Blood Ties Read Free Page B

shovelling in one potato after another. After a couple of minutes I stopped. Now I’d made myself even fatter. I felt so miserable that, for a second, I seriously thought about going upstairs and making myself sick. Some of the girls at school have done that. Cassie Jones swears by it. Eat what you like then just chuck it up before it makes you fat .
    She calls it: Having your cake and hurling it .
    Cassie Jones is stupid though. I know that making yourself sick over and over is a majorly bad idea. It’s bad for your body, bad for your heart, bad for your teeth even.
    It’s bad for your head, too.
    And my head’s screwed up enough as it is.
    Anyway, I hate how it feels when you vomit. Maybe that’s the real truth. I’m just too scared to stick two fingers down my throat and feel that acid burn up into my mouth. Ugh .
    ‘Ro?’ Dad’s voice was insistent. ‘Ro, earth to Ro!’
    I jerked back into the real world. Mum had vanished into the kitchen. Dad was smiling at me.
    I tried to smile back. Dad doesn’t realise I know it, but he calls me Ro when he’s trying to make me feel better about something. Trouble is, I’m sure that’s what he used to call Rebecca, too.
    ‘Hey, Ro,’ he said. ‘You were saying something before Mum came in?’
    ‘It wasn’t anything major,’ I said. ‘Just a text. A wrong number. It said something about a goddess being in heaven. From some guy with the same name as you.’
    ‘Oh.’ Dad paused for just a second too long. ‘Well, that is weird,’ he said.
    ‘Dad?’
    ‘What?’ He smiled at me, but his eyes were all wary.
    Mum bustled back in. ‘Homework, Rachel, sweetie.’
    ‘Yes, I’ve got loads of paperwork to check over.’ Dad stood up so abruptly he knocked his chair and had to steady it to stop it from falling over.
    He left. I helped Mum carry the plates and stuff out to the kitchen. She was chattering away about her tennis again, but I wasn’t listening.
    Why had Dad acted strange like that? Was I being paranoid or had he practically run away from me just then?
    A few minutes later he was back, holding a bundle of papers, completely normal again. ‘Hey, Ro?’ He kissed my forehead. ‘Give us a shout if you need any help with your homework.’
    He wandered through to the living room and switched on the T V.
    I trudged upstairs. Back in my room I pulled out my phone.
    Dad knew something about the message, I was sure. But if he’d sent it to me by mistake, why not just say so?
    My heart beat faster. Was I imagining this whole thing? Before I could think about it any more, I pulled my mobile out of my pocket and scrolled through to the last logged message. I clicked on the number and pressed call .
    I wandered out to the landing. Dad was downstairs, through two open doors. If his phone rang I was sure I’d hear it from here.
    Nothing.
    I turned to go back into my room. And then I caught it. A faint, muffled ringtone.
    It was coming from across the landing.
    From Dad’s study.

 
5
Theo
    It took Mum several glasses of wine to get going. But when she did, I felt like asking for a glass myself.
    ‘There are people who . . .’ She hesitated. ‘. . . People who might harm you.’
    ‘Why?’ I frowned. I’d heard all this before and it didn’t make sense. ‘What people? Why would anyone want to harm me?’
    Mum took a deep breath. ‘People from a long time ago. From when you were born.’
    ‘Is it to do with Dad?’ I stared at her. I didn’t know much about my dad. Just that he’d been a soldier. Killed abroad before I was born. Before he and Mum had even known each other that long. I knew his name – James Lawson. In fact, I’d often wished I was called Lawson, instead of Mum’s name, ‘Glassman’. And I had a photograph. Nothing else. Mum said he had no family.
    Mum nodded. ‘Some of the things I told you about your dad weren’t true.’ She leaned back against the kitchen counter. ‘What things?’ My heart thudded. I don’t know why it