Broke by Mandasue Heller Page A

it to The Bee, five o’clock every Monday. Don’t be late, and don’t even think about not turning up, because I will come round, and you will pay. We clear on that?’
    ‘Absolutely,’ Mark agreed without hesitation. ‘Every Monday, five o’clock. I’ll be there, no worries.’
    Yates nodded and walked back out into the hall. He paused before he opened the door, and said, ‘Just so you know, first time I have to come round for it I’ll be breaking something before I leave. Second time . . .’ He tailed off and smiled. ‘Let’s just say there won’t be a second time.’
    Mark gulped nervously. Moments earlier, the money had felt as light and as lovely as gold dust, but now it felt like a lead weight. He contemplated handing it back, but he had a feeling that wouldn’t be an option now that he’d accepted it.
    Amy had just put the kids to bed when Mark turned up at her mum’s house at eight that night. Her parents had gone to the MRI to visit her aunt who’d just had an operation, so she was alone – and bored.
    She had enjoyed being back home to start with, eating her mum’s cooking, listening to her dad’s lame jokes, and sleeping in her old bed. But the gloss had worn off within a couple of hours of getting up this morning, and she remembered exactly why she’d been so desperate to escape in the first place. Mark called her a nag, but she had nothing on her mum.
    Don’t leave that there . . . Stop slurping your tea . . . Close your mouth when you’re eating . . . Don’t let the kids touch that . . .
    She made Amy feel like a five-year-old, and it wasn’t nice. And it definitely hadn’t been pleasant to be reminded of her dad’s farts. Every two minutes he let one go, and Bobby thought it was so funny he’d been copying him all day. Only he hadn’t quite mastered the fart without the follow-through yet, so Amy had had to change him four times before dinner.
    Desperate to be back in her own house with her own things around her, and missing Mark far more than she dared to admit to her mum who seemed to think that she was home for good, Amy’s heart leapt with joy when she gazed into his eyes as he stood on the doorstep. But, determined not to let him think she was a pushover, she folded her arms and played it cool.
    ‘You shouldn’t be here. My mum told you not to come.’
    ‘I don’t care about your mum,’ said Mark, holding out the bunch of flowers he’d bought from the garage on the way. ‘All I care about is you and the kids. Please come home, babe. I can’t stand it when you’re not there. I need you.’
    ‘It’s too soon,’ Amy replied, already mentally packing her bags and pulling the kids out of bed. ‘I need more time.’
    ‘It’s killing me,’ Mark moaned. ‘I just want my family back. You’re my life. I don’t want to live without you.’ He sank down to his knees now, and thrust the flowers at her again. ‘I’ve been stupid, and selfish, and you deserve someone better. But you’re my wife, and I love you with all my heart. Please come home, darlin’. I’ll change. I’ll do anything you want. I’m begging you.’
    Despite her resolve to stay strong, Amy melted. Mark was a clown, and she’d long ago learned that he would say anything to get his own way. But no other man had ever made her feel the way that he did when he looked at her the way he was looking at her right now. His soppy eyes and little-boy pout were so cute. And when he called her darlin ’ like that she just wanted to dive into his arms and stay there for ever.
    ‘Not tonight,’ she said, struggling to maintain her composure. ‘The kids are in bed, and I’m not getting them up to take them back to the house while the electric’s off. Sort that out, and I might think about it.’
    ‘Already sorted,’ Mark told her, grinning as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his knees. ‘And I’ve been shopping, so there’s food in, an’ all.’
    ‘ You ’ve been shopping?’ Amy drew