The Rose Garden Read online

  ‘Molly, at least you are lucky that you own Mossbawn outright and have no outstanding mortgage on the place,’ Bill said, serious. ‘Mortgages – that’s what’s crippling most people.’

  ‘But there are debts,’ she admitted. ‘There are the loans for the money we spent on the house. David had always planned to pay them back bit by bit over the years.’

  ‘Loans can be restructured,’ he murmured firmly.

  ‘But David’s pension is practically worth nothing,’ she said angrily.

  ‘Some of my clients have lost almost everything,’ Bill admitted, ‘and even Carole’s taken a huge hit with her pension.’

  Molly blushed. She had avoided asking him about his wife up to now. She still found it so hard to accept that Bill was remarried; that despite his love for Ruth he had managed to find himself another wife.

  ‘How is Carole?’

  ‘She’s fine,’ he smiled. ‘She’s good for me! We play golf, travel, go to the theatre … We’ve managed to downsize and de-clutter our lives.’

  ‘So I’ve heard.’

  ‘The girls been complaining again?’ he joked.

  She smiled. She was in regular contact with her two nieces, who kept her up to date with the various goings-on of their new stepmother and her influence over their father.

  ‘I am lucky to have found Carole,’ he said slowly. ‘You know I wasn’t very good at being on my own.’

  ‘I hate it,’ she said vehemently. ‘I just hate being on my own … I’m not used to it!’

  ‘Molly, I understand, believe me,’ he said gently. ‘I know how much you miss David.’

  ‘Every day,’ she whispered. ‘But at times like this …’

  ‘Listen, why don’t you give me a copy of all the relevant accounts and statements and interest payments and bank stuff and I’ll see what I can do?’

  She watched as he flicked through her folder, extracting exactly what he needed.

  ‘I think the bank just want me to sell Mossbawn,’ she sighed.

  ‘Well, that would certainly solve their problems,’ he quipped, ‘but you must only consider selling the house if it is what you really want to do.’

  ‘I can’t even think at the moment,’ she admitted. ‘Half the time my brain feels like slush. But the house is big – it’s too big to manage on my own without him.’

  ‘Molly, don’t rush into any decisions. Let me look at the figures first,’ he said calmly, ‘before you do anything.’

  ‘Sure,’ she said, relieved that Bill was there to advise her.

  Over coffee they put business matters aside, chatting about their kids and their latest antics, as Bill showed her photos of his grandchildren on his phone. Finishing up, he insisted on paying for their lunch.

  ‘I’ll be in touch with you if I need anything else,’ he promised, standing up. ‘We should probably aim to talk once I’ve had a chance to go through everything.’

  ‘Bill, that would be great.’

  ‘Why don’t you come and have dinner or lunch with Carole and me the next time you’re in Dublin?’ he offered.

  ‘Thanks, Bill.’ Molly knew in her heart that having lunch with the woman who had replaced her sister was something she could never do.

  Walking out to the street they said goodbye and headed in opposite directions. Realizing that the time on the meter had nearly expired, Molly had to rush back to where she had parked her car, hoping that she hadn’t been clamped.

  Chapter 3

  THEY SAY THINGS COME IN THREES …

  First Kim had lost her job … then her boyfriend … and now she was losing her home. Her life was a disaster!

  Standing among the jumble of boxes and bags and suitcases scattered around her feet on the floor as she packed up and got ready to leave the apartment, Kim O’Reilly realized that this was all she possessed. Shoes, handbags and clothes, all with the right fancy labels but nothing worth a fraction of what she had paid for it … Her life was a mess, everything collapsing around her, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

  She was moving out of the apartment she’d shared with Gareth, her boyfriend, for the past year and a half. She’d been happy, looking forward to the future, to getting engaged and married like some of their friends. But then Gareth had suddenly ended it. Maybe she was stupid or dumb, but Kim certainly hadn’t seen it coming … hadn’t expected their relationship to break up the way it did with both of them angry and hating each other. Now she felt so alone and hurt, and she couldn’t imagine her life without him.

  In the kitchen, she checked the pristine shelves of expensive glasses and plates and dinnerware. They’d bought most of this stuff together, imagining a lifetime of dinner and supper parties and shared meals. In fairness, Gareth had paid for most of it, so he should keep it. She grabbed her two favourite mugs – one with a dog on it and the other a souvenir of New York; her rainbow-coloured pasta bowl and plate set; and her Cheeky Pigs apron – Gareth would never use that anyway. She took two paintings of Evie’s that hung in the dining area down off the wall. No way she would let Gareth have them!

  Sniffing back her tears, she continued to pack. A part of her was waiting … hoping for the impossible, a phone call or a text message from Gareth telling her to stay, that they would sort it out, try to work things out … but there was nothing, just utter silence – a miserable reminder of the end of their fractured relationship and her need to move out and try to begin again. How she was ever going to do that was utterly beyond her, but staying here on her own and trying to pay the massive rent was not an option.

  In the bathroom she collected her shower cap and toothbrush, all the face oils and creams and scrubs that littered her side of the bathroom cabinet. The pile was growing and back in the bedroom she shoved them into her smaller weekend case. Pulling her bundle of glossy Style and Celeb magazines from the bedside locker, she marched back into the kitchen and junked them in the fancy silver recycling bin.

  Looking around her, she seemed to have managed to remove all traces of her having shared Gareth’s life here for those nineteen months. The apartment had returned to the way it was before she had moved in with him. This was so shit. She had nothing …

  It took three trips in the lift, laden down with all her bags and boxes and two suitcases, to get all her stuff squashed into her car. Heading back up to the fourth floor for the last time, Kim stood for a few minutes, overwhelmed, taking in the ceiling-to-ground glass windows of the living room which overlooked Dublin’s former docklands. With the cream leather couches and expensive circular dining table and coordinating display unit, it was all so perfect. The kitchen, the massive bedroom, even the silver-and-grey bathroom – too perfect … She didn’t fit into it, this place, this life with Gareth Allen. She wasn’t perfect enough.

  Taking her keys from the ring, she put them on the table and, closing the door, began to walk as fast as she could, wanting to get the hell out of there before she broke down again. Moving out was the end – the end to her life with Gareth.

  Driving out of the city towards Stepaside, Kim tried to stay calm and focus on her driving – the last thing she needed was to be in a car accident. Her sister Liz had insisted that she come and stay with her and Joe until she got back on her feet.

  Okay, her friends Alex and Evie had also offered to put her up for a few days, but sleeping on a couch or a futon in their already cramped apartments for the foreseeable future didn’t seem a good idea. Besides, Alex’s girlfriend Vicky hated her and Evie’s tiny flat at the top of a Georgian building was so cluttered with Evie’s art paraphernalia that she doubted she would fit!

  Kim braced herself for that barrage of questions she would face once her sister got her hands on her. Liz had offered to help her pack up and move, but she had just wanted to do it on her own. But at least going to stay at Liz’s she didn’t have to pretend or put on a brave face. Liz knew exactly how utterly shit her life was at this present moment.

  Finding herself unemployed, ho
meless and single at almost twenty-nine was a nightmare. Eight months ago she’d lost her job in the Irish Bank Group. Kim had been one of over two hundred staff members called up to the big HR department in the sky to be given a spiel about the company’s need to cut costs in the current economic climate and rationalize by closing departments and branches. She’d worked there since college and had never particularly liked her job, but had enjoyed the salary and benefits that came with working in a busy banking team. Confident of her ability to find a new job, she had signed up immediately with about twelve recruitment firms, but months later still found herself unemployed and considered almost unemployable.

  ‘The world is full of bankers,’ one of the recruiters had told her, suggesting she return to college or retrain for some other type of career, or emigrate.

  Gareth had been really supportive at first: encouraging when she went for interviews, helping her to re-draft her CV over and over again, but as time went on and no job offers came, his attitude to her began to alter. Her finances were tight and she struggled to pay her share of the rent and expenses, and as her savings dwindled and her cash dried up things had somehow changed. Maybe Gareth had lost respect for her, found her less interesting, less attractive. She had no idea.

  It was disheartening sending out CV after CV and getting so little response, but she tried to stay positive, keep in touch with people, tried to make contacts and chase up jobs. Gareth worked long, crazy hours. His job in aircraft-leasing was stressful enough, but her seeming lack of career focus irritated him.

  She signed up for a diploma in website design, a course her friend Evie had told her about. It was tough and very technical, but she was really enjoying it. Then one night a week she was doing a digital photography class – something she really liked; and she had taken up running, as it was much cheaper than being a member of a gym. At home she made great efforts to keep the apartment looking well and to cook healthy organic meals, but Gareth barely noticed what she put in front of him, protesting he was on a high-protein diet or not hungry. He stayed late at the office and often did not return home until she was in bed. Instead of coming together as a couple, they had bit by bit grown apart.

  Then last Saturday, after they’d had breakfast, he sat down seriously and said, coldly and calmly, that it wasn’t working out, and that he believed it was time for them to call an end to a relationship that clearly wasn’t going anywhere. Stunned, Kim had begged him to give them a second chance, that once she’d found a job things would go back to the way they were before, but Gareth had made it clear that this decision was final and what he was doing was for the best for the two of them.

  ‘You’ll see that, Kim, believe me you will.’

  Being a gentleman, he had offered to move out and let her continue to live in the apartment, but knowing the state of her finances Kim had realized that there was utterly no way she could afford to stay on and rent such an expensive place. So Gareth had gone to stay with his best mate, Cormac, for a few days while she packed up and got ready to move out.

  Liz lived in one of the many estates built in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains. Kim edged her car up past the massive Dundrum Shopping Centre, trying to force herself to concentrate as she changed lanes and headed on to the busy Sandyford Road. She cursed as she almost missed the turn off the Stepaside Road, but somehow she managed to swing the car into Holly Park. A minute later, as she pulled up, she spotted her sister’s silver family car, then her three-year-old niece Ava waving madly at her from the window.

  Liz ran out the front door to meet her. Kim sat frozen solid in the car, unable to move as heavy tears slid down her face. It was as if a huge dam had burst inside her. Wordlessly, Liz opened the passenger door and, lifting two big plastic bags on to her lap, sat in beside her.

  ‘It’s okay, Kim – everything is going to be okay, I promise.’

  Kim clung to her sister as Liz hugged her and told her that she was safe now …

  Chapter 4

  KIM MANAGED TO STOP CRYING, DRY HER SNOTTY NOSE AND BLOT off her smudged mascara before she went inside. Ava and Finn, her little niece and nephew, flung themselves at her like two puppies, as her brother-in-law Joe welcomed her and offered to carry two or three of her bags upstairs.

  ‘The dinner is just about ready,’ said Liz, lifting Finn into his highchair.

  Three quarters of a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc later, and after a plate of Liz’s renowned spicy chicken Madras with poppadums and all the trimmings, Kim had to admit she felt somewhat better … certainly less alone.

  ‘I’ll never see Gareth or talk to him again!’ she declared, feeling utterly desolate as they sat around the kitchen table.

  ‘Highly unlikely. We’re living in Dublin,’ Joe reminded her, ‘not London or New York.’

  ‘But it’s so awful. I’ll never wake up in his arms or sleep with him again.’

  ‘I should hope bloody not!’ added Liz furiously. ‘Gareth doesn’t deserve a girlfriend like you. He’s a cold-hearted shit to treat you the way he has done, Kim. You have to realize that! A decent guy wouldn’t care if you are broke or unemployed. He’d have stood by you and loved you for just being you, warts and all!’

  Kim said nothing. What Liz was saying was true. She would have loved Gareth and stuck by him no matter what his career situation was. It wouldn’t have changed anything.

  Joe, clearing the table and packing the dishwasher, insisted on opening another bottle of wine before scooping baby Finn up to take him upstairs to change his nappy and put him to bed.

  ‘Let me give him a kiss,’ Kim pleaded. Her little nephew was the cutest baby ever with his blond curly hair and brown eyes – a real mix of his mum and dad.

  ‘Be careful – he stinks!’ laughed Liz as she handed him back to Joe.

  ‘I’m not going to bed yet,’ insisted Ava stubbornly, stomping around the kitchen in her Batman suit and rabbit slippers.

  Forty minutes later both kids were in bed and Joe had discreetly disappeared off to watch a football match on Sky Sports. Kim and Liz sat at the kitchen table, talking and polishing off the remains of the chocolate-chip cookies Liz had made.

  ‘Do you want coffee?’

  ‘No, thanks – I’ll stick with the wine. It might help me sleep.’

  Kim had barely slept for the past week. She felt exhausted, battered and bruised all over. It was like she had been in a car crash but with no car involved.

  ‘Heart sore!’ said Liz wisely, giving her a hug.

  Liz had put her in the small bedroom at the front of the house where sixteen-month-old Finn normally slept.

  ‘I’ve moved his cot and the changer into Ava’s room to give you a bit of space.’

  The room was bright and sunny, but how she would fit all her stuff and clothes into such a tiny space was beyond her.

  ‘Joe says he’ll put some of your bags in the garage.’

  Liz had made up the single bed and put a bunch of flowers and some books and magazines on the chest of drawers, and done her best to transform the blue-and-white pirate-themed bedroom into a place for Kim.

  ‘Liz, I really appreciate you and Joe letting me come and stay here.’

  ‘Shush – we’re family. What else would we do?’

  Kim knew how lucky she was to get on with her older sister. There was only five years between them, yet Liz had always seemed far more grown up. A straight-A student, she had studied engineering and now worked for Microsoft. She had always had a proper job. While on her J-1 Visa to San Diego, Liz had fallen madly in love with Joe, a tall, long-haired student from Belfast who made her laugh. They got married and now Liz had two wonderful kids, a career, a home and family of her own. She always did everything perfectly! Kim tried not to be jealous of her sister, but sometimes she couldn’t help herself …

  ‘My life is such a disaster,’ she admitted, taking a slow sip of wine. ‘I don’t even know where to start.’

  ‘Forget Gareth, forget that bloody bank … forget the past,’ sa
id Liz hotly. ‘You deserve far better than Gareth. He was never good enough for you, Joe and I both thought so.’

  ‘But I thought you liked him!’

  ‘I did. He’s an okay guy, but he’s not really good husband or father material.’

  ‘But you never said anything.’

  ‘You were living with him. You loved him!’

  Appalled, Kim remembered all the family meals and dinners and events she’d brought Gareth to, imagining him as a part of the family. She’d presumed they all liked him, but how wrong she had been!

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘I don’t know. Almost three years together – it’s a long time. I’m used to having him around, to us being together. I hate being on my own, Liz … I hate it!’

  ‘I know, but sometimes things happen for a reason.’

  ‘If you say this is for the best, Liz, I’ll bloody strangle you!’ she gulped.

  ‘Fate plays tricks on us,’ her sister insisted.

  ‘Do you know how many weddings I went to in the past year?’ Kim sighed, topping up her glass. ‘Nine. Nine bloody weddings! Call me crazy, but I just presumed that one of these days it would be my turn – Gareth and me being the ones walking up the aisle.’

  ‘I know,’ sympathized Liz. ‘I thought that I’d be your bridesmaid and maybe Ava would be a little flower girl.’

  ‘I never, ever thought about us breaking up, and me ending up alone and single again. It’s so shit!’ Kim found herself crying again, overwhelmed with a sense of fear and panic.

  ‘I know it’s shit,’ said her sister, hugging her. ‘I know you’re scared, but you’ve got me and Joe and the kids, Dad and Carole, and of course Mike.’

  ‘Mike’s in Canada and Dad—’

  ‘You have told them?’

  ‘Not yet.’