Free The Broken by Tamar Cohen Page A

over September’s head and shrugged as best she could with a recumbent four-year-old on her shoulder, then she turned and walked out of the room. Josh listened to her trying to soothe the fractious child as she made her way along the hallway to their bedroom.
    ‘I know you do, sweetie, but Mummy will be right back, just as soon as she does this important thing she has to do. And in the meantime, you’re having a sleepover here with us. Isn’t this fun?’
    Judging by the muffled protests coming from behind the now closed bedroom door, September clearly didn’t agree that this unlooked-for sleepover in any way constituted fun.
    Twenty fraught minutes later, the flat finally fell silent. Twenty-one minutes later, there was the noise of a door being stealthily nudged open and then Hannah reappeared.
    ‘Well?’ Josh was conscious that he was using his disapproving school-teachery voice, but he was too irritated to do anything about it. Just how much of their lives were going to be taken over by Dan and Sasha and their crisis? Of course he wanted to help – they were their best friends, after all – but surely there was a line to be drawn somewhere? Surely he and Hannah were entitled to some semblance of a life of their own?
    ‘Sasha’s gone to follow Dan.’
    Josh gave a questioning look.
    Hannah held up her hands. ‘I know, I know. I told her it was a bad idea, but she wouldn’t listen. Apparently one of her friends was out for a meal in Soho and called her to say she’d just seen Dan having dinner with a woman.’
    ‘Dan has dinner with lots of women. That’s part of his job.’
    ‘I know. I said that. Listen, you don’t need to get shirty with me!’
    Hannah glared at him. But rather than making him feel guilty, her defensiveness just added to Josh’s sense of grievance. It was all right for her. She was at home all day. She was probably enjoying having all these people around all the time, all this activity, all this drama . She ought to try working in a proper job where you went out and spent all day with hundreds of people and looked forward to getting home for a bit of peace and quiet.
    ‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘this friend had no idea Sasha and Dan were splitting up. If that’s what they’re doing. She only made a big thing about Dan and this other woman as a joke, apparently, but Sasha was straight round here to drop off September and now she’s off in hot pursuit.’
    ‘Do you think it’s her? Sienna? ’
    ‘God knows. I’ll bloody murder Dan if it is, after all his promises. Sasha says she’s sure it isn’t, but she wants to put her mind at rest. She promises she’s just going to look through the window. She’s not going to make a scene or anything.’
    ‘Yeah, it’s not as if Sasha’s the making-a-scene type, after all!’
    Hannah made a face. ‘She promised me she wasn’t going to anyway. She didn’t even seem that bothered, she just said she knew she was being stupid but she just wanted to see for herself, then she’d come straight back. She’ll probably be here any minute.’
    ‘Yeah, unless she’s stabbed him through the heart. You did frisk her for sharp implements, I take it?’
    ‘Look, like you said, Dan works with lots of women and does a lot of business over dinner. Sasha is just overreacting to everything at the moment. Bet you anything she comes through the door in the next half-hour absolutely mortified.’
    ‘Sasha doesn’t do mortified, Hannah. Sasha only does vindicated or Now I’ll make this into an amusing story to make myself look cute and quirky .’
    ‘Why are you so down on her suddenly? Don’t you think she’s having a hard enough time without her friends turning on her as well?’
    Hannah rarely raised her voice, and as Josh gazed at her in surprised reproach, he noticed for the first time how tired she looked. Her blue eyes appeared almost colourless against the dark mauve shadows underneath. This situation was taking its toll on her