A Proper Family Christmas (32 page)

‘I don’t know …’ said Richard cautiously.

‘We’ve got to do it. How much can we offer them? How big do you think their mortgage is? Offer them a hundred grand. We can do that. Two hundred. I’ll sell the bloody car.’

‘Annabel, you need to calm down.’ He manoeuvred her and her bump towards a chair. ‘You’re going to go into labour if you keep this up. Sit down. We’re not going to offer them any money. You saw how upset Ronnie was in there. Offering cash isn’t going to change that. We need to respect their decision—’

‘Respect their decision! Richard, you’re so naive! These people are not like us. I may be related to her by blood but we come from different planets. I just want to get the transplant over with and get them out of my life. If a quarter of a million is what it takes, then I think it’s well worth it.’

Ronnie was standing in the doorway. She had a plate in each hand.

‘You really didn’t have to do that,’ said Annabel, standing up and bustling over to whisk the dirty plates away.

‘I’m glad I did,’ said Ronnie. ‘Gave me a chance to find out what you really think about us all, didn’t it?’

‘Oh God.’

Ronnie savoured the look on Annabel’s face, knowing she was wondering how long Ronnie had been listening. She would be horrified to know that Ronnie had pretty much heard it all, having followed Richard to the kitchen when Annabel first fled. When Ronnie got up from the table, she was ready and willing to try to calm Annabel down. Now she felt very differently. She was furious.

Annabel looked to Richard for support. Richard put his arm round his wife’s shoulders in solidarity.

‘Well?’ said Ronnie.

‘Ronnie, we’re sorry,’ said Richard. ‘It’s been a stressful few months and we were so hopeful when you tested as a match. Annabel has been under an enormous amount of strain. I’m sure you can understand.’

Ronnie remained in the doorway.

‘I should probably apologise,’ said Annabel.

‘Probably? That’s an understatement. You’re lucky I didn’t just throw those plates in your face.’

‘Now, Ronnie,’ said Richard. ‘There’s no need for that.’

‘You’re all right, Richard. I’m not quite the savage pikey your wife seems to think I am. Money, Annabel? You really believe that this is all about money and I’m holding out on the transplant until you pay me to go under the knife? You think I want to
sell
you my kidney?’

‘We don’t believe that,’ said Richard. ‘Annabel was just shocked by your announcement. Stress makes people say things they don’t—’

Annabel interrupted him. ‘You don’t think I wouldn’t have given everything I had to buy my daughter a kidney if money was all it would take? You think I wanted to get involved with you and your family, Ronnie? I didn’t. I did it for my daughter’s sake. I hoped that you would have compassion for her. And that is what I am asking you for now. Don’t think of this as helping me. Only think of it as helping Izzy. She’s seventeen. She’s never harmed anyone. She doesn’t deserve to be facing death before she’s even finished school.’

‘And my son and daughter don’t deserve to be left motherless.’

‘They wouldn’t be left motherless! You’re being dramatic.’

‘Even a one per cent chance of me dying on the operating table is too much of a risk for me. Jack is six. He needs me every bit as much as Izzy needs you. And he definitely needs me more than he needs your money. That doesn’t seem to be something you appreciate. You think of me like I’m some woman in the third world, who needs to sell my organs to save my kids from the slums. So, Jack might lose his mum but bountiful Auntie Annabel would pay for him to have a nanny and a private education, eh? You probably think he’d be better off with none of my horrible influence anyway. He’d have a chance to be all nice and upper-class like you are. That’s got to be better than being one of the common people like me, eating the wrong food with the wrong cutlery and living in the wrong part of town, getting fat and being feckless. It’s a wonder I haven’t lost my kids to social services already, eh? I probably leave them home alone while I go down the pub and get wasted, right? Well, guess what, Lady Muck, it’s not
my
daughter that ended up taking drugs.’

‘Ronnie!’ Richard exclaimed.

‘But that’s what happened, isn’t it? All your money and all your class and your daughter still ended up fucking up her kidneys on ecstasy. She’s no better than the kids on our estate,’ Ronnie crowed.

‘All teenagers make mistakes. I would have thought you of all people would understand that. But I don’t know why I ever expected you to be kind about it,’ Annabel spat at her. ‘Looking at you now makes me glad I was adopted. You’re nasty and envious. Always have been I’ve no doubt.’

Ronnie just shook her head.

‘We don’t need you and we don’t need your money,’ she said. ‘I’ll send back that crappy frame you bought us for our wedding and all. You weren’t too flash with the cash when you bought
that
, were you?’

‘And you were too thick to know it contained a valuable print, you stupid cow. I clearly dodged a bullet, not growing up with a bunch of ill-educated idiots like you. I can’t believe I’m related to such chavs.’

‘I can’t believe it myself. You can rest assured, Annabel, I’m just as surprised that my long-lost sister has turned out to be a bitch as you are surprised that I’m a chav. Mark,’ Ronnie shouted back towards the dining room. ‘We’re going home now. Tell Izzy that we all hope she gets a kidney soon,’ was Ronnie’s parting shot.

Annabel spent the rest of the day after the Sunday lunch debacle battling a tremendous migraine. She hadn’t suffered such a bastard of a headache in years. She knew what had caused it. Her neck had gone into spasm while she and Ronnie argued in the kitchen and it hadn’t loosened up since.

Annabel’s response to the whole disaster was a split one. On the one hand, she was mortified that Ronnie had heard her bitching and, as a result, had flat out refused to help. On the other hand, she could not help but feel relief that it was over. Over at last. She never had to see the Bensons again. She could go back to being herself without the constant reminders of where she was really from. But she understood that mortification should be the winning emotion here.

Ronnie was still Izzy’s best hope and for that reason alone, Annabel knew she was going to have to apologise. She was going to have to apologise and apologise and apologise until Ronnie felt appeased and looked at the Buchanan family’s dilemma in a more reasonable light.

‘Tomorrow,’ said Annabel to herself. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow. That will give her more chance to calm down.’ Everything would look better after a good night’s sleep. Annabel popped three painkillers and lay down on the sofa with a chilled face mask over her eyes while the baby inside her flipped and rolled as though it was as anxious as she was. Tomorrow she would be ready to face Ronnie again. How bad could it be? The most awful things had already been said out loud. The situation couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Jacqui, of course, knew that Ronnie was going to have lunch with Annabel and she called by that evening to see how it had gone. She still jealously sought out every bit of information about the daughter she hadn’t raised and she couldn’t concentrate on anything else until she got a report from Ronnie. She wanted to know how Izzy was and how Annabel was coping as she rolled into the eighth month of her pregnancy. Jacqui had already started planning for the new baby. It was such a thrill to think that she would know this new grandchild for the whole of its life, just as she had known Sophie and Jack since the days they were born.

But Ronnie had no time for small talk about Annabel’s pregnancy or how Izzy was coping with her schoolwork. She just wanted to offload the horror of the row in the kitchen of the Great House.

It all came as a complete surprise to Jacqui. She’d assumed, just as Annabel had, that the transplant would go ahead. Why wouldn’t it? And Ronnie and Mark had not told her otherwise, because they did not want Jacqui or Dave – but Jacqui in particular – to try to have any influence over what they decided to do. So, when Ronnie explained exactly why she and Annabel had fallen out, Jacqui was shocked.

‘But why, love? Why? Why wouldn’t you give Izzy a kidney?’

‘I’m not going to do it because I’ve got children of my own to think about. That’s the bottom line, Mum. Izzy is ill but she’s not dying. She’s on dialysis. People stay on dialysis for years. She’s only been on it a few months. But what if I have the operation to give her my kidney and it all starts to go wrong for me? I’ve never had a general anaesthetic. I don’t know how I might react. What if I die on the operating table?’

‘You wouldn’t die. It’s perfectly safe.’

‘It’s not a hundred per cent safe.’

‘But it’s ninety-odd—’ Jacqui began.

‘I might be that one in a hundred, Mum. I might never come round. And then Sophie and Jack would be without a mum. Or is that OK by you? You’re probably thinking that if I did die on the operating table, Izzy could have both my kidneys.’

‘Ronnie, I would never—’

‘And that would be just fine, wouldn’t it? Sophie and Jack would be orphans but wonderful Izzy would be perfect again and that’s all that matters to you now. Annabel’s daughter is more important than both my children. Ever since Annabel came back into our lives, you haven’t given the rest of us a second thought. Except in how we might be able to help your precious number one daughter out by giving her our vital organs. It’s like you only had us to ensure that when the time came, Annabel could just harvest the bits she needs from us. It’s like that bloody film with Keira Knightley.’

‘Ronnie, you don’t know what you’re saying. Your father and I were the first to be tested. If either one of us could have given Izzy a kidney, we would have been straight into hospital. The last thing we wanted is for the rest of you to have to step in. If we could have done it—’

‘But you can’t. And it seems Chelsea can’t either. So she’s off scot-free. And all the pressure is on me. You’re making me feel like I’m killing that girl by not doing this. I’m not killing her. I just don’t want to die myself!’

Jacqui went to hold Ronnie’s hand but Ronnie snatched her hand away.

‘You’ve made it perfectly clear who your favourite is. Why don’t you go and console her? If she’ll still let you in the house now she knows she can get nothing from us. The chavs she never wanted to meet in the first place. Because that’s what she called us, you know.’

‘Ronnie, love …’

Jacqui tried to take Ronnie’s hand again but Ronnie shook her off with shocking force.

‘Go, Mum. Go. I don’t want to talk about this any more.’

Jacqui left her daughter’s house but she didn’t get into her car right away. Instead she stood on the pavement, wondering what to do next. Should she insist that Ronnie let her back in so they could talk about the situation some more? Or should she call Annabel? Ronnie wasn’t telling the truth when she said that Annabel had called them chavs. Was she?

Ronnie’s decision set off a proper chain reaction. When she eventually gave up on being allowed back into Ronnie’s house and went to her car in tears, Jacqui called Annabel. Annabel would not come to the phone. Richard said she was asleep. Jacqui had to hope that was true though of course she suspected otherwise. Then she phoned Chelsea. Until Jacqui called her, Chelsea was oblivious to Ronnie’s decision not to do the transplant.

‘She really isn’t going to do it?’

‘She says she’s too worried about what it might mean for Sophie and Jack.’

‘Ah. Well, she’s got a point, Mum.’

‘And I understand that. But now she says she thinks I love Annabel more than the pair of you,’ Jacqui sobbed. ‘She kicked me out of her house. Jack was watching from the top of the stairs when she did it. He looked so upset. Oh, Chelsea. It’s all gone horribly wrong. Can’t you ring her up and tell her that I love you all equally? I always have. You know that, don’t you? I just want you all to be happy and well. Can’t you persuade Ronnie to think again? She’ll listen to you. You’d have done it, wouldn’t you, if you’d been a match for Izzy?’

Jacqui didn’t know that Chelsea hadn’t tested and neither did she know the reason why. But Annabel did. While Jacqui replayed the terrible row she’d had with her middle daughter, all Chelsea could think was that the next phone call she got would almost certainly be from Annabel and Richard. She would have to be tested now. She had promised that she would do whatever she could to help Izzy if Ronnie hadn’t been able to come through. But Chelsea had been thinking in terms of the transplant not working, of Izzy’s body rejecting Ronnie’s kidney. She hadn’t thought for a moment that Ronnie would actually decide not to go ahead with the transplant at all. She started to feel dizzy with the consequences. She wanted her mum to get off the phone so she could sit down and take a deep breath.

‘We all would have done it,’ Jacqui continued. ‘I know you would.’

‘I don’t know, Mum,’ Chelsea said. ‘It’s impossible to say. I didn’t have to make the decision. If I had my own kids … Look, perhaps you should give both Ronnie and Annabel some space. Until it all blows over.’

‘I don’t know if this will ever blow over. I’ve never seen Ronnie so upset and I’m sure Annabel’s avoiding my calls.’

Jacqui continued to talk about the situation for a whole hour and wanted to keep talking after that but Chelsea was expected at Adam’s house for supper. She desperately wanted to be there already. While her mother talked and cried and cried again on the landline, Chelsea’s mobile was vibrating with so many messages that it was practically shaking itself off the kitchen table. With her mother still in full flow, Chelsea picked up her mobile and scrolled through the messages. Predictably, there were plenty of texts from Ronnie, all telling her to call as soon as she could. And there was one from Annabel too, asking the same. The only message Chelsea was glad to see was the one from Adam, which said that he was looking forward to seeing her later.