Free The Life and Second Life of Charlie Brackwood (The Brackwood Series Book 2) by Stacey Field Page A

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    2 August 2012
    I am full of regret on this sweltering summer’s evening. If life came with a remote control the rewind button on mine would surely be forever broken due to overuse. I seem to have a constant need to reverse time and re-run events in my life that bring me shame. The heat and humidity make it hard for me to concentrate but I will try to recall this evening’s events with as much clarity as I can muster.
    A month ago Emma casually mentioned a dinner party we had both been invited to. The hosts were a couple I had met on three occasions in total. Evie and Geoff are both professionals. They live in a large Victorian home with their two children, the youngest is the same age as Ben. Emma had met Evie at a parent and toddler event held weekly at the church hall and when I came home from work one evening I found my ears ringing with Emma’s admiration for her. It was easy to see she had been taken in by Evie.
    I was running late on the evening of the dinner party due to a detention I was required to organise for a group of year tens who’d decided it was a great idea to deface a school wall with spray paint. When I came home it was clear that Emma was stressed. She stumbled down the stairs half-dressed as I stepped into the hallway.
    “Have you seen my diamond earrings?” she asked, somewhat desperately.
    “No, I thought you kept them in your jewellery box?”
    “I took them out of there, don’t you remember? I wore them to our anniversary meal.”
    “I’m sorry, I—”
    “Never mind,” she interrupted, “just go and get dressed.”
    It was clear she was in a frenzy, brought on by the desperate urge to impress her new friends. She would often become needy and eager for acceptance when she met new people; it was a need I never really understood but put down to her upbringing and the many years of watching her own mother behave in the same way. I absent-mindedly put on the nearest shirt I came across in the wardrobe. Emma entered the bedroom, adjusting a newly found diamond earring in her right ear.
    “No, not that one,” she hissed, before reaching in front of me and grabbing a light blue Calvin Klein shirt with narrow stripes. I knew she had picked it for its designer label. I looked at her closely for the first time that evening.
    “New dress?”
    “Yes,” she said as she admired herself in the mirror.
    “How much did it cost?”
    “Oh, never mind that now.”
    “Emma, we are new parents, we can’t afford luxuries like these.”
    She shrugged. “I needed a new dress for tonight. It’s no big deal. Besides, you have your own extravagances,” she said sarcastically.
    I chose to walk out of the room instead of answering her. As I checked on Ben the doorbell sounded and I made my way to the hallway to answer it. It was Emma’s mum, on babysitting duty.
    “Hel-lo,” she sing-songed.
    “Hi, Helen, thanks for doing this.”
    “Oh, my pleasure,” she said cheerfully. “Where is the little mite?”
    I gestured towards the living room and she waddled in that direction, pulling a small bag of sweets discreetly from her pocket as she pushed the door open. Emma and I have a strict no sweets policy and I sighed inwardly. This woman would not be told.
    Emma came trotting downstairs, kissed her mum on the cheek and pulled me out of the front door. I could smell the sweet scent of her perfume as it mingled with the humid air; once again she had overdone it and I tried not to gag as the potent odour overwhelmed me.  
    I drove carefully, not wanting to upset her, and she laid down some ground rules for me.
    “Now, as you know, Evie and Geoff don’t really respond well to sarcasm so I would avoid it at all costs.”
    “No jokes… got it,” I said sarcastically. She ignored me and continued.
    “Please don’t ask for the leftovers, and don’t talk with your mouth full. Plus you have this terrible habit of fidgeting with your cutlery between courses, don’t do that. Also, Lara and John