‘So you don’t feel any kind of guilt or responsibility?’
‘No. Why should I?’
Tim ignored her. ‘How do you stop kids from taking the test, or paedophiles being Matched with them?’
‘Each country has its own laws based on the age of consent, and here in Britain, it’s sixteen. Our servers run a search through the International Criminal Database too and warn those who get a Match if they have a criminal record. Privacy laws mean we can’t reveal the exact crime, but we are allowed to rate the severity on a scale of one to five. But sometimes people slip through the net – if they’ve never been charged with a crime there’s nothing we can do, which is why there’s about forty pages of legal disclaimers on our website. I admit, it’s a grey area and I have a huge legal team that deals with the lawsuits, but so far not one case has got past the first couple of court appearances. We’re not to blame for the results. It’d be like suing gun manufacturers on behalf of anyone who’s ever been shot. It’s not the fault of the weapon, it’s the user. I’ve provided the tool to change your life but I can’t be held responsible if you abuse it. I usually take my security team with me to avoid situations like the paint incident.’ She gestured to where Andrei still stood silently in the corner of the room. ‘But the night you and I met for dinner, I insisted on going alone. I just wanted to feel like a normal person again.’
‘And, up until she attacked you,’ Tim said, ‘did you feel normal with me?’
Ellie blushed. ‘Yes, I did.’
‘I know you’re one of the eight per cent who haven’t felt that lightning bolt yet, but just for the record, I’m already there.’
Ellie’s cheeks went a deeper shade of red and she tried to prevent a huge smile from spreading across her face.
‘Andrei, would you mind looking away for a moment?’ Tim asked, then turned his head to kiss Ellie.
For the first time since they met, an overwhelming wave of euphoria began to charge its way through her veins like an electrical current.
Chapter 46
MANDY
After three nights with little to no sleep, Mandy had stopped off at Tesco on her way home from work and picked up some over-the-counter sleeping tablets.
She hoped that a solid night’s sleep might offer her some perspective on Pat’s unexpected and remarkable offer to carry Richard’s baby. Instead, the pills left her feeling sluggish and unable to think clearly the next morning.
Regardless, she went through the motions. She crawled out of bed when her 7am alarm went off and dragged her weary bones into the shower. Then, with a generous application of foundation and under-eye cream to make herself look less zombie and more office worker, she set off for work.
Mandy had started work as a team leader for an energy supplier’s telesales division four years ago and she hadn’t treated it as anything other than a job, and certainly not a career. Lately, she was finding it an increasing struggle to gather the motivation to turn up for work each day. In fact, after ‘meeting’ Richard, she struggled to put her broken heart into anything anymore. Her work, her family and her social life were all suffering and today, instead of trawling through spreadsheets of data, she’d been staring blankly at her booth’s front partition wall.
Barely a couple of hours would pass without Mandy feeling the need to look at the photos of Richard she had on her phone, picturing herself in another life, travelling the world with him, marrying him and beginning her much-craved family together. She’d even forwarded the footage of him masturbating to her own phone. Now it was in her possession and she could pretend he’d made it only for her.
She asked herself what Richard would do if he were in her position, working in a job he hated with no light at the end of the tunnel. He’d just leave, she thought to herself. He’d pack up his bags and go travelling, in search of a bigger and better adventure. But Mandy didn’t have the guts to simply quit her job, although, of course, his mother had offered her the opportunity to go on a very different adventure. Her mention of Richard’s frozen sperm had come out of the blue and opened up a whole new potential path – if she dared.
‘Don’t answer straight away,’ Pat had advised her on the hillside. ‘Take your time to think about it and what it would mean to you to have his baby. Talk it over with your family, but no matter what they say, remember that you’ll always have Chloe and me on your side. We are your family too now.’
Having a child with a man who truly loved her was all that Mandy had ever wanted and, until recently, it hadn’t seemed possible. Even though they’d never had the opportunity to meet, she knew how she felt about him based only on being around the remnants of his life. Was that enough of a foundation to have his child? Of course it wasn’t. The rational side of Mandy’s brain knew what she should do. How would she ever explain to her mum and sisters she was pregnant with the child of a dead man she’d never met? Is this really how she wanted to become a mother? What would her child think when it became old enough to understand? Could she do it alone?
Could she do it? She was certainly tempted.
‘Mandy, can I have a word?’ The voice startled her. She turned to see her line manager, Charlie, a young man that she suspected was barely out of his teens but had the ability to patronise as well as any man double his age. She followed him into a large Perspex cube where a desk with three chairs sat next to a whiteboard. He beckoned her to take a seat and shuffled some papers he was holding.
‘I’ve been looking at your team’s figures, Mandy, and, if I’m honest, they’ve been slipping.’ He stroked his bum-fluff goatee to emphasise his disappointment. ‘Over the last two months, we’ve seen a consistent drop in leads from you guys and, as a result, sales have stalled. Is there anything you’d like to tell me?’
Like what? she asked herself. Like the love of my life is dead and I’m considering having his baby?
‘No,’ she replied instead. ‘I have a few personal issues I’m dealing with at the moment. I’m sorry if it’s affected my work.’
‘It has, it has,’ Charlie said. ‘The thing is, Mandy, I’ve been looking at your file, and I see that you could have a potentially lengthy career here. If you keep your head down and work harder, get these figures back on track, there’s no reason why this should hold you back. Why, you could even be promoted by this time next year. I mean, you’re quite a bit older than the other girls here and your documents say you have no husband or family to speak of. You might as well have something to aim for, mightn’t you?’
Charlie looked at her with an encouraging expression. Clearly he expected her to feel motivated by his words and didn’t realise how inappropriate his comments were. Mandy stared back at him in disbelief. What Charlie didn’t know was that he’d inadvertently just made up Mandy’s mind for her, as well as providing an escape route.
‘Thank you, you patronising little prick,’ Mandy said as she rose to her feet. ‘You have definitely given me something to aim for. And it’s not going to come cheap.’
‘What I mean, what I was trying to say was …’ Charlie began to backtrack but Mandy wasn’t prepared to listen. Instead, she stormed out of the room, and headed down the corridor in the direction of the HR department.