Free Anyone Who Had a Heart by Mia Dolan

but his face crumpled ever so slightly. ‘Your old man’s getting old. Christ! Never thought I would. Thought I’d stay twenty-one for ever.’
    They both smiled, but his comment about Joanna still grated on Marcie’s mind. What had he meant by it? They both fell into an uncomfortable silence. He broke it first, the awkwardness nudging him into explaining.
    ‘All I meant was, it’s like you were saying, that a frock … sorry … dress shop in London would pay you shedloads of money, well, beyond what a local little place here would pay.’
    ‘But I’ve got Joanna,’ Marcie said abruptly.
    It was obvious that he would have said more, but her abrupt intervention had brought him up short.
    ‘That’s right,’ he said, his voice soft and full of affection. ‘You’ve got Joanna and nobody and nothing is ever going to alter that.’

Chapter Nine
    RITA TAYLOR WAS livid to think that her friend – her former best friend – Marcie Brooks had been having it off with her dad. Christ, what a little tart she turned out to be, and wasn’t she glad that they weren’t best friends any more.
    It occurred to her to spread the word around that Marcie had got pregnant by her father. A warning voice in her head told her that wouldn’t be wise. People might blame her father seeing as he was a lot older than Marcie. Besides, she didn’t want to besmirch either his good name or her own. They had a position in the community. They had a nice house, a nice car and her father, although he hadn’t been so interested in business just lately, brought in a good income.
    She was sitting in front of the telly watching
Coronation Street
with a chip butty for company. The people she considered friends hadn’t called for a few days because she’d been in such a foul temper. When she was in a bad temper she always resorted to food.
    Her father was the only one who had phoned to say he was sleeping over at the car dealership he owned down in Deal. Deal was too far to travel if he’d been drinking, and she was in no doubt that he had. His consumption of alcohol had increased drastically over the past year. At first she’d put it down to her stepmother leaving, but now she knew the truth and the truth made her angry. She was set on exposing Marcie for the slut she considered her to be. Best of all she’d like to get her to leave Sheerness and Sheppey too. Trash like her didn’t belong here. That was her opinion anyway. But how could she get her own back at her? How could she do that without damaging either her or her father’s reputation?
    The answer came just a few days later. She’d undertaken a secretarial course at the local college and through that had got herself a job as a clerk/typist in the offices of a local solicitor. Not for her the old job she’d used to have with Marcie selling candy floss to day trippers along the seafront at Sheerness. She’d made the decision to better herself so mornings and afternoons were spent buried up to her armpits in paperwork and typing. Lunch times were a welcome break when she could stroll along the high street, stuffing her face with a hot pie and chips bought from the local chippie.
    It was during one of these lunch breaks that she bumped into Bully Price, though almost treading on him might have been a better description.
    A pair of large black working boots was sticking out from beneath a broken-down car. Occupied with her thoughts, Rita tripped over them and fell against the side of the car. The car rolled slightly.
    ‘Oi!’
    A face smeared in oil came out from beneath the car. ‘Rita Taylor! That’s my feet you’re treading on!’
    ‘Bully Price! You’ve got the biggest feet in Sheerness. No. Come to think of it, you’ve got the biggest feet in the whole of Sheppey.’
    ‘And you’re hardly bloody Tinkerbell the fairy, are you? And stuck-up with it, just like yer mate Marcie Brooks. Gets herself a job at the hospital and she’s all airs and graces.’
    Rita had been going to