The Rose Garden Read Free

Bill was there to advise her.
    Over coffee they put business matters aside, chatting about their kids and their latest antics, as Bill showed her photos of his grandchildren on his phone. Finishing up, he insisted on paying for their lunch.
    ‘I’ll be in touch with you if I need anything else,’ he promised, standing up. ‘We should probably aim to talk once I’ve had a chance to go through everything.’
    ‘Bill, that would be great.’
    ‘Why don’t you come and have dinner or lunch with Carole and me the next time you’re in Dublin?’ he offered.
    ‘Thanks, Bill.’ Molly knew in her heart that having lunch with the woman who had replaced her sister was something she could never do.
    Walking out to the street they said goodbye and headed in opposite directions. Realizing that the time on the meter had nearly expired, Molly had to rush back to where she had parked her car, hoping that she hadn’t been clamped.

Chapter 3
    THEY SAY THINGS COME IN THREES …
    First Kim had lost her job … then her boyfriend … and now she was losing her home. Her life was a
disaster
!
    Standing among the jumble of boxes and bags and suitcases scattered around her feet on the floor as she packed up and got ready to leave the apartment, Kim O’Reilly realized that this was all she possessed. Shoes, handbags and clothes, all with the right fancy labels but nothing worth a fraction of what she had paid for it … Her life was a mess, everything collapsing around her, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
    She was moving out of the apartment she’d shared with Gareth, her boyfriend, for the past year and a half. She’d been happy, looking forward to the future, to getting engaged and married like some of their friends. But then Gareth had suddenly ended it. Maybe she was stupid or dumb, but Kim certainly hadn’t seen it coming … hadn’t expected their relationship to break up the way it did with both of them angry and hating each other. Now she felt so alone and hurt, and she couldn’t imagine her life without him.
    In the kitchen, she checked the pristine shelves of expensive glasses and plates and dinnerware. They’d bought most of this stuff together, imagining a lifetime of dinner and supper parties and shared meals. In fairness, Gareth had paid for most of it, so he should keep it. She grabbed her two favourite mugs – one with a dog on it and the other a souvenir of New York; her rainbow-colouredpasta bowl and plate set; and her Cheeky Pigs apron – Gareth would never use that anyway. She took two paintings of Evie’s that hung in the dining area down off the wall. No way she would let Gareth have them!
    Sniffing back her tears, she continued to pack. A part of her was waiting … hoping for the impossible, a phone call or a text message from Gareth telling her to stay, that they would sort it out, try to work things out … but there was nothing, just utter silence – a miserable reminder of the end of their fractured relationship and her need to move out and try to begin again. How she was ever going to do that was utterly beyond her, but staying here on her own and trying to pay the massive rent was not an option.
    In the bathroom she collected her shower cap and toothbrush, all the face oils and creams and scrubs that littered her side of the bathroom cabinet. The pile was growing and back in the bedroom she shoved them into her smaller weekend case. Pulling her bundle of glossy
Style
and
Celeb
magazines from the bedside locker, she marched back into the kitchen and junked them in the fancy silver recycling bin.
    Looking around her, she seemed to have managed to remove all traces of her having shared Gareth’s life here for those nineteen months. The apartment had returned to the way it was before she had moved in with him. This was so shit. She had nothing …
    It took three trips in the lift, laden down with all her bags and boxes and two suitcases, to get all her stuff squashed into her