Free Blood Rush (Lilly Valentine) by Helen Black Page A

there?’
    Shock roots Demi to the spot. It’s a girl’s voice and for a moment she thinks it might be her sister.
    ‘It’s me,’ the girl shouts. ‘Chika.’
    Demi’s eyes widen. Yesterday, Chika had promised to check on Demi every day.
    ‘It’s the least I can do for Malaya, innit.’ She stuffed the last of her chicken burger into her mouth, her lips greasy with mayonnaise . ‘Family and that, gotta stick together.’
    It had made Demi smile, even though she hadn’t believed it. Yet here she is, true to her word.
    Demi grabs her school sweatshirt from the floor, pulls it over her pyjamas and races to the door. She can see through the frosted glass that Chika has begun to move away, her outline disappearing . She pulls open the door.
    ‘Chika,’ she calls.
    Chika has reached the end of the walkway and turns to Demi’s voice. She’s wearing a hoodie pulled over her baseball cap and dark glasses, despite the greyness of the morning.
    ‘You sagging school?’ Chika slides back towards the flat.
    Demi hopes she’s not going to get a lecture and shrugs. She needn’t have worried, Chika just laughs.
    ‘Your Gran’s gonna beat your arse.’ Chika wags her finger.
    ‘She’s at the hospital,’ says Demi.
    Chika leans her hip against the balcony wall, one arm dropping into mid-air. ‘You hungry?’
    Demi nods.
    ‘All right.’ Chika looks away from Demi, out over the estate. ‘Meet me in Dirty Mick’s in half an hour.’
    Demi must look clueless because Chika rolls her eyes. ‘The caff on the corner.’
    Demi wants to say thank you, to tell Chika how much she appreciates her kindness, but she’s already walking away towards the stairwell.
     
     
    Lilly carried Alice in her car seat from the car to the office. She plonked it on the step as she rummaged for her keys. Since Alice had projectile-vomited at nursery, and Lilly had been forced to beat a hasty retreat while Nikki rubbed her shoes angrily with kitchen roll, Alice had shown no other signs of ill health.
    ‘You,’ Lilly pointed down at her with the key, ‘are a fraud.’
    Alice gurgled back at her.
    Once inside, Lilly went straight to the kitchen. The answer phone was winking wildly and she really needed to change into her suit, but she was completely famished. She rummaged in the fridge and pulled out a Twix. Not the healthiest of breakfasts, but needs must.
    She handed Alice a rice cake, which she sucked until it disintegrated into wet sludge under her chin, and went back to reception to check her messages. Several clients were baying for her blood, or their divorce documents at least. She had to get those out today or they would sack her for sure. She logged on to the computer and sighed. Fifty-three unanswered emails.
    She smiled at Alice. ‘We’re going to be here till midnight, kiddo.’
    Lilly looked down at herself. She really did need to change out of her PJs, but she’d do an hour’s work first.
    She pulled out a file and started to type. Mrs Clayton wanted to file for divorce under unreasonable behaviour. Her husband, she said, was mean, and would only pay for a housekeeper four days a week.
    ‘How am I to manage at weekends?’ she’d asked.
    Lilly had tried not to laugh as she imagined her own cottage, where Sam’s bicycle lay in three pieces on his bedroom floor.
    ‘You might need to give me something a little more serious,’ Lilly said.
    Mrs Clayton had thought hard. Her husband had also suggested that visiting the hairdresser twice a week was excessive.
    In the end, Mrs Clayton had been forced to admit that the unreasonable Mr Clayton had been having an affair with his secretary for over two years.
    ‘Then let’s cite adultery,’ Lilly offered.
    Mrs Clayton baulked. She was a size six, with a wardrobe Gok Wan would have been proud of. She worked out every morning and had her teeth whitened in Harley Street. She had so much botox in her forehead she looked like someone had melted a candle over her face. She did not want