Belinda

Chapter One

Sarah looked across at the ironing pile, 'I swear it has a life of it's own' she mumbled to herself, after one hour ironing the dent in the pile was hardly noticeable. 'Guess it's my fault for leaving it for so long,' she almost told herself off.

She was doing that a lot lately, telling herself off for almost every little thing that went wrong. She looked over the white shirt she was ironing for her husband, Richard. She was good at ironing, had to be really, all the seams were well pressed with a perfect crease right down the center of the arms, just the way he liked it. She remembered back to the first time she had ironed, almost 6 years ago, she hadn't had a clue. Jenny, Richard's mother had come round and 'shown' her how to iron properly as if this was one of life's most important lessons.

'You must always iron properly, know when and where to put the creases and never be lazy.' she had told her.

Sarah wouldn't have minded so much but she had just turned 16 at the time, was heavily pregnant and it wasn't as if Jenny did her own ironing anyway! Jenny had 'helpers' who appeared every morning, cleaned their large, detached seven bedroomed house from top to bottom, ironed all their clothes, prepared dinner then silently left.

Sarah sighed and looked up at the clock hanging on the wall, 'great,' she thought, '1:00, I have to stop anyway'.

She unplugged the iron, pushed the ironing board up against the utility wall and took the small ironed pile through to the bedroom.

After a quick shower and tidy up, Sarah headed out the door and into her bright little red mini and drove the short distance down to the school to collect Amy, her now six year old daughter. As she pulled alongside the curb outside the school to wait, she started to reminisce.

Six years, sometimes Sarah could hardly believe how her life had turned out. At fifteen she had fallen for Richard, Who at twenty one, six years her senior, had seemed like a prince in shining armour.

He came from a good home, parents both had careers, large house, big cars and they adored their only son. He was tall and handsome, intelligent, was at university and actually seemed to like her, Sarah, mousy Sarah who came from the wrong side of town, divorced parents who couldn't really give a damn about her, and for her own part well she wasn't exactly student of the year!

So when he came over to her at the cafe she couldn't believe her eyes, when he smiled at her, invited her for a drink she felt she had arrived on cloud nine! At first she thought it was a wind up, but then she looked into his dreamy green eyes and she was his.

Unfortunately three months later when she gave him the wonderful news, his eyes weren't so dreamy, nor were his words!

At first she thought he was going to hit her, but no, he just simply stared at her, shouted some obsenities (you would think she had gotten herself pregnant all by herself) and then turned around and walked away. That was that. Or so she had thought.

When she went home and told her mother, who told her in no uncertain terms that she was a complete idiot and something about 'you lie in the bed you make.' 

That evening Sarah remembered vividly, around 9pm a knock on the door startled her, her visitor was Richard's Father's lawyer, basically asking Sarah to sign a document releasing Richard for all responsibilities. Sarah refused to sign anything. He then tried the abortion route, again a flat refusal. This rather intimidating and very long discussion went on for almost two hours.

Of course, the real worry started to come out soon enough, I was only 15 and Richard was 21 so he had actually broken the law and his parents were beside themselves with worry about what was going to happen to their precious son.

Eventually Sarah's mother realised that the baby's father actually had money and this could be a way to ultimate comfort, well at least a good holiday, as it turned out, so she started screaming the odds and eventually, about two months later, Richard and Sarah walked up the aisle.

Sarah had just turned sixteen and was due to give birth four months later.

They didn't have a honeymoon.