for a chat and she won’t say very much. I think it’s because she may be frightened.’
‘Are you sure you’ve got this right?’ asks Alice, unable to believe that her daughter could possibly be guilty of what she’s being accused of.
‘We’ve also spoken to Olivia,’ says Miss Watts. ‘But she says that she’s not been horrible to anyone. But, in these situations, I find there is rarely smoke without fire.’
Alice shakes her head. ‘I understand that you have to investigate this, but are you absolutely sure you’ve got this the right way round? Just last week I was called in to pick Livvy up from the nurse, after Phoebe had pushed her in the playground. Could it be that it’s actually Phoebe who’s bullying Olivia?’
Miss Watts pulls that therapist face again and Alice feels an overwhelming desire to punch her.
‘Phoebe isn’t actually the child in question,’ she says.
‘She isn’t?’ queries Alice. ‘Well, if it isn’t Phoebe, who is it?’
‘I’m afraid I’m not able to divulge that information.’
‘So, let me get this straight,’ says Alice, feeling like a pressure cooker. ‘Are you honestly expecting me to ask my eight-year-old child who she’s supposedly bullying, because you’re not prepared to tell me?’
‘Well, as we’ve spoken to both girls, I’m hoping that it will rectify itself, but I just wanted to make you aware of the situation as the girl’s mother has threatened to take things further if it’s not resolved.’
‘Are you kidding me?’ asks Alice incredulously. ‘They’re eight years old for Christ’s sake.’
Miss Watts looks down at the floor, as if she suddenly wishes she was anywhere but here.
‘Who’s the child?’ asks Alice again.
‘I’m afraid I really can’t say.’
If she knew it wouldn’t reflect badly on Olivia, she’d drag Miss Watts across the classroom by her cheap lapels until she told her.
‘Well, then I guess I’ll just have to find out for myself,’ Alice snaps as she storms off.
37
‘Shit, shit, shit!’ says Alice as she slams the steering wheel.
‘Why are you saying the s word Mummy?’ asks Olivia, wide-eyed.
‘Because Mummy is pissed off,’ says Alice. ‘If one more person thinks I’m going to take their shit, then they’ve got another think coming.’ She looks in her rear-view mirror to see Sophia turning to her little sister and putting a finger to her lips, in an effort to stop her from saying anything more. Alice smiles, but it’s a painful facade. If only the world consisted of just the three of them – then she’d be happy.
She’s halfway home when she decides to call Nathan.
‘Shit,’ she says again when there’s no answer. She does a U-turn in the middle of the road. ‘I’m just going to pop to the office.’
Sophia groans, whilst Olivia whoops. ‘I hope Lottie’s there. She always plays with me.’
As Alice pulls into the small car park behind the office building, she calls Nathan again. When he doesn’t pick up, she can only assume he’s somewhere he shouldn’t be. From now on, he’ll always be somewhere he shouldn’t be, at least in her head.
‘Sophia, are you coming up?’ asks Alice.
‘No, I’ll wait here. Try not to be too long.’
I’ll be as long as it takes, thinks Alice as she takes the stairs two at a time, with Olivia trailing behind her.
‘Hey, you’re back,’ says Lottie excitedly, sounding much like Olivia when she saw Alice. ‘How’s it going Livs?’ she asks, holding a hand out for Olivia to high five.
‘Hi Lottie,’ says Alice, as cheerily as she can manage. She looks her up and down, taking in her lean, long legs, encased in tight black trousers. Her hair is pinned up with what looks like a pencil securing it, blonde strands fall down, framing her elfin face.
‘Can you just do me a favour and keep Livvy occupied whilst I have five minutes in my office?’ asks Alice.
‘Sure. Do you want to come and help me do some colouring in?’ she asks Olivia.
For the first time since seeing the text to Nathan, Alice is able to sit down and work out who it might be from. Her stomach knots as she recalls it from the camera roll on her phone. As ludicrous as it sounds, she wonders if it’s changed since she took the screenshot. Might there be more words, to give her more of a clue as to who it’s from? She hopes there are less; that the incriminating sentence, so short, yet so hurtful, has been magicked away into cyberspace.
Disappointingly, what she finds is what she remembers.