Fighting for Survival (The Estate, Book 3) (24 page)

He was nearly to his front door when he heard his name being shouted. Turning, he squinted in the dark until the image of John appeared clearer. He sighed; what was up with him now? All Pete wanted to do was curl up in front of the telly and sleep off this godforsaken day.

‘You’ll never guess who’s turned up at our house,’ John told him.

‘No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me all the same.’

‘Donna Adams. You know, she used to be in our year at school?’

‘Oh, yeah. Blonde hair, big tits. Skinny legs right up to her armpits.’

John nodded. ‘I went out with her a few times before we finished school. Apparently she got pregnant, never told me and now she claims I have a son!’

‘Really!’ Pete feigned shock. ‘What did Caren say? I bet she did her nut.’

‘That’s where you’re wrong.’

‘But I thought you and her can’t – sorry,
she
can’t – have kids.’

‘
We
can’t.’

‘Then how did you get away with that?’

‘Ah, Caren’s the salt of the earth. She was quite calm about it. Besides, I wasn’t with her then.’

‘I suppose not,’ Pete grunted. ‘Look, if you don’t mind, I’ll catch up another time. I haven’t had anything to eat yet and I’m starving.’

‘But it’s nearly nine. I was just off to the shop,’ John tried to make small talk; he knew he wasn’t fully forgiven for getting a job.  ‘What’ve you been up to?’

‘Something and nothing.’ Pete walked off.

‘Is everything okay, mate?’

‘Yeah, why the fuck shouldn’t it be?’

‘I saw you and Gina having words earlier. Wondered if you wanted to chat about it?’

‘No, I bloody don’t.’

John shrugged. ‘Okay, okay. I’ll leave you to it then. See ya.’

As soon as Pete stepped foot into the house, Gina was waiting for him. She gave him a quick once over before throwing herself into his arms.

‘You didn’t go after him then?’

‘I couldn’t find him.’ Pete shirked her off. ‘I tried the pubs and the bookies but he wasn’t around – probably keeping a low profile knowing that I’m after him.’

Gina smiled, relief flooding through her. If Pete had caught up with Lenny, she’d probably be visiting him in A&E by now.

‘Come on, I’ll make you something nice to eat. What do you fancy?’

Pete barged past her. ‘I’m not hungry. I just want a beer.’

She went to the fridge and searched out two cans of lager.

‘Where are the girls?’

‘In their room. Rachel went to lie down with a headache. I sent Claire up to keep an eye on her. I haven’t heard a peep out of either of them since. But listen to this. Mum popped round and she said –’

 ‘Leave it will, you, Gene. I’m knackered.’ Pete took the can she held out to him. He wasn’t in the mood to hear Gina’s latest tittle-tattle.

‘But I don’t have anyone else to share it with.’ Gina folded her arms and carried on regardless. ‘You know that Ruth across the road? She moved into number thirty-two a couple of months back now?’

‘What about her?’ Pete tried to stop from snapping; had someone seen him going into her house? No, they couldn’t have - Gina was too calm. She would go ballistic if she ever found out. 

‘Her kids have been taken into care,’ she told him triumphantly.

Pete sighed, with relief. ‘Is that it?’ he said.

‘That’s big news,’ snapped Gina. ‘I’ve been a cow but none of my kids have been taken into care.’

‘Why don’t you back off for once? Sometimes you don’t have the true story and you still go accusing everyone of all sorts.’

‘But I want to get to the bottom of this!’

‘You’re such a bitch,’ he told her, before switching off completely.

‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

Gina smiled. Already she was looking forward to the showdown with Ruth; she’d try and collar her first thing, when she wouldn’t be expecting it.

Needing some fresh air, Ruth ventured out early the next day. She hadn’t had a drink the night before because she couldn’t be bothered to go and buy some. Instead, she’d cried herself to sleep and ended up with the same headache she would have had with a hangover.

She might have known Gina would be standing at her front gate when she set foot into the avenue. Ruth put her head down, hoping to scuttle past.

‘Oy!’ Gina shouted. ‘I want a word with you.’

Ruth paled - has she found out about her and Pete? She walked a little faster but Gina caught her up.

‘It’s not what you think,’ Ruth began. ‘I –’

‘Don’t come with your excuses,’ Gina spat. ‘You’ve had your kids taken off you, haven’t you?’

Ruth sighed with relief that the truth about her and Pete hadn’t got out but her eyes brimmed with tears. ‘Leave me alone. It’s got nothing to do with you.’

‘You live in Stanley Avenue so it has everything to do with me.’ Gina pointed a finger in her face. ‘Your business is my business now that you’ve moved in here.’

 Ruth closed her eyes for a moment and pinched the bridge of her nose. Arguing with Gina again was the last thing she needed right now.

‘Why don’t you get on with it?’ she told her. ‘Say what you want to say and leave me alone. I’m tired and I have a headache, so if you don’t mind?’

‘People like you are not welcome in Stanley Avenue.’

‘You don’t know the full story.’

‘I know that you’ve had both boys taken into care. That means you obviously weren’t a fit mother.’ Gina folded her arms, warming up for the onslaught. ‘You obviously couldn’t take care of them.’

‘Well, you tell your gossip source that they’re wrong. My kids haven’t been taken into care.’

‘Yeah, right, like I believe you,’ Gina said, but her smile slipped a little. ‘Where are they, then?’

‘If you must spread malicious rumours, then get your facts right. My boys weren’t taken into care. I gave them over to Children’s Services myself.’

Gina frowned. ‘You
let
them take your kids away? That’s sick, if you ask me.’

‘No one’s asking you.’ Ruth looked up and down the street, suddenly not giving a damn who was listening in to their conversation or peeking out from behind their curtains. ‘I gave my boys up because it was the right thing to do, so don’t you, or anyone else in this godforsaken avenue, pass judgement on me because of it.’

Gina was momentarily stunned but it didn’t take her long to gain ground again. ‘Why, you cheeky little bitch,’ she cried. ‘I’m going to see to it that you can’t walk back to your house without everyone knowing what’s happened. Your life won’t be worth living by the time you get back from wherever it was you were rushing off to.’

‘Leave me alone.’ Ruth burst into tears and ran quickly down the avenue. Gina didn’t follow her, but her voice did.

‘We don’t like cruelty cases in Stanley Avenue,’ she heard her bellow. ‘If we take a vote on it, you’ll be banished. Do you hear me? I’ll walk you out of the avenue myself.’

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Gina Bradley was true to her word. By the time Ruth came back from the shops, she counted no less than six women waiting at their gates for her to pass.

‘Bitch!’ Mrs Porter from number seventeen shouted across.

Ruth scuttled past, head down.

‘Yeah, someone should put you into care, you heartless cow,’ said Julie Elliot from number fourteen. ‘I’ve a good mind to slap some sense into you.’

Ruth gulped back tears but she continued. Up ahead, she could see her front door – her sanctuary from preying eyes and heckling women – and wondered if she’d get there without Gina or one of her friends throwing a punch.

Caren was in the garden, clearing a few bits of rubbish that had blown in during the rainy storm they’d had the night before. She stood up to see what all the shouting was about and then sighed - that bloody Gina!

‘Take no notice of her evil tongue,’ she said as Ruth walked past her garden. ‘We’re not all out to get you.’

Ruth caught Caren’s eye for a moment, noticing the concern as she walked on.

‘Don’t come past me,’ Sheila Ravenscroft shouted. ‘You’re not fit to tread on the pavement here.’

Ruth ran the last few yards into the house, slamming the door shut behind her. She gulped in air as she tried not to go into panic mode, then dropped to her knees in the middle of the hallway and sobbed. Every day seemed to get worse.

Would she ever get out of this nightmare?

When she heard someone knock at the door half an hour later, Ruth jumped. She couldn’t even remember crawling into the corner of the room, but her head throbbed from the number of times she’d banged it on the wall behind her.

The letter box lifted up. ‘Ruth? It’s Caren, from number twenty-four.’

‘Go away,’ said Ruth, realising that she couldn’t hide now. Caren had already clocked her sitting there.

‘I just wanted to see if you were okay?’

‘You obviously don’t listen to the gossip. If you did, you wouldn’t be here.’

‘I don’t care about gossip. Look, this is killing my back. Can I come in for a moment, please?’

‘This is a trick! I know Gina’s standing behind you – and some of them other women. If I open the door, you’ll all barge in and kick the shit out of me.’

‘Ruth, I can’t stand the sight of Gina so there’s no chance of me playing her stupid games.’ There was a pause. ‘Come on, what do you say I make you a cuppa?’

Ruth decided to answer the door. She peeped around the frame, eyes red raw, hair messy where she’d been pulling at it.

‘I didn’t think you knew my name,’ she said, her voice barely audible.

‘If anyone stands up to that bully, I make it my business to find out their name.’

They went through to the kitchen. ‘Sit,’ demanded Caren. She put the kettle on, searched around for two mugs and in a matter of moments had made coffee.

‘Do you want to tell me the real story behind the rumour?’ she asked once she’d sat down opposite her.

Ruth shrugged. ‘Most people have already made up their minds about me. What good will it do?’

‘I’m not most people.’

‘You still want to know what’s going on, though.’

‘Maybe I do but not for the reason you’re thinking. I’m not after gossip.’ Caren paused. ‘I’ve watched you since you moved in. I’ve watched you sink deeper and deeper into a dark hole and it upsets me to think that whatever you have to put up with in your personal life – which you should be able to keep to yourself without it being bawled around the avenue – you have that bleeding Gina Bradley to contend with.’

Ruth’s mouth formed into a glimmer of a smile. ‘You don’t like her either, I presume?’

‘She’s a nasty piece of work, hell bent on destroying anyone’s happiness. If she sees someone smile, she thinks she has the right to wipe it off their face.’

‘What did she do to you?’

Caren blew on her drink to cool it down. ‘I was unfortunate to grow up with her. I knew her from school. We – that’s me and John, my husband – moved off the estate as soon as we could. Growing up on ‘the Mitch’ made us both want more. We didn’t want to end up like the losers on the dole, claiming we had glass backs so that we didn’t have to work for a penny.’

‘Glass backs?’ Ruth hadn’t come across that expression before.

‘As in you can see right through someone who is putting it on? Swinging the lead; nothing wrong with them really.’

Ruth nodded. ‘There seems to be a lot of that around here. I suppose you could say I was one of them.’

Caren tried to backtrack. ‘Oh, no, I meant that some people –’

Ruth held up her hand. ‘I know what you meant.’

Caren paused again, long enough to take a couple of mouthfuls of her drink. Then she started to talk again.

‘I found it really tough when I moved in here too. We – we had everything before John went bankrupt.’

‘A business deal gone wrong?’

‘Sort of – we lost a major supplier. Not only did they owe us thousands, they took away a lot of his incoming work. John’s a plumber by trade and over the years we’d built up a company that allowed us to have a little bit of financial freedom. We had a beautiful house off this estate, and we had a life with no worries.’

‘And then you ended up here?’ Ruth shuddered.

‘My worst nightmare.’ Caren nodded. ‘But it didn’t stop there. That’s when I found out Gina and her awful family lived right across from us.’

‘And I thought I had it bad when I moved in.’ Ruth smiled, warming to Caren.

‘What I’m trying to say is that no matter what life, or people like Gina, throw at us, we can get through it. Today will be a shit day for you: tomorrow might be the same. And the day after. But one day soon, it’ll get that little bit better; and brighter. Nothing lasts forever.’

‘I gave my children away.’ Ruth’s eyes filled with tears again.