Daddy's new FRIEND

Her ex-husband’s glamorous girlfriend could never take the place of a mum – could she?

- Eirin Thompson

Just three months after Rob moved out, I heard he was seeing someone else. Naturally, I wondered if they’d been together before our split. So I confronted him, and he denied it, but I wasn’t sure I believed him. I had thought that was as bad as things could get – going over and over the details of our marriage in that last year, wondering how much of it was real, how much was deceit. What I didn’t realise was that there was worse to come.

When Rob brought the girls back after a weekend with him and they showed off their fishtail plaits, initially I was delighted. They looked pretty, and Immy and Hattie loved them.

‘Did Dad take you to the salon?’ I asked.

‘No, Mum,’ Immy replied. ‘Kelly did our hair for us.’

‘Kelly?’

‘Dad’s girlfriend.’

I had to turn away. My heart was suddenly pounding. How could Rob introduce our daughters to his new love without giving me any warning? How dare he!

It made me furious to think of her hands touching my daughters’ hair.

I let the girls watch TV while I took myself off and found some shelves to tidy. I was shaking.

The next day, still fuming, I asked the girls about Kelly. Trying not to sound too interested, I enquired, ‘So what’s Kelly like? Did she stay over?’

‘She was nice, Mum,’ Immy replied.

‘She has long, brown hair, and she was wearing jeans with a red top and red high heels,’ added Hattie, who has always been a stickler for detail. ‘She didn’t stay over because she had to go home and feed her fish.’