Out of the Dark by Natasha Cooper

very fast, to take up as little time as possible. ‘I need to talk to you. Are you very busy, or might we be able to meet?’
    ‘I’m frantic. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. OK? Sorry. Bye.’
    Sympathising, Trish took another mouthful of wine, letting the cool sharpness prickle against her tongue and slide down her throat. She thought of David’s relaxing as the apple juice eased into his mouth and knew she had to do everything in her power to help. The trouble was that she couldn’t think of anything useful to do.
    Her mobile was ringing. She hoped it was Caro, but heard her father’s voice as soon as she answered it.
    ‘Trish? ’Tis Paddy here. How are you, now?’
    ‘I’m fine,’ she lied because they still weren’t on the
kind of terms that would allow her to tell him about the miscarriage.
    She’d pretty much forgiven him now for abandoning her and her mother soon after her seventh birthday, but it had been hard to get over the huge barrier of mistrust. Paddy hadn’t even bothered to try to make contact again until she’d established a reputation at the Bar. Then, each time one of her cases figured in the law reports or her name was mentioned in any article about successful women, there would be another letter or phone call from him.
    Knowing how he’d thrown all emotional and financial responsibility for her on to his deserted wife, Trish had thought it outrageous that he’d then tried to claim some kind of credit for what she’d become, which was what the timing of his approaches seemed to imply. Everything she’d achieved was thanks to Meg, her mother, who’d fought to make her feel as secure as anyone could. Meg had used her few formal skills to get a job as a doctor’s receptionist so that she could be at home when Trish got back from school, even though it had meant going out again to supervise late-evening surgeries. She’d never mentioned Paddy, except to say that he’d loved Trish and had gone only because of his own problems. And she’d encouraged Trish to work and pass every available exam so that she could go anywhere and be anything she wanted.
    Grateful for all of it, admiring, devoted and absolutely on Meg’s side, Trish had felt it would be disloyal to have anything to do with her father. Only when Meg herself had heard of his approaches and had made it clear that she positively wanted Trish to get to know him, had she felt free to answer one of his letters. Eventually they’d met and slowly found a way to like each other. Then last year, when Paddy had had a heart attack and Trish had been afraid he would die, she’d let herself admit that she loved him.
    Trusting him at last, she’d asked why he’d abandoned
them, hoping to make sense of the old betrayal and the anger that had propelled her into her career and out of a lot of relationships of her own. He’d told her that had seen it as the only way of controlling his urge to batter Meg. That second betrayal might not have hurt as much as the first, but the shock of it was with Trish still.
    ‘What about you, Paddy?’ she asked, fighting it back as she always did. After all, Meg had forgiven him, even for the time when he’d failed to control his violence and had put her in hospital.
    ‘Fine, too. Now, be a good child and don’t ask questions about me heart. ’Tis as good as new. Better than ever since the bypass.’
    Child? she thought in a mixture of amusement and irritation. I haven’t been your child since you walked out thirty years ago.
    ‘Now, Bella and I were after taking you out to dinner. You will come, won’t you? With that fat boyfriend of yours out of the way, I’ll bet you’re not eating properly, and I don’t want my only child starving herself.’
    ‘He’s not fat,’ she said automatically and without emphasis. She wasn’t concentrating on either Paddy or George. Instead, running her fingers over her face, she counted up all the features she shared with David – and with