His face softened at my words and he smiled slightly.
“I want to say you’re welcome,” he soothed. “But you’re my daughter, of course I’d be here for you.”
But what about all the other years when I needed you? I wanted to ask, but the expression on his face was so sincere that I swallowed it back.
Now wasn’t the time for confrontation. He’d clearly been sat by my side for a while and I was thankful to not wake up alone.
“Darling?” the woman at the back had stood up and was gingerly approaching us. As she neared the bed, I could see the small bump beneath her thick wool cardigan.
My dad turned to look at her over his shoulder.
“This is Beth,” he said. “My extremely new wife.”
My new step mother rolled her eyes at him and gave me a shy wave that I returned.
“I’m going to give you both some space,” she said turning back to him. “See you back at the hotel?”
He nodded.
“Get something to eat and I’ll get a taxi later.”
I watched as they said their goodbyes and then we were left alone, looking at each other. He looked different to the worn and crumpled photo I had of him in the drawer by my bed. He’d been light haired back then, almost the same strawberry blonde as I was. Clean shaven, lean and proud as he held me in his arms, but now, his hair was brown, with a light shadowing of stubble on his chin and he was fuller figured now. Mirroring my own weight.
“More water?” he asked.
I nodded and he dabbed the inside of my mouth with the cotton buds before handing the cup to me and I drank from it, closing my eyes as the cold water coated my parched throat.
“Mum…” I said after a moment. “What actually happened? Why did you come? Where is she?”
He put the cup down and shifted in his seat, regarding me closely.
“You were in a terrible car accident,” he said slowly, as though the thought of it hurt. “Your mother wasn’t wearing her seat belt and the wreckage…she was lucky to be alive. You both are. The car burst into flames, but they managed to get her out…”
“And she’s alive?” I interrupted, the horrible image and stench of the burning car coming back to me again.
“Oh yes,” he nodded. “She’s alive, but you have to understand, she’s very ill. At one point they didn’t think she was going to make it…”
I thought of her lying somewhere in this hospital alone and I pushed myself up.
“No, you don’t,” My dad said guiding me back down. “You heard the nurse. Rest is the only thing you’ll be doing. I’ll take you to her when you’re fit and able. I promise.”
I slunk back into the bed, feeling the heavy pull of sleep on my eyelids, but I fought it, there were too many questions I had to ask even though the fogginess in my brain was clouding all clarity.
“Why did you come?” I asked again noting that we were practically strangers. He hadn’t known me since I was two. Why now? Why come all this way from his comfortable life to sit by my bedside? The bedside of the daughter he didn’t want.
He cleared his throat and for a second I thought I’d spoken out loud, but he shook his head slowly and pulled an imaginary piece of thread off the blanket.
“Your mother still had me down as her next of kin…”
I cringed inwardly and he dived forward.
“No, no! I don’t want you to think that’s the only reason I came. I would have come regardless as soon as I found out.”
“You never came before…”
He sighed.
“That’s true. Now isn’t the time for that conversation, but I want you to know that I never stopped trying to see you, Al. I tried. I….”
He stopped short and looked back towards the window. He was right, now wasn’t the time to corner him into explaining what exactly he’d done to try. The focus had to be on getting better and seeing my mum. She was what mattered now, and I had to at least give him credit because he’d come all this way and he didn’t have to.
If he’d told the hospital staff on the phone that he wanted nothing to do with us, he could have disappeared back to his easy life and I would have been none the wiser. No. He was here, and I had to give him that.
“Thank you for coming,” I whispered, and he turned back to me, offering a warm smile once he realised that I was going to play the role of a difficult teenager.
“It’s the very least I could do, but I’ve spoken with your mum’s friend and we both agree that your mother would have liked for you to come and stay with me down in Atherton…”
He watched the expression on my face fall.
“She’s that ill?” I asked. Somehow, even though I knew she was sick. I hadn’t imagined it to be enough that I’d have to leave her here. “I don’t know…”
“Your mother will need quite a bit of rehabilitation after she wakes up. It’s a long road ahead of her and I think she’ll appreciate that you’re being taken care of.
I nodded slowly, trying to let it all sink in.
“So, I’ve got to live with you in Atherton and what about school? My friends?”
“I work at the local private school and I’ve made a couple of calls and there’s a space there for you with your name on it. I even had one of the teachers kindly pick out your uniform. It’s a lovely school. I went there briefly, and you’ll make friends I’m certain.”
I ran a hand over my face and winced as I touched the bandage.
“Go easy there, you’re still recovering,” my dad said and even for my own thoughts, calling him that was going to take some getting used to, as would upping and moving from the craziness of London to the quiet seaside town my mum had grown up in and used to talk about constantly.
She would have scoffed with irritation if she’d been awake to see me going home with the man she hated to love.
“Right,” he said taping his hand across his lap. “I should probably get back to the hotel and check that Beth got home safe.”
“We’re in London,” I tried to tease. “It’s not the war. She’ll be fine.”
He smiled at me and stood up. The chair scraped across the white tiles and I noticed his t-shirt had a stain on the hem.
“I’ll be back later this evening.” He went and picked up his bag from the other chair. “I’ve left my number with the nurses to call me for absolutely anything. Okay?”
“Okay, thank you.”
There was so much that I still wanted to ask him, so much that I felt I needed to know, but I felt weak and tired and my head was starting to throb, so instead I watched as he went towards the door, but he stopped short and turned to me.
“You know, your mother and I didn’t always get along over the years, but that doesn’t mean I stopped caring…about both of you.” He moved the bag on his arm to his other hand and took a single step towards me, our eyes locked together in a mutual moment of bonding.
“There’s plenty of time to talk about this once you’re out and we’re back in Atherton, but I honestly feel like I’ve been given another chance and while you’re with me I’m going to prove to you just how much you mean to me.”
I opened my mouth to speak, not sure what I was going to say in response because I was struggling to hold back the tears that I didn’t want him to see as hearing those words had resonated through me.
My dad actually cared. He’d come all this way to get me. To be by my side and take me under his wings when all this time I’d believed that he’d hated me or erased me from his life and mind and that I didn’t exist in his world.
I’d spent many nights and agonising father’s days wondering what he was doing and wondering why he hadn’t wanted to wake up to my greasy cooked breakfast and cheesy card.
I sniffed and he came over quickly and squeezed my hand reassuringly.
“I never stopped caring Ally,” he whispered, and he wiped at a rogue tear that ran down my cheek. “Now, I want you to get some rest. Here’s your call buzzer. I’m going to talk
to your mum’s doctor before I leave, but I’ll be back, and we’ll discuss your discharge plan.”
He surprised me by leaning down and kissing my forehead and I surprised myself by calling him Dad as I said goodbye.
I waited for the room door to close behind him before I turned over on my side and looked out towards the large open window, a warm feeling spreading over my body and filled my insides.
I was exhausted and my eyes were heavy, but as I drifted off, I couldn’t take away the feeling of my mother’s hand on mine as the car swerved or the look of horror on her face before we flipped. If I had things my way, by the time I finished staying with my dad I wanted to make it my mission to get them back together again and then we could carry on being a family. I was going to do it for the both of us. I was going to do it for her.
Chapter 3
After a further week and a half in hospital and daily vigils by my mother’s bedside, the drive to Atherton-on-Sea where my Dad still lived, and my mother hailed from was a lot longer than anticipated.
In all my years alive, she’d never taken me there and her excuse had been that it would have been too painful for her on the off chance that she bumped into my father, especially with someone else. The town’s small and everyone knows each other. She’d answered when I’d tried to explain how unlikely it was and that was how things had played out.
It was somewhere that I’d always wanted to go and as we turned off the motorway and onto the country roads, the trees fell away and there alongside us was the open sea.
I wound the window down and stuck my arm out, catching the fresh air against my skin and face. It was heaven.
“I bet it’s far from what you’re used to?” Beth asked in the front seat, her hand protectively resting on her bump. “London has a lot going for it, but you can’t beat being out here. Never in a million years.”
I sighed inwardly and my eyes caught my dad’s in the rear-view mirror. She might have been right, but I didn’t want her opinion adding salt to the already painful wound.
Of course, my mother and I would have traded our crappy flat to live by the sea. Had she known what struggles we’d gone through? How shit our life was in the London that she hadn’t seen before?
I pressed for the window to close and then rested my head back against the chair, already hating how bitter I sounded. Just like my mum and I’d seen first-hand how that had destroyed her. No, it wasn’t Beth’s fault that my father had moved on from her and I had to accept that. It didn’t change my master plan, but I understood that being bitchy wasn’t going to solve anything.
“Its stunning,” I answered eventually. “Really something.”
Beth looked back at me, smiling satisfied that we connected on something and we drove the rest of the way in silence until my dad pulled the car over and turned off the engine.
I looked out the window, we were at the beach.
“I thought we’d stop for a bit of that sea air,” he said catching my eye again. “What do you think?”
He didn’t have to ask me twice. I jumped out and stretched from our three-hour drive. The cool breeze whipped across my face, but the jacket I had on provided the warmth I needed.
Atherton-on-Sea had been a tourist destination for some time, and I remembered a show on tv talking about how it was one of Britain’s hidden gems and even though I’d trawled through photos of it on the internet, it didn’t compare to seeing it in all its glory.
The beach, with its white sand stretched out for what appeared to be miles with the greeny blue sea frothing as it lapped the edges gently. Heaven.
There were people sitting amongst the dunes and walking along its length and further up I could see that the closer you got to the centre of the village, the busier it was with what looked like shops and a few hotels.
“Can I go down?” I asked looking back at my dad. He nodded with a large smile on his face. Pleased that I loved it.
I steadied myself as I went down the dunes and pulled my trainers and socks off, letting my feet disappear in the sand.
I could easily get used to this.
A group of boys near by kicked their ball towards me accidentally and one of them ran over to my side after it.
I stopped it with my foot as he approached, our eyes meeting instantly. He was dark blond with light blue eyes and dimples as he smiled at me.
“Thanks,” he said, and he dropped his gaze as he bent to pick the ball up. His simple black t-shirt stretched over his rugby-build body and it didn’t take a genius to know what form he was in underneath.
“You’re welcome.”
Our eyes met again as he stood up.
“Harry!” the others shouted, and he backed away from me, still holding our stare before he turned and ran away.
I watched him go and join the others, smiling as he looked over his shoulder at me one last time.
It wasn’t until I heard my dad call out to me that I kicked myself for not speaking up, but that was the story of my life and I just hoped that at some point I bumped into him again. He didn’t look that much older than I was so it was highly likely that we’d at least be at the same college together if luck served me right.
“Ally?” my dad called out again and I reluctantly turned away from the group of guys.
“Coming!”
I jogged back up the dunes towards the car making a mental note of mission number two. Find the identity of beachball guy and as the car weaved through the country sea-straddled lanes, I had a feeling that things were going to work out just fine.
Chapter 4
It was either nerves or anticipation that made me wake up two hours earlier than I had to, and I spent thirty minutes of that time staring at my uniform hung up on the wardrobe in front of me. The pleated skirt and deep crimson blazer.
Never in a million years had I thought I’d be attending a private school. It hadn’t ever crossed my mind. My normal school back home had been in one of London’s roughest boroughs…a world away from where I was now.
I turned over in my double bed and looked out of the window, the sky cascading and mixing with colours to present the perfect sunrise for my first day at school.
I had to remind myself that no matter how much I didn’t fit in; I was thankful to have someone that cared enough to take me in. That much was important.
I heard the creak of footsteps on the landing. Either Beth was awake, or my dad was up, and I waited until the hall fell silent before I got up, washed and dressed myself.
The mirror image of myself dressed for Atherton school would take some getting used to. I almost didn’t recognise myself as I tried to brush my loose strawberry blonde waves into a neat pony tail. It was wonky, but it would have to do.
“Ally?”
I heard my dad’s voice on the other side of the door, and he knocked gently. I opened it and his eyes travelled over my uniform before his face wrinkled into a smile.
“Just wonderful. It fits you perfectly too.”
I gave him a mock twirl and he laughed.
“If only my friends could see me now,” I mused. “They wouldn’t recognise me.”
He held his hand out for my phone.
“Why don’t I take a photo. I’m sure your mother would like to see what you looked like.”
Hearing him say her name brought it back. It brought back the look of her sad face as she padded out of our shared bedroom in her dressing gown one September morning. The look of her messy uncombed hair as she gave me a crumpled fiver she’d been saving from her pocket for me to buy some chips at school.
That had been the extent of her ‘first day back at school’ welcome committee. She’d put the milk on the side and retreated to bed. That was depression. That was what I’d had to face.
My dad took a photo of me standing by the plain white wardrobe and I followed him to the kitchen where Beth proudly revealed the breakfast she’d been working on.
“I thought it might help boost your energy,” she said pulling the ch
air out for me to sit on. I smiled, toning it down ever so slightly because I felt guilty.
Playing happy families with the man that had caused my mother to give up everything she’d aspired for herself and the woman that had finally tamed him.
Beth’s scrambled eggs and sausages had been fried to perfection. Even her freshly squeezed Orange juice was sweeter than any I’d ever had and after finishing up, she gave my shoulder a squeeze, wished me well and left for her job at the town bakery.
“It’s been in her family for a few generations,” my dad said as he put the dishes in the sink. “Right, are you ready? I’d love to take you to school on your first day.”
He noticed the look on my face and nodded.
“Ah right, I get it. You’re too old for your old man to turn up alongside you.”
I laughed at his false wounded expression. I could get used to this. Used to having a father figure in my life. It had been mum and I for so long that I’d always felt we didn’t need anyone else. None of these empty men that she cavorted with.
“I’ll be fine,” I assured him. “I’m from London. All I have to do is find the Headmaster’s office and go from there.”
“Exactly,” he answered straightening my collar. “He’s a friend and he’s expecting you.” His smile turned hazy as he looked at me. “Who’d have thought another Hughes would end up at Atherton? I’m proud. I really am.”
I looked down at my uniform, still disbelieving myself that I was there.
He checked his watch.
“Right, you should make your way over and don’t forget to call me if you need me. I’ll be around.”
He gave me a quick hug and watched as I left the gate cottage and walked up the drive to school.
Already, there were cars crunching over the gravel alongside me and pulling up at the stucco fronted school.
All the cars were highly expensive and blacked out and I was sure that some of them were driven by drivers and not parents.
Diamond - A British Academy Rich Boy Bully Romance (Atherton School Crest Club Book 1) Page 2
