Read Behind a Closed Door (The Estate, Book 2) for Free Online Page A

investigate the locked door.
    ‘I think we’ll go up into town tomorrow morning, Em, and buy some roll ends of wallpaper. Then in the afternoon we’ll start to pack up your things.’
    ‘I have lots of things, don’t I, Mummy?’
    ‘Yes, you do.’ Despite her reluctance, Kelly would have to ask Jay to lend a hand with some of the bigger items, but she promised herself it would only be this once. She looked around the room again. Number 33 Clarence Avenue, their new home. Well, it would be when she’d finished with it, Kelly resolved. 
    ‘Yoo-hoo! Anyone home?’ There was a light rap on the door. ‘Thought I’d come and see for myself as you said you’d be measuring up for curtains.’
    ‘Nanny!’ Emily rushed towards her.
    ‘You call this home?’ Kelly griped as her mum, Jill, came into the room. Their stature and height were the same and, apart from a few grey hairs instead of an all over brown, their resemblance was uncanny. Emily had the Winterton button nose too.
    ‘Clarence Avenue isn’t as bad as everyone makes out,’ Jill tried to reassure her daughter.
    ‘It’ll do, I suppose. Looks pretty rough to me, though.’
    Jill glanced around the bare living room. ‘You can make it nice, love. You seem to have a flair for this kind of thing.’
    ‘It’s going to cost me a fortune to get it half decent,’ Kelly continued, knowing that her mum really meant the inside and not the outside of the property. ‘There’s a stack of decorating to do, and cleaning. Everything needs to be scrubbed again before I’m moving one piece of furniture in. I can’t believe the association let it in this state.’
    ‘Have you thought about what to do for money until Scott gets back from you know where?’
    Kelly was confused. ‘I don’t follow,’ she said.
    ‘Your dad says they’re advertising on the twilight shift at Miles’ factory. Four ‘til eight. It’s a little unsociable but it could work out well for you. I could look after Emily.’
    ‘Yeah, can we, mummy?’ Emily chirped in at the mention of her name. ‘I can stay with Nanny.’
    ‘And you know lots of people there. There’s Pam, for a start.’ Pam was Kelly’s auntie. Her cousin, Estelle, worked at the factory too.
    ‘I’m hardly going to have time to do anything else with all the decorating they’re expecting me to do in this dump.’
    Jill shrugged and walked over to the window. ‘I just think there’s more to you than a stay at home mum.’
    ‘Actually, I was thinking of doing a college course.’
    Jill turned back to her daughter and smiled. ‘I think that’s a great idea. What do you fancy doing?’
    ‘I’m not sure, thought I’d suss it out.’ Kelly back-pedalled slightly. ‘I know that being a mum is the best job in the world but Em will be starting school in September. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself then. Maybe if I start a course while Scott is – erm,’ she looked at her mum again, ‘working away, I could always say I felt the need to fend for myself in case he went to work away again.’
     ‘Maybe if you went to college during the day, you could manage the twilight shift?’ Jill pulled a bag of sweets from her handbag and gave them to Emily. ‘It’s not rocket science and it’s repetitive but you know the money will be good. And it beats scrounging off the social. I’ve always thought better of you than that.’
    Kelly huffed. ‘Knowing my luck, I’d probably be hopeless at it.’
    ‘You won’t know if you don’t try.’
    ‘But what if I’m not good enough?’
    ‘Then you’ll get better with practice. You’re a smart woman, love, and not everyone on this estate needs to play the part of an extra in Shameless. Don’t get dragged down with the rest of them,’ she advised. ‘You can get yourself out of this situation if you really want to.’
    Kelly said nothing. She knew she needed to secure her future but she wouldn’t make her mind up yet. There was so much changing in her life right