An Act of Generosity

Prologue

Prologue

“This isn’t just about you. There’s James to consider.” Robert paced, but not knowing what half the stains beneath his feet were, quickly stopped.

“I’ve considered him.” Gloria tapped her cigarette, missing the saucer she used as an ashtray. The ash fell, leaving a little grey smudge against the filthy blue carpet. For a second a small ember glowed, and Rob tensed, preparing to step forward and stamp it out, but it soon faded like a dying spark of life. Rob stood, silent. He hadn’t even known where Gloria was, hadn’t set sight on her since he was a boy attending his first funeral. Michael’s funeral. She’d taken off afterwards, disappeared…until now, fourteen years later.

“All his life I’ve considered him.” She spoke as of a hardship. Was a mother supposed to feel that way about her child?

She wanted money. Robert, in a position to give it to her, hesitated; if he gave in this once, no doubt she would ask again. Earlier, the moment he turned on to the street, instinct told him to keep going, but the past was not so easy to run from. Her call stirred up memories and feelings of responsibility for someone he once loved, and part of him longed to hear what she had to say, despite his feeling unsafe on the housing estate, and ill at ease in his heart.

Most disturbing of all, he hated seeing how low she had sunk. Despite wild promises made on the way here, Robert could only do so much. He couldn’t get involved with this woman; his own sanity demanded he kept his distance. Michael wouldn’t want him involved. Today, looking at the unkempt condition of the flat and Gloria both, he tried to talk some sense into her.

“I should have married your brother,” Gloria said, before taking another long drag on the cigarette.

Robert opened his mouth, almost correcting her, before changing his mind, closing his lips in a firm line.

His relationship to Gloria was complicated, not by marriage or blood but by connections. Michael was no relation, a mere friend, but Rob’s parents had as good as taken him in for the last two years of his life.

“I should have married your brother,” Gloria said again. “He would have taken care of me.”

Apparently Michael’s insistence on a paternity test slipped her mind, but Robert recalled Michael’s reaction when she tried to demand money. Not because Michael wished to disown James, but because, if he were the boy’s father, he would have done all he could to get his son to safety. Michael might have tried to save the boy anyway, but then too soon…his life was over.

Born to a drunk, another drunk took Michael’s life one night, owing to ‘disorderly’ driving. Rob’s parents moved shortly after, the house haunted by too many sad memories. They had wanted to give their true son a new start. Trouble was, memories hitched a ride in their minds and hearts no matter how much time passed, Robert, a mere eleven years old when he’d stood by Michael’s graveside, so stunned he couldn’t cry. Even today, he found it difficult to fathom how Michael’s life ended so abruptly at just twenty, James only three. Was he okay? Had the mother’s addictions already affected her son beyond redemption?

Rob glanced at Gloria’s face, only to wrench his gaze back to the grey smudge on the carpet. Even that view was preferable to the dark hollow circles of Gloria’s eyes, or the piles of fag ends littering every spare piece of crockery and non-flammable surface. She didn’t even try to hide the empty bottles of booze, or the discarded syringes. When he left, he should call the police, tip them off anonymously. Surely, they’d take James into care, but…He must be seventeen by now. The authorities…if they did anything, might charge the boy with something, too. How could he live with himself, with causing such an occurrence? What could he do?

“Are you going to be an arsehole about this?”

Whatever pity Rob felt for Gloria fled. Was she serious? Here she was, asking after money for…whatever the hell she smoked, snorted, or injected, and he was the arsehole?

“Absolutely.” He didn’t know he intended to say so until the word came out.

“You’re kidding?” She stabbed out the cigarette with angry gestures. “You’re the one who said there’s James to consider.”

Rob took a deep breath. With arms folded across his chest, he faced her. Despite his feelings, he couldn’t allow this. James wasn’t Michael’s son. The thought helped…a little.

“I’m sorry, Gloria, but we both know that if I give you money, you won’t spend it on James. You won’t even use most of it to buy food. You’ll buy whatever s**t it is that helps you forget the situation you’re living in.” Rob’s gaze wandered around the living room. “I’d help if you wanted to change your life, but…” He let the words trail off, shrugged.

“Get out.”

Robert blinked, not expecting such a swift change of heart. Gloria’s eyes shone with such malevolence, he half expected little pinpricks of red in their depths.

“I ain’t making promises I can’t fool you into believing. I like my life just fine.” Gloria reached for another cigarette, while Rob tried to keep a straight face. No one could enjoy living like this. She lit the thin white roll that quivered in her nicotine-stained fingers. She took a drag and then blew out the smoke. “And we both know if I offer you a f**k, that’s a dead end, so I guess I got nothing to trade.” Her gaze turned shrewd. “Except my boy’s safety.”

“What the f**k do you mean by that?” He didn’t know whether Gloria could hear the hint of warning in his tone, but his voice went quiet with no deliberate attempt on his part. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if Gloria hurt James, but he’d do something.

“Kid’s clean, but that can change. Give me the five hundred I asked for, and I’ll make you a deal not to stick him in his sleep.”

Meaning she’d stick James with a syringe? This time Rob took an even deeper breath. “No,” he said, not at all astonished when Gloria jolted in her seat. She’d thought she had him on that one. He doubted she’d do it, but they could play that game if she wished. “I’ll give you the five hundred.” Rob paced closer, removing his wallet. He’d gone to the bank in case of this eventuality.

“In fact, I’ll give you a thousand.” He removed the notes, glancing up in time to catch Gloria’s beady eyes widening. “I’ll give you a thousand if you promise me to spend some of it on James. Buy him something he needs. I don’t know what. Food, clothes. Hell, a train ticket out of here.” He couldn’t make her do so, but he hoped.

“That all you want?” Gloria sounded suspicious. Rob sighed.

“If, as you say, your son’s clean, then all I want is your promise you won’t try to lead him down the same shitty path.”

Michael’s mother had been a negligent parent and a miserable drunk, so Michael had recognised the signs of the slippery slope Gloria walked early in their relationship. He’d tried to remove himself entirely, but life was seldom so simple and Michael had felt responsible for Gloria, especially when the woman misled him into believing the child she carried was his. Turned out she wasn’t sure who the father was—or so she claimed—but either way, it surely hadn’t been Michael.

Her gaze held steadfast, anger flashing again in the depths of her eyes, but at least she didn’t deny what he said.

“You had choices, Gloria. You had options. You had chances to change your life even when you’d gone wrong. If James gets a chance, do nothing to stand in his way.”

He held out the cash, notes folded. Gloria reached out, hand unsteady and hesitant, as if she believed the money might burn her fingers. She took hold and tried to pull the notes away, but Rob held on. Startled, she met his gaze. Rob sunk to her level so she wouldn’t have to struggle to see his face. He spoke in a low, soft tone.

“I want nothing else from you. In fact, I never want to see or hear from you again. Don’t think you can use James as a ploy more than this once, because if you do what you threatened and deliberately harm your son and I find out, then you’ll be sorry. You’ll be the one who doesn’t want to hear from me.”

He didn’t know what he would do if that happened, so it felt like an empty threat, but he had to say something. Fortunately, as vacant as his retaliation might prove to be, he sounded menacing enough. When he let go of the money, Gloria snatched it, cradling the notes to her chest. Rob studied her face until she looked away. He stood, feeling fairly certain James was safe—from Gloria injecting him with illegal substances, anyway. She was an addict; she wouldn’t use her dope on anyone else.

Without another word, Rob turned away. He tried not to see much of the flat other than the pathway to the front door. At the threshold he paused, a sound drawing his gaze down the hall. The door at the far end revealed a glimpse of a pale face atop a lanky teenager’s body. Rob stared at one bright eye before the door slammed shut. Left with no other option, Rob left.