Finders Keepers by Edie Baylis (epub ebook reader txt) 📕

in her own hand, watching her playing the devasted parent was another ill-fitting piece. Teagan throwing her teddy out of the pram was the final insult.

Finding Teagan’s phone lying on one of the tables, Robert had truly believed she’d have skulked back eventually. Even if her game was to make him worry for a few hours before returning, he’d thought the moment she’d realised she’d left her phone, she’d have come back like a shot, but she hadn’t.

Once the final stragglers had left the wake, he’d picked up the mobile and placed it into his pocket, all set to give her a mouthful the minute he’d got back. Because that’s where he genuinely believed she’d be - back at the flat, sulking like a child. But there was no sign of her. And there still wasn’t.

Now, Teagan’s heartfelt proclamations of saying how much she cared for Dulcie were hollow and fake in the light of walking out on the woman she deemed to think so much of.

Robert’s eyebrows furrowed lower. But then that was Teagan all over, wasn’t it? A lot of things had come to the fore about people’s true nature of late. And it was damn well infuriating.

‘Robert?’ Dulcie whined. ‘Are you even listening? What am I going to do?’

Robert glared at his mother before dropping the stern look. ‘It’s quite obvious what’s happened,’ he said, desperately keeping a handle on his growing anger. ‘Short of nailing them together, you all but arranged it!’

Dulcie frowned. ‘Arranged it? What are you talking about?’

Robert sighed. ‘Darren! Teagan has gone off with that Darren Harding, just like you wanted.’

Dulcie bit back the urge to slap some sense into her son. Was the stupid boy jealous? How could that be? ‘If that were the case, then surely she’d have told me she was spending the night with her boyfriend?’ She watched a slight flinch cross Robert’s face with warm satisfaction. ‘Last night may have been Teagan’s night off, but to not say anything, well, it’s very disappointing.’

‘Hmm,’ Robert nodded. ‘Or perhaps she’s had enough. You upset her by blaming her about my father, so maybe it’s to do with that?’ Let his mother shoulder some of the responsibility for once. Besides, that reason was preferable to thinking it was what he’d said was what had caused Teagan to leave. He needed her – needed her to prove to himself he was normal after all.

Dulcie scowled. ‘You’re blaming me for being upset Teagan told you something so important, when it should have been me?’ Remembering the game she needed to play, her face softened. ‘Anyway, I didn’t shout. I just said I was upset, which I was. But we sorted it out. Or at least I thought we had.’ A glimmer of worry ignited. ‘Wait a minute! Are you insinuating that she’s left? As in, for good?’

Robert shrugged nonchalantly. ‘How should I know? Perhaps?’

Dulcie’s breath caught. ‘S-She can’t!’ Her mind whirred. Had the girl gone with the box? Oh God - if she’d taken the box...

Trying not to show her rising panic, Dulcie opted for the more sensible approach of emotional manipulation. She threw her hands in the air, sobbing loudly. ‘Oh, I can’t bear it! She can’t leave! She mustn’t. I need her here, Robert. Teagan’s been the one to keep me going throughout all of this.’

She put her hand on Robert’s, not noticing him stiffen at her touch. ‘That’s not to say you haven’t been fantastic because you have. But Teagan, well, it’s different. I-I had the kind of relationship with her that I’d always wanted with Helen... Helen was too cold... She hated me...’

Yes, she did and now I know why, Robert thought bitterly.

‘You must get Teagan back!’ Dulcie wailed, throwing herself against his chest. ‘Please get her back.’

‘Mother, I think you’re being over dramatic. She’s probably with that Darren and will be back soon.’

‘But I need to know,’ Dulcie cried. She was worried sick, but not as sick as she would be if the little hussy had done a runner with her jewels. The thought made her feel quite ill. And if she’d done a runner with her jewels, had she also done a runner with Darren Harding? Was this part of a convoluted master plan? One to put her own well-thought out scheme to shame?

She clutched at Robert’s shirt. ‘Please, Robert. I need Teagan. I rely on her. I need to know if she’s coming back.’

Angrily brushing his mother’s arm away, Robert stood up. ‘I won’t chase after Teagan because she’s decided to act with such rudeness. Walking out of Helen’s wake with not so much as a word and then not even having the good grace to let us know that she wanted to spend the night sleeping with that man, making us – making you worry about her whereabouts is unacceptable.’

He grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair. ‘I’m going into the office.’ Snatching up his car keys, he stormed out of the flat.

Dulcie flinched as the front door slammed, the shockwaves reverberating up her spine. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

This was bad. As much as her son had tried to hide it, Dulcie knew him too well. Making out he was angry over Teagan’s bad manners and perceived disrespect, when in reality it seemed he was seething with jealousy over that little tramp being in the arms of another man. If Robert really was starting to have deep feelings, that certainly didn’t bode well for her plans. She needed Teagan here and she needed her to be with Darren Harding, but how was she supposed to engineer that whilst her son was steaming around like a green-eyed monster? It would never do.

But what if the girl really had a hidden agenda with Darren all along? What if she’d taken the box and done a runner with that man?

Dulcie’s heart beat at an alarming rate. She’d guarded those jewels for forty years. They were hers and Robert’s now, not for the