Little Darlings Read Free Page A

practically threw herself at him, everyone knows that – it was in all the gossip columns. I decided I didn’t mind him having a little fling with her. I mean, his first marriage was already over, so he was free to do what he wanted, and Suzy was already quite a famous glamour model herself then and very pretty – though I’ve always thought she looks a little hard. But then, just around the time I realized I was going to have a baby, my Dan’s baby, there’s this devastating headline – D ANNY K ILMAN MARRIES S UZY S WINGER IN WHIRLWIND V EGAS WEDDING – and I realized it was too late. What could I do? I couldn’t tell himand risk wrecking his brand-new marriage. It would be so unfair.’
    I suppose Mum thought she would bide her time and wait. She never thought his marriage would last. But they’d only been married a few months when Suzy stopped partying with Danny half the night and started wearing loose tops and it became obvious she was going to have a baby. Danny’s baby.
    â€˜Your half-sister, Destiny,’ Mum said.
    She’s kept a separate scrapbook of the baby from the very first photos three days after she was born – ‘Because she’s family.’
    I grew up knowing everything about this sister of mine I’d never met, Sunset.
    â€˜I bet Suzy chose the name,’ said Mum, sniffing.
    We have way more photos of Sunset than we have of me. I always liked the one of baby Sunset in her little white hooded playsuit with bunny ears. Mum tried to make me one, stitching ears on my tiny hoodie, only she got the shape wrong so the ears were too small and round and I ended up looking like a little white rat. Once Sunset was toddling around, Mum gave up trying to make me matching outfits because Sunset had such amazing designer clothes. When I was old enough, Mum and I would pore over them for ages,repeating the French and Italian designer names reverently.
    The photo I like best in the whole scrapbook is one of Sunset and Danny on a white beach in Barbados. Suzy is there too, in the shade in the background, her tummy swollen over her bikini bottom because she’s six months pregnant with Sweetie, my next little half-sister. Danny is lying stretched out on the sand, looking really brown and fit, wearing funny long bathing trunks down to his knees, and Sunset is sitting beside him, busy burying his feet in the sand. She’s got her hair in a topknot and she’s wearing huge sunglasses – maybe she’s borrowed them from Suzy – and a red-and-white striped swimming costume. She’s grinning mischievously at her dad, so happy. I’d stare at that picture until I could feel the sun on my skin, hear the lap of the waves, feel the powdery grit of the sand as I smiled at my dad.

2
SUNSET
    â€˜Smile, please!’
    â€˜Everyone smile! This way!’
    â€˜Look at me! You on the end, darling, give us a smile.’
    â€˜Little munchkin in the red boots –
smile
!’
    That’s me. I’m the only one
not
smiling. Dad is giving the press his famous lopsided grin, flicking his long tousled hair, striking a cool pose in his black gothic clothes and his silver-sequin baseball boots. He’s not Dad any more, he’s Big Danny, every inch of him, right down to the huge skull ring studded with diamonds distorting his little finger.
    Mum’s smiling too, showing off her new pink hairdo, exactly the same colour as her flowery ruffled dress, cinched in with a wide black studded belt, her long legs in black fishnets and then crazily high red-soled Louboutins. She doesn’t model any more, but she still knows how to show herself off.
    My sister Sweetie’s like a mini model already. Her fair hair has been specially straightened for today. It swishes past her shoulders in a shiny waterfall. Mum’s let her have a dab of purple shadow on her eyelids to match her purple ballet frock. She’s wearing a little black