It was getting towards the end of February. Carla was still attending counselling sessions every week and her anxiety attacks became less frequent and were getting easier for them to both manage. Carla sent off the letter to Rob but hadn't heard from him, maybe he was just struggling to know what to write to her, this upset Carla to a certain extent, but she didn't let it plague on her mind every day. She decided not to ring the number on the business card, but this played heavily on her mind she needed to know why this business woman was here this was something which bothered her every day. Peter never continued to question her on the brief encounter of Sarah's client as Carla just seemed to have put it to rest although Peter didn't really know the full story but she decided to keep it from him for his sake and hers as it would lead to bringing up the past.
"Morning, baby" Carla greets Peter with a cheeky grin
"Someone's happy this morning" he states
"Has the post come?" she asks hopeful that there may be a letter from Rob
"Here" Peter says holding out a letter for her "It looks like its from the prison"
"Can you read it to me like last time?" she smiles
"Sure" he says guiding her over to the sofa
Carla,
I'm sorry to hear you have been through 'hell' but I am even more sorry for you to be lumbered with that cheating scum bag ex-husband of yours. I killed Tina so I could send him down for murder. All I wanted was to be the only one to protect you not some worthless man off the street. You just keep on running back to him even after everything he's done. You're even more than an idiot than I thought. It's all Carla, Carla, Carla with you isn't it? If I were there right now, he would be dead. I hope you both get what's coming for you because you both deserve pain and agony even more so.
Rob
After reading the letter, there were tears streaming down Carla's face. There was another letter that was in the envelop which was a visiting order. Carla stared at it contemplating whether to rip it to shreds while her tears stained the ink on it.
"You, ok? I know it's a stupid question" Peter says
"No I am not ok, how can I be ok, my brother can't be happy for me and he wishes me the worse. How can it get any better?" she asks
"We knew there was a part of us that knew he would react like this didn't we? He says
"I guess, its just annoying, I don't want to think about it anymore" she mumbles as she gets up with the hand-written letter in her hands and goes over to Peter's jacket and grabs his lighter and sets fire to the piece of paper and washes it down the sink.
"Well that wasn't the reaction I was thinking of" he chuckles
"I can get damn right creative when I want to be Mr Barlow" she states
"What do you want to do about the visiting order then?" Peter asks
"To be honest I want to burn it but I'm really curious as to why he sent it with a spiteful letter. Surely if he felt so badly about me he wouldn't want to see me in person. It's just a bit odd" she replies smartly
"I kind of have to agree with you on that one love" Peter smiles
"I know, keep it and I will decide later. One bombshell at a time baby" She replies while heading into the bathroom to get ready for the day.
After the short walk to the bistro Carla and Peter attend the tables getting them ready for the bookings for the rest of the day. Peter noticed that in the book there was a booking for Sarah and a client, he was then left wondering if the 'secret' person that Carla knew from a week or so back would be with Sarah. Peter thought to himself that this could be a way to get Carla to talk about it and to see her reaction. A while later Sarah enters the bistro with the same client from the previous week.
"Hey Peter, table for two, I did book in advance" Sarah says
"Yes, ok follow me, I'll get someone to come over to take your drinks orders" he smiles and returns to the bar
"Carla love, I don't suppose you could take Sarah's drinks orders while I take table 5's?" he questions. He wouldn't force her to do something she didn't want to do but it was just a way to see her reaction
"Yep sure are they eating or?" she questions
"I don't know, I didn't ask but I guess you could take them some menus over" he replies
Carla heads over to the table where Sarah is sat with her client and places the menus down on the table.
"Hi Sarah, what drinks would you like?" she asks
"Just a lemonade, thanks Carla" she replies
"As I'm driving I will have a fizzy water, thanks" the client smiles at Carla
"Wait you're Carla as in Carla Connor? Doing bar work?" the client asks taking aback by the sudden career change
"Yes I am, it's not really that much of a shock is it?" Carla laughs
"You two know each other?" Sarah asks
"Yes, we do, I better be getting back otherwise my partner will be doing his head in, I'll get your drinks to you" she smiles then walks away
"Spill" Sarah says
"Ok fine, me and Carla go back, my family did business for her ex-husband Tony I also had connections with her ex-fiancée as well" she states "If you look back to around between 2008-2012 you'll see my name there in your previous order books"
"Oh right? Are you two friends or not?" Sarah asks carefully in case it's a delicate subject
"We were but then things didn't really work out so" the client shrugs her shoulders "Anyway let's get back to business I thought Nick was meant to be joining us?"
"No, well I don't know he's probably playing happy families with his partner" Sarah shrugs "Left me to pick up the pieces"
Carla reappears and hands the drinks over "Here are your drinks if you need anything else let me know" she smiles then walks back to the bar
An hour or so later Sarah finishes her business meal with her client and makes her way to the bar to order another drink.
"Hi Carla another lemonade please" she smiles
"Sure coming right up" she says then makes her way to the shelves to slice some lemons
"I'm sorry if that was awkward for you" Sarah says noticing a shift in Carla's mood when she was serving her earlier
"Don't be" she states
"She told me you know" Sarah says
"Told you what? Whatever she's said it probably isn't true" Carla says revealing too much
"Woah hold on all she said that she went into business with you for a few years" Sarah says
"Oh sorry, I just thought she may be spreading lies that's all" Carla returns
"Ok well, I'm going to go back to doing the timesheets now, take care" Sarah replies then walks off
"You going to tell me what that was about?" Peter prompts appearing from behind
"Fine but not here, later" she says "I'm going on my break"
Carla was walking down Coronation Street only to see the client that was previously in the bistro get into her car. She marches over and gets in the passenger seat knowing all well she is going to have a conversation she knows she's not ready to have.
"Um, what the hell do you think you're doing?" the client says
"Oh save it Lilah" Carla says sternly "I know what your game is"
"So what is my game then Carla. Tell me because I would like to know myself" she states smugly
"Don't play dumb with me, you're here to make sure you can get your hands into some shares to expand your measly empire" Carla says
"Did you just call my 'empire' measly?" Lilah says shocked "I think me and you both know it's not that"
"So what's your plan then, come on I'm waiting" Carla says impatiently
"Give me one reason to tell you. You don't work there anymore I'm guessing, so what's it to do with you?" she questions
"I care about people ok" Carla says quietly
"Carla, I'm not screwing anyone ok? I'm past doing that, ever since, you know" she shrugs
"So why now then? 6 years Lilah. Six. You decide you need business? Things really can't be that bad not with your portfolio" Carla scoffs
"Maybe I just fancied going back to the roots" Lilah shrugs "I was hoping you would've picked up your phone and called me when I gave you my card, what a fool I was" she rolls her eyes
"Look, maybe we can have a catch up at some point" Carla says
"Fine, I promise you I only screw people over when I have to, and this is a case where I don't need to. Nick and Sarah have got a good thing going there, carrying on your legacy and all that, you should be proud of that girl she's got a good business head. I wonder where she got it from" Lilah smiles "Here I will give you my card again in case you ripped the last one up, give me a ring" she suggests
"I will and that's a promise" Carla says firmly "I will let you get on"
After meeting with Lilah, Carla continued doing work at the bistro until closing time. Her and Peter were getting ready to pack up to allow for an easier start the next day. Peter locked up and they both headed home knowing that the conversation they would have would be a shock for him to say the least.
"Home sweet home" Carla smirks
"I think me, and you need to have a conversation, don't you?" Peter says
"Please don't be mad at me" she begs knowing that her paranoia was getting to her
"I'm not mad Carla, I just want to understand who she is" he smiles
"It's a long story but basically her father did some work for Underworld while Tony and Liam worked there. He was a client who went to all these business 'get togethers' we had a good relationship with his company he had a share in Tony's company Gordons, and he was a good friend of ours. Anyway, we had a monthly contract which reoccurred for him. A few months into his contract he and his wife passed away from a car crash where they were driving to a venue to hold a conference for their company. It was devastating but I needed to know about the contract. His solicitor contacted Tony saying that his daughter had inherited the shares in Gordons and the whole of her father's company" Carla says starting to get emotional
"So, you did business with her?" Peter prompts gently
"We did, until the whole Liam thing happened where Tony confessed and then I had to deal with this contract that I knew nothing about as I usually let Tony deal with it" she says quietly "We struck up this business relationship where we would help each other out if the other one needed it. We gave ideas on how to improve productivity and conferred business tactics. This is when she screwed me over, she revealed my business tactics making out they were her own to other companies to gain shares for her own portfolio" she says while tears roll down her face
"Why are you upset, baby" he asks
"The next bit isn't very nice that's all" she smiles "I think it's better out in the open though, but you have to promise me that you won't go off the rails and get mad at her"
"I promise, I'm here for you and only you" he says rubbing his thumb over her hand
"Well, Lilah has shares in all these companies, the profits soon added up. She's a smart kid and knew how to get her way. She overly flirted with clients and wore skimpy outfits to gain business deals not that I'm judging her" she shrugs
"But that wasn't skimpy what she was wearing today, she looked quite sophisticated" Peter says
"All I know is she had dealings with Frank Foster and his cronies. She isn't the sparky know-it-all girl she was all those years ago, I can see she's changed."
"What makes you so sure?" he asks
"Well, today we were sat in her car and we had this conversation. In the past, she would be upfront about screwing people and they wouldn't believe her until it happened then they would kick themselves because they all thought she was a naïve little girl with very minimal experience. So I asked her if she was screwing Underworld and she said no and that she's over that now. Well her words were 'I'm past doing that, ever since, you know' but I have no idea what she meant so I didn't push it and said that we would meet up in the future for old times sake but there is one thing I do know and I saw fear in that girl's eyes" she states
"What are you saying, Frank did something to her or someone did something to her?" Peter says delicately hating to mention Frank's name
"I don't know Peter, but I will get it out of her and why she suddenly decided to return" Carla says firmly
"Ok, if you insist. You know I'm here to talk if you need to" he returns with a smile
"I want to go to bed now, care to join me?" she asks
"Sure let's get ready" he smiles
Peter knew that this could set Carla back even more if the past was bought up but he felt like he didn't have a choice as she was determined to get to the bottom of what was bothering her all he could do was sit back and be her safety net in case she deteriorates in front of him.