Kimberley Chambers 3-Book Collection: The Schemer, The Trap, Payback. Kimberley Chambers

the thought of her beautiful daughter being involved with Marlene’s son, but seeing Cathy smile at her and remembering her friend’s wise words, Pam bit her lip and nodded. ‘I’ll allow you to see him, but only if I can meet him first.’

      Angela watched the scene unfolding in front of her in complete and utter disbelief. Her little chat with Mr Jones was meant to have spelt curtains for Steph’s relationship with Barry. Instead, all it had done was enhance it.

      ‘Can I go and tell Barry now, Mum? Shall I get him to pop over in a bit?’ Steph said, overcome by excitement.

      Pam looked at Linda and Cathy.

      ‘Yeah, sod it. If this lad has you grinning like you are, girl, then we all wanna meet him, don’t we?’ Lin said, winking at Steph.

      ‘Well, I don’t wanna meet him. All yous lot have done for weeks is stare out the window and slag off the old slapper over the road, so why have we now suddenly gotta be nice to her son? I’m going out! You all make me sick,’ Angela spat venomously, pushing her chair so hard it almost toppled over.

      Pam grabbed her youngest daughter’s arm. Mr Jones had let on that Angela was extremely worried about Steph and had spoken to him, and Pam knew that the spoilt little cow had only done it out of spite. She had always been more lenient with Angela, just because she was the baby of the family, but from now on things were about to change. ‘You ain’t going out nowhere, young lady. You’ll sit ’ere with us tonight and be polite to your sister’s boyfriend, and then tomorrow me and you are going up the Heathway to get you a hair dye. As I told you the other day, you ain’t going out to play at all until you dye that hair of yours back to its original colour. Look like a bloody child prostitute, you do.’

      Absolutely livid that her mother seemed more bothered about the colour of her hair than Stephanie bunking off school, Angela burst out crying and ran up the stairs. ‘I hate you. I hate you all,’ she screamed.

      Hearing the springs on the bed bouncing up and down once again, Barry Franklin turned up the volume on the TV to drown out his sister’s cries of unbridled passion. He had once been really close to Chantelle when they were young, but just lately they seemed to argue like cat and dog. Chantelle despised the fact that he still had a good relationship with his father. She also treated her pregnancy as though she had a serious illness and, since Barry had moved back home, she had expected and screamed at him to wait on her hand and foot. Debating whether to go out and find Jacko, Barry heard the doorbell ring.

      ‘What you doing ’ere? Get inside quick,’ he urged.

      ‘You’ll never guess what! Mum wants you to come over to ours,’ Steph said, with a big grin on her face.

      ‘You winding me up or summink?’ Barry replied, bemused.

      Hearing terrible noises coming from up the stairs, Stephanie nodded towards them. ‘What’s going on up there?’

      ‘It’s me sister and her boyfriend. Doing my head in, the pair of ’em are. Did your mum really say I can come over?’ Barry asked, conveniently changing the subject.

      ‘Yep, but I’ve had to promise her I won’t bunk off school no more, so I can’t take the rest of the week off,’ Steph explained, apologetically.

      ‘I must get changed and put some aftershave on. I don’t want your mum to think I’m some tramp. Why did she change her mind, Steph?’

      ‘I think my bitch of a sister grassed on me, but Mum reckons Mr Jones, our head of year, rang her up. It don’t really matter now. As long as we can be together, that’s all I care about, don’t you?’

      Barry nodded. ‘You shoot back home and I’ll be over in about ten minutes, babe.’

      Hearing laughter coming from downstairs, Angela Crouch lay on her bed, absolutely seething. She had seen Barry Franklin walk across the road half an hour ago. She had been spying through the curtains, and he looked even fitter close up than he had from a distance.

      ‘Go away,’ Angela yelled, as she heard a knock on her bedroom door.

      Ignoring her daughter’s order, Pam marched in and sat on the edge of Angela’s bed. She stared at her daughter’s pretty, tear-stained face, and her earlier annoyance with her immediately vanished. ‘Don’t sit up here on your own, love. Come downstairs and say hello to Barry, eh?’

      Angela sat bolt upright. ‘And why would I wanna say hello to him? What’s next? Gonna invite the old slapper round for tea, are ya?’

      Pam spotted a look of jealous hatred on her youngest daughter’s face and, unable to stop herself, gave her a short, sharp slap around it. ‘You, young lady, should be ashamed of yourself. I know it was you that spoke to Mr Jones. He actually believed that you were such a nice young girl, you were frantically worried about your sister. Well, I know differently, but I will never tell Stephanie, because she would be so bloody hurt. That girl has been a good sister to you, and it’s about time you started appreciating all of your family a bit more. You’re rude to Steph, me, and Lin, and its not bloody good enough. It’s my fault, I know that. Since your father died, I’ve always babied you, but I can see now that it’s not done you any favours at all, and things have to change, Angie.’

      Angela threw herself into her mother’s chest. ‘I’m so sorry. I will try and be nicer to everyone, I promise I will.’

      Pam held her tearful daughter in her arms. She knew deep down that her Angela was a good girl. ‘Please don’t cry. I love you so much, darling.’

      ‘I promise I’ll dye my hair back to its normal colour tomorrow, and I will say hello to Steph’s boyfriend,’ Angela sobbed.

      Pam smiled. She had known that a few sharp words would be the thing to bring Angela back to her senses, and she had been absolutely right. Kissing Angie on the nose, Pam stood up. ‘You dry your eyes, angel, and come downstairs when you’re ready, eh?’

      Angela nodded.

      As soon as Pam shut the bedroom door, Angela walked over to the mirror, stared at her reflection and smirked. She needed to get back into her mother’s good books; if that meant pretending to like her bitch of a sister, then pretend she would.

      CHAPTER TEN

      As summer came to an abrupt end and autumn kicked in, Stephanie and Barry’s relationship seemed to go from strength to strength. Steph kept her promise to her mum by attending school regularly and working hard in her lessons, and Pam allowed Steph to spend time with Barry in return.

      ‘Hurry up, Ange. I’m meant to be meeting Tammy in half hour,’ Steph shouted, banging on the bathroom door. She and her sister were now on speaking terms, but were hardly best buddies.

      ‘You’re such an impatient cow. You ain’t gonna be here later when Jase comes round, are you?’ Angela shouted, flouncing out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her as though she were the Queen of Sheba. Angela had pestered her mum for weeks to allow her to bring Jason O’Brien home for dinner. ‘It ain’t fair! Barry’s round ’ere all the time and I have to put up with that. How comes Steph’s allowed to bring her boyfriend round and I ain’t? You always side with Steph,’ Angela had whinged only yesterday. Her drama-queen act had worked, and her mother had agreed that Jason O’Brien was now welcome at the house as well. Today he was coming for roast dinner, the first of many, Angela hoped.

      ‘No. I won’t be here later. Barry’s taking me out for a meal,’ Stephanie said, feeling extremely grown-up. Apart from a regular plate of chips in British Home Stores in Romford, or the odd sit-in at McDonald’s, this would be the first proper meal that Steph had ever been out for without an adult being present.

      ‘Where you going?’ Angela asked, with a hint of jealousy in her voice. Not only did she think Barry Franklin was far too handsome and entertaining to be dating the likes of her plain, boring sister, the way he treated her also really got Angie’s goat. Barry was forever buying Steph clothes and gifts. Even though Angela