It was late the next morning when she rang the doorbell, no one was awake inside the house until that moment.
"I'll get it." Max sighed wearily as he pulled a pair of his jogging bottoms on and let Zoe drift back to sleep.
"If it's Dylan wondering why I'm not at work, tell him I'm sleeping." Zoe moaned sleepily and seconds later she was asleep again.
"Sorry Dyl... Oh Mrs Beauchamp." Max spoke as he answered the door.
"I hope you haven't been having sex with my daughter in the next room." Connie commented as she noticed Max's state of undress. "Can I come in?"
"I suppose so but no causing any trouble." Max sighed as he let his boss in and led her through to the living room of Zoe's house.
"I'll just go and get Zoe up. Grace is still asleep."
"It's nearly lunchtime." Connie commented.
"She had a troubled night." Max said as he left the room.
"Her and me both." Connie muttered under her breath.
"Has he gone?" Zoe mumbled.
"No, slight problem."
"I'm not coming in, it's my day off." Zoe groaned.
"No, not that. It's Connie, she's in the lounge." Max told her and saw Zoe immediately wake fully and sit up.
"Put the kettle on and I'll be down in a minute." Zoe gently told him.
Pulling on a dressing gown, Zoe joined her partner and fellow consultant in her living room.
"What do you want Connie?" Zoe whispered angrily.
"Well I wanted to talk to you about my daughter." Connie replied, placing as much emphasis as she could on the word 'my'.
"Do you know how upset she is?" Zoe asked, looking Connie in the eye. "Max came in at 4am to find her sat in here, worried that you didn't love her."
"You told her that I did, didn't you?" Connie asked as her facade began to splinter again.
"Yes. Not for you though, for her. She's hurting a lot and I wasn't about to make that worse." Max explained.
"I do love her, I do try to be a good mother." Connie sighed, blinking back the tears as she did so.
"Well try harder, all I've ever seen you throw all your energies at is work, maybe you should put that much effort into raising Grace." Zoe spoke again.
"You win." Connie whispered as she quickly wiped away the tears that escaped from her eyes.
"Mum?" Grace asked cautiously as she appeared at the door.
"I can't do this." Connie spoke, getting up and letting herself out.
As Grace had run back upstairs crying with Zoe following to comfort her, Max noticed an envelope on the sofa in the space that Connie had just vacated. With in the envelope was two smaller ones, one addressed to himself and Zoe and the other addressed to Grace, the second of which had slightly blurred writing due to what appeared to be have been a tear dropping on the paper.
The next two chapters will both be Connie's letters and then there will be one final chapter after that and then this story is done. Thank you for all the reviews, they make my day :)
Beth x