Kimberley Chambers 3-Book Collection: The Schemer, The Trap, Payback. Kimberley Chambers

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СКАЧАТЬ Joe said, keen to make his escape.

      Marlene linked arms with Marge and dragged her over to where Barry was standing.

      ‘Are we gonna go?’ Marge asked her pal.

      Marlene smirked. ‘I wouldn’t miss it for the fucking world.’

      Stephanie and Wayne had just enjoyed a first-class lunch in Smith’s fish restaurant in Ongar. It had been ages since they had been out as a couple and Steph had thoroughly enjoyed herself. ‘We must do this more often once we’ve got the wedding out of the way, Wayne. I can’t remember the last time you and I went out without the kids, can you?’

      Wayne squeezed Stephanie’s hand. ‘It’s my fault, I’m always working lately, but I promise you faithfully, once we’re wed, we’ll do shit like this at least a couple of times a month.’

      Stephanie looked lovingly into her man’s eyes. Because of Wayne being a workaholic and the children’s presence, it had been ages since they had made love. Apart from the odd late-night fumble, their sex life had suffered from the stresses of everyday monotony over the past year or so. ‘I’ve got a fab idea,’ Stephanie suggested.

      ‘What, babe?’

      ‘Why don’t I get Dannielle’s friend’s mum to pick her up from school, so we can go home and have a bit of me and you time? I told my mum that I wouldn’t pick Tyler up until sixish, so what do you think?’

      ‘Why didn’t your mum go to work today? Is she ill?’ Wayne asked.

      ‘No. Both her and Cath booked a day off work so they could watch the comings and goings across the road for Jake’s funeral. Gutted, my mum was when I dropped Tyler off. She reckons Marlene must be stopping elsewhere,’ Steph said, laughing.

      ‘Serves her right for being so bleedin’ nosy. Shall we go mad and order another bottle of champagne?’ Wayne asked.

      ‘Don’t you fancy a bit of us time?’ Stephanie asked, slightly dismayed that Wayne hadn’t done somersaults over her romantic suggestion.

      ‘Yeah, course I do. I just thought, if we ain’t in no rush, we could have a bottle of champagne first.’

      Stephanie smiled. ‘OK, whatever.’

      Within five minutes of arriving at the wake, Marlene and Marge clocked Donkey Dave heading towards them.

      ‘Nice to see you again, Marlene. I’m so sorry for your loss. How have you been coping?’ Dave asked, completely ignoring Marge’s presence.

      ‘Fucking brilliantly! Her partner gets his brains blown out right in front of her, so how do you think she’s coping?’ Marge asked, sarcastically. Dave had nearly ripped her insides in half, so how dare he bloody blank her as though she were invisible?

      ‘You look well, Marge. Have you lost some weight?’ Dave asked, mockingly. She looked even more obese than when he had shagged her.

      ‘No I ain’t, you cheeky bastard. Look, we don’t wanna talk to you, so why don’t you go and nuisance somebody else?’ Marge replied, glaring at him.

      ‘I don’t particularly want to talk to you either, but I was asked to come over here by the family to politely ask the pair of yous to leave.’

      ‘I beg your fucking pardon?’ Marlene asked. She was absolutely astounded.

      ‘Jake’s family arranged this wake as a private function for their close friends and family, and yous two are neither,’ Dave said bluntly.

      ‘You cheeky fucking wanker,’ Marge screamed.

      Dave held his hands up, palms facing outwards. ‘Listen, this has nothing to do with me, I’m just the mug that’s been asked to give out the orders. If it were up to me, you could both stay, but it ain’t.’

      ‘Go and find my Barry, Marge,’ Marlene ordered. Barry hadn’t wanted to attend the wake, but Marlene had begged him to. Now he had disappeared, which was just like her son. He was never there when you needed him. When Marge stomped off, Marlene turned back to Donkey Dave. ‘You can go back over there and tell Jake’s family of grim reapers that I ain’t going fucking nowhere.’

      Marge returned a couple of minutes later with Barry in tow and two large glasses of wine in her hand. Marlene snatched at the wine, downed it in one and grabbed another off a nearby table. ‘I have never been so insulted in all of my life. I’m fucking going over there in a minute to give them cunts a piece of my mind. Who do they think they are, eh?’ she said to Barry.

      ‘Why don’t we just go, eh Mum? I said it was a bad idea us coming here, so why don’t I take you and Marge for a nice meal somewhere? We can have a toast for Jake there, can’t we?’

      ‘If I’m gonna leave then I’m leaving in style,’ Marlene announced, pushing her son out of the way.

      ‘Go with her, Marge,’ Barry ordered. He knew what an acid tongue his mother possessed and there was no way he was embarrassing himself by standing in on one of her little slanging matches. A man of his ilk did not get involved in crap like that.

      Miranda and Isabelle, Jake’s daughters, and his ex-wife, Anne, looked at Marlene in horror as vulgar words and insults spewed out of her mouth. They had never seen or met Marlene before, but every vile description they had ever been given of the woman was actually worse in the flesh.

      ‘I want you to leave now. You’re upsetting my daughters and making a complete show of yourself and us at the same time,’ Anne said coldly.

      ‘Making a show of myself! You’ve got some brass neck, you have, and so have them two ugly fuckers,’ Marlene said, pointing at Jake’s daughters. ‘None of you would give my Jakey the time of day when he were alive, you all hated him, so what you making yourself busy at his fucking funeral for, eh?’

      ‘How dare you call my daughters ugly, you tasteless old tart, and for your information, my daughters spoke to their father regularly, way before his death. Whenever he was over in England, Jake would visit them and me. For my girls’ sakes, I decided to put any grievances I had with Jake to one side. He was their dad, after all.’

      ‘You lying fucking whore. My Jakey would have told me if he had visited you or them. I ain’t stupid, you know. I know exactly why you’ve reared your ugly, venomous heads now. It’s because you’re hoping to cop some money in his will, that’s why.’

      ‘I want you to leave this very minute,’ Anne’s brother demanded, grabbing Marlene by the arm.

      ‘Get off her,’ Marge screamed, throwing a right hander Thomas’s way and catching him full on the chin.

      When Thomas went sprawling, all hell broke loose, and Barry had no option but to run over to the fracas to try and rescue his mother.

      ‘I loved my Jakey with all of my heart and I’ve been treated worse than a leper today by everybody. I hope you’re all ashamed of yourselves,’ Marlene screamed, as her son dragged her out of the building.

      ‘Marlene will have the last laugh, you bunch of no-good cunts,’ Marge shouted, before Barry bundled her out through the door as well.

      ‘What is the СКАЧАТЬ