Commitment

Chapter Seventeen

Whilst Paula let herself settle in again once they reached Eddie's apartment, and went into the bedroom to phone up her boss in the café, to let her know she needed to take a few days personal leave, because of a death in the family. Even as she was saying it, she felt a little dazed still, because it all seemed so surreal.

Eddie meanwhile, stood in his kitchen and phoned Jack, to let him know he would be bringing Lorna's daughter in to the police station the following day.

"That was quick," Jack remarked at the other end of the line, sounding a surprised and impressed at the same time, "I thought it might have taken you at least a few weeks to find her"

"Yeah, well when I checked Lorna's first address in our records, it seemed it was her home address, and her daughter was still living there, so it wasn't so hard," Eddie replied, which was partly true. He just didn't want to go into the complications of his relationship with Paula, to his partner right now

"That was a good bit of luck, so how did she take it, you just turning up at her door to let her know her mother was dead?" he then asked out of curiosity

"Well she is still in a bit of state of shock, she never knew her mother really, because she abandoned her when she was only a baby, and left the grandmother to raise her, so Lorna is hardly a great loss in her life" he then explained.

"Poor girl now all this has happened, no wonder she is in shock" Jack remarked sympathetically

"Yeah, the sooner this is all over the better; anyway I really got to go now, so I will see you tomorrow" Eddie then hastily said, as Paula came out of the bedroom, and then he hung up.

"I was just phoning up the station there to let them know to expect you tomorrow" he then said as he came over to eye her up and down with slight concern, "How are you doing, if you are hungry I can order us a takeaway or something" he then offered

Paula shook her head, "No, I am fine, I don't think I could eat anything right now, my stomach is still in knots" she then admitted.

"Then why don't you sit down and take it easy" he suggested

Paula happily agreed, and Eddie sat down with her, putting his arm around her again to offer her some comfort

"I-I never thought I would be back here under these kind of circumstances" she then admitted ruefully

"Yeah, it's not exactly the way I wanted our next time to be either." Eddie agreed

Paula now frowned a little, looking round into his face, "W-when you said my mother was not a respectable woman, what exactly did you mean?"

Eddie found himself shifting uneasily "Well, there is no nice way to put it unfortunately, she had form for prostitution, drugs, assault, that sort of thing" he replied.

Paula nodded, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully, taking in what he was telling her, "I thought it was something like that" she sighed heavily, "And there was me thinking she had probably met someone and got married and had more kids, but did not get in touch, because she was too ashamed of having me. I guess I was a bit naïve in that respect, as it seems she was probably too ashamed because of her lifestyle to get in contact with me" she then realised.

"Could have been that," Eddie warily replied, deciding it was better Paula thinking this, than finding out her mother just didn't care about her at all.

"Will I be able to see her?" she then asked

"I suppose it could be arranged if you really want to" Eddie replied, "But just prepare yourself, because her body was in the water for a while, so she might not look great" he then warned gently