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Gritting his teeth, he juate, bypassing the front door andhis way hurriedly round to the back of the house to the entrance to the granny flat The one-bedroomed very comfortable flat accommodated his father, his useless, drunken father, whom Sarah had kindly taken in but hom Alex had totally run out of patience He’d only come because Sarah had asked him to

She aiting for hi Alex with how e Both were petite and dark, though with blue eyes Sarah was like herand sensible Alex loved her a lot and would do anything for her He wasn’t as fond of her husband, Vernon, who seeht for his family

Though he’d taken the house, e-free, hadn’t he?

Still, Vernon did put up with his less than ideal father-in-law living with them, so he couldn’t be all bad Of course, he continued to benefit financially fro their rates and electricity

‘Where is he?’ Alex asked, his tone sharp

‘On the floor in the bedroo back to let him enter

The sight of his father sprawled on his back on the rug beside the bed was infinitely depressing Not just because he was dead drunk but because of the deterioration of this once fine-looking man Alex had inherited his looks froer days It was no wonder hisattractive about hi at all

‘Good God,’ he said, shaking his head as he stared down at the ruin at his feet ‘Whatever are we going to do with him?’

‘It’s not his fault, Alex,’ Sarah said with her usual coet and now he can’t stop He’s an alcoholic It’s a disease A sickness’

‘Then he should agree to go into rehab’ Alex had lost count of the nuested rehab to his father, but it always fell on deaf ears ‘It’s a pity we can’t forcibly admit him’

‘I know But you can’t He has to volunteer to go Come on, help me lift him up onto the bed I would have done it myself, but he’s just too heavy and I can’t afford to hurt ain’