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Teresa closed the book and placed it on the bedside table. Annabel did not stir, and Teresa stepped from the room, closing the door behind her.
She went downstairs and found Henrietta still at the dining room table with her laptop.
“Would you like a glass of wine?” Teresa asked.
“I understood you didn’t drink.”
“I don’t,” Teresa lied. “I was just talking about you.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Teresa still drank. Occasionally, she drank quite a lot, but she needed her ex-mother-in-law to trust that she was on the wagon and no longer touched a drop. Teresa fetched Henrietta a glass, thinking how nice it would be if she demolished the contents of William and Jennifer’s wine rack, but her success depended on her sobriety. She placed the glass next to Henrietta and sat nearby on the sofa.
“You have given up drinking altogether?”
“That’s right,” Teresa lied again.
Henrietta observed her with a mixture of admiration and doubt.
“About Annabel...” Teresa began.
“Look, Teresa. Annabel will stay in England, and that is final.”
“But she needs her mother.”
“She has me. And you are free to come and visit whenever you wish.”
“I can’t afford to fly backwards and forwards from Brazil all the time.”
“Well, I daresay I might help with the costs a little. Her life is here.”
“But you don’t plan to stay in London, do you?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then she will be separated from her friends and everything she knows, anyway.”
“She will have better opportunities in England.”
“I work in an international school. She will leave school with an internationally recognised qualification and can come back to England to study at university if she wants to. Plus, she will be bilingual. It will improve her opportunities.”
Henrietta didn’t have an answer, but also looked like she wasn’t about to concede the point.
“I’m sorry Teresa. I’m not about to let you take my grandchild off to some third world country.”
“Third world country? We’ll see about that.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“I’ll go to court if I have to.”
“Ha. Good luck with that.” Henrietta laughed.
Teresa was livid, but she didn’t see that there was much she could resolve by continuing the argument.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go to bed.”
“I excuse you.” Henrietta turned back to her laptop.
Teresa wanted to tell Henrietta to go fuck herself. Instead, she left the room and climbed the stairs to the spare bedroom, which was hers for this week.
In her bed, Teresa sulked about her confrontation with Henrietta. In the morning she would have to seek legal advice, but if she needed to fight Henrietta, then it might take some time, and she was due to leave at the end of the week, she had to be back at school teaching on Monday. Perhaps the school would give her a little extra time if she explained she needed to stay for William’s funeral to support her daughter.
Teresa resolved to send a message to the head-teacher explaining what happened so that, if she had to ask for time off, it would not come as a complete surprise. The head-teacher was strict, but she was not unreasonable. She had been supportive when Teresa had been studying for her teaching qualification and allowed her to teach her class when she was a newly qualified teacher. Teresa typed a message explaining the accident and just said that she did not know when the funeral would be.
She pressed send and took a deep breath. She felt like she was heading into the unknown. Her mind was full of thoughts about what would happen if she won custody of Annabel. These thoughts swam around her mind and mingled with thoughts preoccupied with the idea that she might not win custody and that Annabel would be stuck in England with that old witch.
There was a third option. Perhaps Teresa could get a visa to live in England. She switched on her phone again and typed in ‘UK visa application’ and waited as the page took so long to load, she wondered whether it had frozen. Then the page burst into life, and the first option read ‘Apply for a UK visa’.
Teresa followed the link to check which visa she would need. Joining family for a long stay seemed to be the most appropriate choice, in which case the site told her she should apply for the ‘family of a settled person’ visa. To apply as a parent, she would need an active role in Annabel’s upbringing, but she couldn’t imagine Henrietta trying to prevent that. She would also need to prove that she could support her daughter which would mean having a job which paid at least £18,600 per year. Teresa was a teacher, and there were many teaching jobs in England. The problem was that the UK Government did not recognise Teresa’s Brazilian teaching qualification and so she would need to do a two-year in-school training course, and she would have to start as a teaching assistant, and that wouldn’t pay more than £18,600.
After spending quite some time searching for jobs on the internet, Teresa was pessimistic about her chances of finding a job. She could speak to her old friend José. He might be aware of some opportunities. Teresa felt she should try to speak to a lawyer. She found the website for Thomas & Co. and emailed explaining her situation and asking whether it would be possible to speak with someone about her case. She wondered when she would do this. Maybe she could take Annabel out into Wimbledon and pop in to see the lawyer at the same time but then Annabel would know Teresa’s plans and might tell Henrietta.
Teresa realised that she would have to come clean to both Henrietta and Annabel if legal action were involved. If she could afford legal action. And if legal action failed and she needed to pay for a visa, how would she afford that? She dropped her phone onto the bed and covered her face with her hands. She felt stupid to think she could challenge Henrietta for custody and now had doubts about whether she should have emailed the lawyer. If she could get work, she could stay in the UK without challenging Annabel’s grandmother. Teresa remembered José and picked up her phone. She searched for his profile on Facebook.
‘Hi José,’ she typed in Portuguese. ‘Sorry for not having been in touch sooner. I am in London. William had a car accident. He’s dead.’
She paused. Typing the words made William’s death more real.
‘I am considering moving back to England, but I need work. Any ideas? Hugs. Teresa’.
She pressed send and placed her phone on the folklore book on the bedside table. There was nothing more she could do before morning, so she decided to try and calm her racing mind and get some sleep. This was easier thought than done, and it was some time before she descended into the world of dreams.