have seen the last one she brought home – he spent the whole day eyeing up the whole estate, working out how much he could buy it for. Cheeky bugger.’

  For the next hour, Tim was paraded around the house from room to room, having drinks thrust into his hand by strangers and being introduced to family members he likely wouldn’t remember the names of the next day. He danced with her two youngest nieces, chatted football with her brothers-in-law and was given a guided tour of her father’s newly erected shed. Ellie watched proudly from the sidelines as she reminded herself that she could have the best of both worlds.

  ‘I’m sorry, has she been giving you the third degree?’ Ellie asked cheekily, as her mum led them to the kitchen.

  ‘Not at all.’ Tim smiled. ‘I’ve been getting all the gossip about what you were like as a kid – and you were a right little geek by all accounts. And no boobs until you were seventeen?’

  ‘Mum!’

  ‘Don’t try to deny it, Ells,’ she said, and turned to Tim. ‘Flat as an ironing board until she could learn how to drive. But even as a girl, she always had her nose in a book. Then when she discovered science, that was it. She once set fire to her curtains in her bedroom with magnesium and a test tube she stole from school.’

  Ellie shook her head and felt herself blush, much to Tim’s amusement.

  ‘I’m just going to borrow your bathroom then you can tell me more,’ Tim said, and gave Ellie a wink as he left the room.

  ‘So?’ Pam asked hopefully.

  ‘So …?’ Ellie repeated stubbornly.

  ‘So has the woman who’s
fixed everyone else’s love life actually found one herself?’

  ‘Maybe.’ Ellie smiled.

  ‘Well, if it counts for anything, I love him!’ Maggie chipped in, who’d just returned from smoking a cigarette in the garden. ‘He can hold his own with us lot, he’s down to earth and funny, and he’s not intimidated by you. He’s a keeper in my book.’

  ‘Do you love him?’ asked Pam. ‘If he’s your DNA Match then you must be in love with him. That’s how it works, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes.’ She smiled. ‘I do love him.’

  ‘Well, that’s reassuring to hear,’ came Tim’s voice from behind. ‘Because I’m kind of nuts about you too.’

  Chapter 51

  MANDY

  Mandy stared at the sepia-coloured three-dimensional image of the child she was carrying.

  The sonographer passed her two printouts to keep, one for herself and one for the baby’s grandmother, who’d been with her in the room for the twelve-week scan.

  ‘It looks like a tiny kidney bean but with the face of an alien,’ Mandy joked as she showed the photos back at Pat’s house.

  ‘It’s not an alien, it’s my grandchild,’ said Pat, who for a moment sounded hurt.

  ‘She was only kidding, Mum,’ said Chloe. ‘Look at it, it’s so cute! Did you ask if it’s a boy or a girl?’

  ‘No, I’m happy to wait.’

  ‘It’s a boy,’ Pat added. ‘I can feel it in my bones; Richard is having a son.’

  Six months earlier, and much to Pat and Chloe’s tearful delight, Mandy had accepted Pat’s offer. Mandy hadn’t enquired about the legalities of how Pat came to be in charge of Richard’s DNA, although she had hired a lawyer to deal with it, signing various forms filled with legalese and jargon she didn’t understand. She was too giddy with excitement and trepidation at the prospect of what was to come to consider its lawful validity.

  Pat paid for Mandy’s pre-insemination check-up at a private fertility clinic in Harley Street where there were endless tests: Mandy underwent a hormone profile, and blood, ultrasound and STI checks along with measures she could barely pronounce like a hysterosalpingogram and hysteroscopy.

  A fortnight later, when Mandy was ovulating, a doctor had placed a small sample of Richard’s sperm into the neck of her womb and sent her home to let nature take its course. When her period arrived three weeks later, she had sobbed so much. The thought of not having Richard’s baby after having made the decision was too much to bear. She cursed herself for letting herself get her hopes up.

  The following month she returned to the clinic for a second attempt. And before Mandy had even peed on the home pregnancy test stick and watched the blue cross form, she knew. She had fallen pregnant. The symptoms mirrored her first two pregnancies: from the first morning, she awoke with a queasy feeling and then the pressing need to vomit. As she sat on the cold, slate tiles of her bathroom floor clenching the test, she thought about the miscarriages she had had with Sean and prayed that history would not repeat itself, that it would be third time lucky.

  Truth be told, Mandy wasn’t sure how she should be feeling. She was aware she should be delighted and excited, yet fear was the only emotion coursing through her veins, and as hard as she tried not to, she couldn’t stop weeping.

  The first person Mandy had called with the good news was Chloe, who she’d grown close to like a sister. She wanted Chloe to be by her side when she told Pat.

  ‘As I’m going to be a grandma, you can call me mum if you want,’ Pat had suggested through her tears. Mandy smiled politely but it didn’t sit comfortably with her. They were close, but she wasn’t sure if she was there yet.

  Now she was without the day-to-day grind of work in a job she’d grown to loathe, Mandy spent more time in the company of Pat and Chloe. Pat was still on compassionate leave from her work in the accounts department of a supermarket, and with Chloe living just a few streets away from her mother, the three women spent many of their days and evenings together.

  Mandy often stayed the night at Pat’s house, although she was no longer consigned to the spare room, having been offered Richard’s bedroom instead. It was in his bed, surrounded by his smells and his invisible presence, that she was able to sleep the night through. And it was also a place where her dreams of Richard remained unsullied by the reality of her situation.

  With her first trimester complete, Mandy felt more confident in telling her friends that she was expecting. But she had no idea how she was going to break the news to her family. It was her fault that they’d been estranged for so long and she didn’t know how to seal the rift.

  She was caught off-guard, however, when her doorbell rang and she saw Paula and Karen’s faces.

  ‘What’s going on?’ began Paula before she’d even walked through the door. ‘You never answer our calls, we get a text from you once in a blue moon and you haven’t spent time with your nieces and nephew in weeks.’

  ‘Is this Richard knocking you around?’ asked Karen bluntly. ‘You can tell us if he is and we can help you. You don’t have to stay with him just because he’s your Match.’

  ‘No, no, look, I’m sorry, I know I’ve been a bad sister and aunty, it’s just that it’s been a … peculiar few months.’

  Mandy ushered them inside and into the lounge. They sat next to each other on the sofa with puzzled expressions, fixated on their aloof sister who paced the length of the carpet.

  ‘What do you mean by peculiar?’ Karen asked. ‘What’s going on? Mum’s worried about you. We all are.’

  With no words to describe what had been going on, Mandy simply hitched up her jumper to reveal a small but noticeable baby bump. Karen and Paula reacted just how she thought they would: they let out high-pitched squeals and jumped up to hug and squeeze her.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ shrieked Paula.

  ‘And is everything all right with the baby?’ asked Karen.

  ‘After the last two miscarriages I wanted to make sure I got through the first three months OK. And yes, Karen, the baby’s fine. It’s growing at a healthy rate and everything looks good.’

  ‘And what does Richard think? Are we finally going to meet the father-to-be?’

  ‘Where is he?’ Paula turned her head to peer into the kitchen and dining room.

  ‘I think you need to sit down again,’ began Mandy calmly.

  ‘Don’t tell me the little shit’s done a runner? Kaz, didn’t I say that’s why we haven’t met him? He’s dumped her. How’s that even possible? I didn’t think you could get binned by your Match?’

  ‘No no, he hasn’t dumped me. Richard doesn’t know about the baby because … because Richard is no longer with us.’

  Mandy’s sisters frowned and looked at each other, unsure if they understood her correctly.

  ‘So he has left you?’ said Paula.

  ‘No, I mean he has left us in another way.’

  ‘What other way is there, other than he’s dead?’ asked Karen.

  Mandy said nothing.

  ‘Oh.’ Karen’s face fell.

  ‘Your boyfriend died and you didn’t say anything?’ Paula said quietly. ‘That doesn’t make sense.’

  Mandy took a deep breath before she explained. ‘Richard was never my boyfriend …’ she spoke slowly and deliberately ‘… because he and I never met. Soon after I found out I had a Match, I learned he’d been killed in a hit and run.’

  Karen stared at her with a concerned expression, then reached for her hand. ‘Then how are you pregnant, hon?’

  ‘I’m not mad, Kaz, and this isn’t a figment of my imagination. Richard had cancer when he was a teenager so he stored his sperm in a fertility clinic bank. I’ve been getting to know his family over the last few months and his mum asked me if I’d consider having his child using his sperm.’ As she spoke, Mandy realised how ridiculous it sounded. If only they could understand, she thought.

  Karen quickly withdrew her hand. The mood in the room dramatically shifted.

  ‘Yo
u what? She just gave away her son’s spunk to a complete stranger? And you said yes?’

  ‘No, it’s not like that.’

  ‘Then what is it like? You’re carrying a dead man’s baby! It’s … it’s wrong.’

  Mandy shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. She wanted to convey to her sisters what it was like to feel love for somebody who was not there in person, what it was like to have a deep sense of connection, no matter the obstacles, but she could tell by their disapproving glares that they would remain unconvinced by the choice she’d made.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mandy, you know I love you, but I think this is so, so inappropriate,’ began Paula, while Karen nodded her support. ‘Having a baby by a dead bloke you’ve never met with the permission of a woman you barely know? It’s bloody ridiculous.’

  ‘How is it any different from women who go it alone with an anonymous sperm donor?’

  ‘Of course it’s different! Your donor’s dead, isn’t he?’

  ‘But he’s my Match and I love him.’ Immediately Mandy wanted to take her last comment back.

  ‘You can’t be in love with a man you’ve never met, Mandy. You’re in love with the idea of being in love and his family have put these silly ideas into your head. You’re not and you never will be part of their family. You’re just their incubator … a rent-a-womb … a surrogate.’

  Mandy’s temper rose and she struggled to keep it in check.

  ‘How dare you say that! You don’t know the first thing about them or what I’ve been through in the last few months. Just because it’s not a conventional relationship like yours, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Not everyone can be like you … not everyone can find their Match and live happily ever after.’

  ‘I haven’t found my Match,’ said Karen quietly, and Mandy and Paula looked at her in surprise. ‘Gary and I did the test and we weren’t Matched, but we told everybody we were.’

  ‘Why?’ Mandy asked.

  ‘Because when you don’t marry your Match, people sit back and wait for it to go wrong. They don’t mean to, they just do; it’s human nature. So it was easier to just lie. But we love each other, and there’s nothing stopping you from meeting the right man too and having what we have.’