Deceit: A gripping, gritty crime thriller that will have you hooked. Kerry Barnes

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      He shook his head. ‘Hello? I was drunk,’ he replied, coldly.

      ‘Maybe you were a little tipsy the first time, but you weren’t drunk the second time, when you came over to chat me up in the bar. If I remember rightly, Justin, you were stone-cold sober and moaning about Kara always being away and how you were getting bored with her. I would never have got involved with you, if I had thought for one moment you still had feelings for her. How do you think I feel? I thought we had something special. I know it was all very quick, but now we’re having a baby and looking forward to the future, it’s just not fair on me. Your suffering from guilt is affecting our baby. It’s not even born yet, and they say unborn babies pick up on things.’ She allowed another tear to fall, hoping that it would stir a reaction.

      For a moment, as Justin stared into her speckled amber eyes with that innocent expression, he saw Kara. It was so strange, he took a deep breath and blinked. He did miss Kara and would do anything to turn the clock back, but he couldn’t, and the sooner he accepted it, the quicker he could move on, and perhaps telling his mother would be the best thing.

      ‘All right, this weekend, I’ll drive to my mother’s and let her know what’s happening, and then, once she gets over the shock, I’ll take you over there to meet her.’

      Clasping her hands together, she tried to control her excitement. ‘Aw, thank you, Justin, I so want to meet her. I don’t have a mother. Well, I do, I just don’t know her, so it will be lovely to have your mum in my life and plan for the arrival of our precious child.’

      At that point, Justin realised that he knew very little about Lucy, and a sadness crept over him. Lucy didn’t have a mother. ‘You said a while ago you grew up in foster care, didn’t you? Didn’t you have a mother figure, then? Wasn’t there someone you cared about and who cared for you?’

      For a second, Lucy forgot she’d told him that she was brought up in foster care. ‘Oh, no, I went from home to home. No one really wanted me. They all wanted babies, and when you’re older, they want the money. I was worth a hundred pounds a week to the last foster carers.’ She stared at nothing, giving the impression she was somewhere in a dark place, recalling a distant horrible memory. In reality, though, she was plotting the next lie.

      ‘You never really had any family, then? That’s pretty sad, Lucy. I’m so sorry, love.’ He genuinely felt bad for her because he did know what it was like to have a loving mother, although not a father because his had run off. But, still, his mother more than made up for it, in love and kindness. He stretched his neck, trying to ease the strangling feeling. How was he going to tell his mum that Kara was in prison and his house was just a pile of ashes? And to top it all, he’d done the one thing his mother detested and that was to be unfaithful.

      He could hear her words ringing in his ears. ‘Son, I’m so proud of you. You have grown up to be a fine young man with morals and values and you never went off the rails. I feel I have done my job.’ He remembered it well because it was the day she’d given him her grandmother’s engagement ring for Kara. That was twelve weeks ago, but Kara was overseas for the second time, and so he’d hidden the ring in his sock drawer. He’d wanted the time to be perfect and had planned a trip to Italy in order to propose.

      He snapped out of his thoughts, when Lucy said, ‘So, yes, having your mother will be like having my own.’

      He so desperately wanted to go along with the notion that Lucy and his mum would be friends and the idea that a baby would make everything okay, but how could it? His mother loved Kara; she doted on her, in fact. She took over very quickly from Joan, who was eager to move to Australia, a long-term dream of hers. So, as soon as Kara mentioned that she would be moving in with him, Joan sold up and emigrated. Crippled with arthritis and suffering from extreme pain, she hoped the warmer climate would do her good. The truth was, Joan was very poorly and showing signs of dementia. Consequently, she would forget to call or even answer the phone, and so Kara resorted a lot to texting her.

      Christ, how would his mother, Mollie, take it all? They were already a family: Mollie, Kara, and him. He looked across the table at Lucy, who was still teary-eyed. Knowing he had to get the past out of his head, he said, ‘Hey, why don’t we go out tomorrow tonight for a meal and properly get to know each other?’

      Her face lit up. ‘Really, do you mean it?’

      ‘Yes, I think I need to move on. I can’t help Kara. She should never have done what she did. It was unnecessary, and you and I have a baby that needs looking after.’ He reached across and held her hand.

      * * *

      Lucy knew she had him: hook, line, and sinker. Now, she would sleep easy; she had finally cracked the nut.

      Justin left the next morning for work. He had slept in her bed, and although they didn’t have sex, he did hold her. Lucy didn’t tell him that she had a scan that very morning; she couldn’t reveal the birth date or he would have smelled a rat, so, instead, she went alone. The baby was five months not four. She paid for the photo of the scan and put it in a card ready for when he arrived home from work.

      * * *

      That evening, Justin arrived with a bunch of flowers, much to Lucy’s surprise.

      ‘There you go. I’ve booked a table at Desperados, a new Mexican restaurant.’ He didn’t want to go to any place that he’d been with Kara. It just didn’t seem right, and also, he wanted to remove any thoughts that could possibly darken his future, although he was well aware that it was an uphill struggle. Every time his mind wandered to Kara, he thought about the baby and how he would be a good father. Lucy was sweet; he hadn’t really noticed at first, but as the weeks passed, he was beginning to find her loving nature a real asset and could easily plant a kiss on her cheek or rub her now protruding belly.

      The restaurant was bright and full of exotic pictures, sombreros, and Latino music. Dressed like one of the bandits in the film Three Amigos, the waiter guided them to their table after which he reeled off the chef’s special menu.

      ‘This is wonderful, Justin, such a fun place. Have you been here before with …?’

      He smiled and shook his head. ‘No, never, I wouldn’t take you to the same places I took her. We need to have a fresh start, and with our baby on the way, I’m going to make some changes. The insurance company will be assigning a building company to rebuild the house. Everything has been approved, and so fingers crossed, we can move in, hopefully in six months. There is a big team of contractors who should have the place up and ready in record time.’

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