Free Happy Ever After by Patricia Scanlan

pain. Especially with that trapped nerve in your neck.’
    ‘Busy day so.’ Judith felt some response was required. She liked this nurse, a kind Filipino woman called Lourdes, but today she didn’t seem to have the energy to talk to anyone.
    ‘You’re a bit down, your mum was saying. That’s normal after a traumatic event. Emotions seesaw, so don’t worry if you’re up one day and down the next. Why don’t you try and have a little nap before tea comes?’
    ‘Thanks, I will,’ Judith agreed. Sleep was precious, and she took it when she could. Lourdes plumped up her pillows and straightened her blankets, and Judith began to relax. It was nice being taken care of for a change. And if it weren’t for the pain, she wouldn’t mind being in the hospital. For the first time in her adult life she felt no sense of responsibility, no pressure to be in charge, no pressure to take care of anyone. Now, she was the one being taken care of, and all her worldly concerns and worries had floated away beyond the plate-glass window where they couldn’t reach her. She knew she would have plenty of problems to deal with when she left hospital. All the insurance stuff with the car, having to buy a new one and all that entailed. Having to sort her sick pay with work. But, for now, she could snuggle up in her bed and drift off into drugged sleep and forget everything.

C HAPTER T HREE
    ‘I just don’t want to go, Mom. Why do I have to? It’s only going to be full of old people and people your age. It’s going to be majorly boring, and Sarah and I were going to go to hang out with Clara for a couple of hours, ’cos she’s going to her villa in Spain tomorrow and we won’t see her for a month.’ Melissa was whining, feeling very sorry for herself at having to attend a dreary art exhibition where her grandmother was showing her silk paintings. It was Juliet’s first exhibition, and she’d invited the three of them to attend.
    ‘Listen to yourself. How selfish are you, Melissa Adams? Your grandmother is very good to you, and she asks you to do one thing and you whinge and moan like a spoilt brat. Life isn’t all about you, you know. You can phone Clara when we get home,’ Aimee snapped as she dropped her briefcase on the sofa and kicked off her high heels.
    ‘Bitch,’ muttered Melissa under her breath as she stalked off to her bedroom. Her mother was being so mean since the wedding. She was a real crosspatch. OK, she’d found the empty alcopop bottles that she and Sarah had been drinking from on the day of the wedding, and Melissa had pulled a fast one by not wearing the dress Aimee had wanted her to wear, going in her Rock & Republic jeans instead, but she’d been well punished for that. Her mother had given the precious jeans to a charity shop. If anyone had a right to be cranky and unfriendly, it was her, Melissa thought angrily, giving her bedroom door a good slam and flinging herself on the bed. Going to an art exhibition was something Nerdy Nolan and Turdy Sampson would do. How sad was that? She picked up her phone, and her fingers flew over the keys: Can’t come 2 Clara’s. Have to go to Gran’s thing. Tlk ltr. X
    She sent the text to Sarah and got a sympathetic Bums. Poor u. XXXXXXXX in return.
    She went to her wardrobe and pulled out a pair of white jeans she hadn’t worn since last year. They’d been very tight, she remembered as she slipped out of her combats and stepped into them. Melissa was more than pleasantly surprised that they fastened without a struggle, and she spent five minutes twisting and turning, looking at herself critically in the mirror and noting every bulge and flaw. She wasn’t eating anything else today, she decided, even though she was starving and her stomach was rumbling like crazy.
    She lay back down on the bed and picked up a magazine she’d bought earlier. She read how a celebrity had lost half a stone in a week to finally get to the prized size zero, and then she turned the page