MIDNIGHT - HarperCollins NZ

JOSEPHINE COX
‘I’m not trying to tell you what to do, Mum. I only
want you to be safe.’
‘Why can’t you forgive him?’ Eileen persisted. ‘If I’m
ready to forgive him, you should be too.’ Fired up and
itching for an argument, she squared up to her
daughter. ‘My man is home now, and this time I want
him to stay. And if you don’t like it, you can clear off
out of it!’
Libby remained silent, while her mother ranted on,
sadly convinced that the stranger she had brought
home in the small hours was actually the husband who
had deserted her many long years ago.
‘Well?’ Eileen waited, hands on hips, for an apology.
‘Do you forgive him? Is he welcome to stay?’
Libby had seen it all before. Not for the first time,
she had woken up that morning to find that her mother
had taken a stranger into her bed. ‘Mum, please listen
to me . . .’
‘No! I’ve heard enough. Pack your bags and leave,
you ungrateful girl!’
‘You’ve got it all wrong.’ Libby gently persisted. ‘I
don’t want to upset you. Trust me, Mum.’
But when Eileen was in this kind of mood, it was
hard to calm her. ‘I’m only trying to help. I don’t want
you getting all riled up.’
‘Then stop telling me I can’t sleep with my own
husband! If my blood pressure goes through the roof,
it’ll be your fault, not mine.’
‘Please, Mother, you need to trust me,’ Libby pleaded.
‘You’re not well.’
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