– had a problem with drugs before Victor got here. Now, not only has he got into some sort of relationship with my daughter – I dread to think what’s going on there – but he’s supplying her with drugs.’
I was still trying to dampen my rage, to stop it spiralling out of control and engulfing us both. ‘Just keep your voice down. I don’t want to involve Phoebe and my mum.’
Faye looked at me with such disgust. ‘Do you actually think that Victor has specifically chosen my daughter? That he isn’t peddling this shit to Phoebe as well? You need to open your eyes.’
‘So what concrete evidence have you got that it’s Victor?’
‘Jesus, Jo. How can it not be? Our girls aren’t going to have the nerve to go to some grubby little flat on the Talford estate and meet a bloody drug dealer, are they? Victor’s eighteen already. Georgia’s only sixteen, whatever she says, she’s still impressionable. God, I don’t know, she probably thinks Victor’s really cool. Honestly, if I find out she’s sleeping with him…’
I steadied myself on the edge of the table, trying to steer us back from the brink. ‘Look, none of us wants our daughters to be having sex – and I’ve no idea whether they are or not. I know we’d all love them to wait for Mr Right and do it all perfectly and tastefully – and preferably without us having to be party to any of the finer details. And I’m not just saying this because, well, you know the whole history with Victor, but as far as I can see, he really loves her.’
If I thought I was offering something vaguely appeasing to Faye, I couldn’t have been more wrong. She slammed her palm on the table. ‘Oh well, that makes it all right then! Every mother’s dream to have a big black man shagging her daughter and slipping her the odd ecstasy tablet.’
I heard myself gasp. ‘Don’t make this about race. Just don’t. What Georgia and Victor are doing or not doing has nothing to do with him being black.’ I threw my hands up. ‘You must know that.’
Faye wasn’t having it. ‘Well, Jordan’s the same age and he’s not having sex with sixteen-year-olds and giving them drugs.’
‘How would you know if he was? Actually, don’t even answer that. You’ve got it in your head that Victor is some kind of drug baron grooming your daughter and I don’t think you’re going to listen to anything I say.’
I’d barely finished that sentence when Phoebe flew out of the sitting room. ‘For fuck’s sake, Faye!’
For once, I was beyond caring what Faye thought about Phoebe’s language. ‘Georgia buys her drugs from the bloke on the sunglasses stall at the market. Goes along, tries on a few Guccis and Raybans and Bob’s your uncle. Just so you know, Victor never takes drugs. He’s always telling her off about it, thinks it’s for losers, and going on about how clever she is and how she’ll kill all her brain cells off.’
Faye was flushed with anger. ‘That’s rubbish,’ she shouted.
But Phoebe was going to have her say. ‘You’re wrong. Georgia and Helaina make a big thing of gathering up the money from everyone who wants drugs in our year. The bloke will only deal with them because they’re pretty and he says they’re a good advert for his “business”.’
Faye glared over to me. ‘Blood, even half-blood, is thicker than water, after all.’
My heart somersaulted. She wouldn’t. Phoebe glanced over at me, puzzled. I put my hand up. Before I could react, Mum appeared.
‘I’m not yet so deaf that I can’t hear what you’re saying about Victor.’ She marched straight up to Faye and poked her finger at her chest. ‘I’ve seen your daughter making a spectacle of herself all around the village. What’s that boy called with the ginger hair? You wouldn’t want to know what she was getting up to behind that grave with the angel with the broken wing. Talk about forward. Right by my Ted’s plot too. Soon scuttled off when she saw me, that she did.’
Mum had never mentioned that to me. I couldn’t help wondering if it was some elaborate revenge on Faye, though I wasn’t sure my mum had that much imagination. But she hadn’t finished yet.
‘So here’s my thinking. You might not want your daughter going out with Victor, but to my mind, she’s got gold dust there and you ought to be bowing down in