“It was a boy?”

“Yes. He’d be thirty-five now.” He shook his head. “It’s hard to believe.”

I felt a sense of loss for a sibling I never had and never knew about my whole life to that point. “Oh my God, Dad. I had no idea.”

“As soon as I graduated and got a job, we left the farm and she’s never been back.”

“I guess that explains why Grandma and Grandpa always came to pick me up when I went there.”

“She never spoke of what had happened once we’d left the farm. I tried to bring it up, but every time she’d turn into an ice queen and make me promise to never tell anyone. She felt responsible, like she’d done something wrong, and she didn’t want anyone to judge her. Your mother, God love her, has always worried far too much about what other people think.”

“But then you had me.”

“Yes. It was almost a whole decade later. I was working crazy hours and on the path to making partner. She immersed herself in charity work and the Melbourne social scene. Our new life was a far cry from the simple life we had as newlyweds. We had no financial concerns, and she appeared happy to be pregnant again but understandably stressed the same thing would happen. To be honest, I wasn’t around a whole lot, but I know she could barely leave the house, and when she did, she’d have anxiety attacks. When you were born, I hoped she’d relax and be more like her old self.”

“What was she like before it happened?”

Dad laughed and his whole body relaxed. “She was wild and free. A little reckless at times, but she loved life hard, and boy did she have spirit.”

I felt a crucial part of my puzzle fall into place. Mum and I weren’t as dissimilar as I’d always thought. In fact, from what Dad said, we were both trying to hide a part of who we were—the same part.

“She was the most beautiful woman in the world,” he continued, lost in his memories. He appeared almost whimsical. “She still is.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I can’t believe you’ve never told me this before.” My heart broke for them, but a part of me felt angry that I’d never known about it. “I’ve lived my whole life feeling like I could never be who or what she wanted me to be. I’ve done everything I can for her. I’ve tried to be the perfect daughter, and all along you’ve both been hiding this secret from me that explains a lot of her behaviour. She has always been abnormally fixated on my life and especially on my relationship with Richard.”

Dad hung his head. “I buried myself in my work, and to be honest, I thought everything was fine. You always appeared happy.”

“Looks can be deceiving, Dad.”

“That’s true.” He blew out a long breath. “I guess I’ve brushed a lot under the carpet. Witnessing her fall apart today gave me a bit of a wake-up call. I’m going to insist she sees a therapist. I should’ve done it a really long time ago. She thinks you’re being reckless and it’s dredging up a part of her life she has blocked out.”

I stood up. “I’ll call Mum tomorrow and try to smooth things over, but I’m not getting back with Richard.”

Dad looked suddenly pale. “Please don’t tell her I told you.”

Wow. She really held so much power over him. “She’s barely talking to me anyway, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem.” I smiled, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“You and your mother are the loves of my life.” His sincere admission shocked me. He’d never been one for displays of affection or voicing his emotions. “Perhaps I should’ve been more involved in your life, but I focused on providing financially instead.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about what’s in the past, Dad. Let’s just figure out a way to move forward.”

I walked slowly through the door, down the stairs and out the front door, my mind now swirling with the information I’d learned in the last hour. The cold night air hit me smack in the face and I almost fell down the two steps leading to the footpath. I decided then and there to confront Richard about what was going on. He needed to cut ties with my mother regardless of the financial repercussions.

In the time it took me to walk to Richard’s house, I was fired up enough to sort this craziness out once and for all.

His lights were on and, despite the sheer blinds, I could see movement in his front room. He wasn’t alone, but my eyesight was insufficient to identify his company. He lived in a townhouse, similar to my parents’ but smaller. Behind a wrought iron fence was a tiled courtyard. The lack of garden was another similarity to my parents’ place—cold and unhomely.

I stood in the cover of darkness and looked in. To my surprise and outrage, Richard was with a woman. Why was he so intent on getting me back when he was busy getting it on with another woman? It was hard to tell exactly what was going on between them, but it appeared somewhat intimate. I couldn’t see her face, but I didn’t need to. The overwhelming emotion was relief. He was obviously moving on with another blonde and would hopefully stop harassing me. Feeling like a voyeur, I turned my back on them.

Reaching into my bag, I pulled out my phone, scrolled through my contacts and hit send. I’d told Leo I’d be at the bar by eight and it was now almost nine. I wanted to let him know I was on my way.

“You’ve reached Leo, leave me a message.”

I glanced back to Richard’s lounge room. Part of my brain registered the fact that I needed to leave a message for Leo, but the rest of my brain was exploding into a million tiny fragments of grey matter.

“No. No. No. NO!!!”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Juliette

I felt a lot of things in those seconds I stood outside staring at my mother entwined around my ex-boyfriend, a man twenty-five years her junior, but nausea overwhelmed me. Bile rose from my stomach and burned my throat as my empty stomach continued to retch violently. What was he thinking? How long had it been going on? I wondered, completely enraged and sickened but unable to stop trying to process it. As each wave of nausea subsided, betrayal was there waiting to step to the forefront.

And her. After what Dad told me, I had a better understanding of her, but I’d spent most of my life trying to talk and act ‘appropriately’, weighed down by the guilt she showered on me. I’d tried harder. I’d towed the line. I’d enabled her. But this was too much. Way too much. This was the final straw and I saw red. My teeth ground together as a sweat broke out on my forehead. My ability to think rationally slipped away as newfound raw emotions took hold of my whole body.

I stormed up the front steps and pounded on the door. Eventually, the outside light came on, and when the door opened, I was greeted by Richard wiping lipstick from his face with wide eyes. The gutless bastard’s reaction was to close the door on me, but I jammed my foot to stop its path. He tried to kick at my boot, but I threw my shoulder into the door and pushed against him, managing to gain entry. I leant against the closed door and glared at him, shooting venom from somewhere inside me I’d never tapped before. I was experiencing rage, the likes of which I’d never known. Perhaps I’d been bottling it up or sweeping it under the carpet. Either way, the bottles were exploding and the carpet was being pulled from under my feet.

Richard glanced backward briefly, and I had to laugh at the situation I had found myself in.

“Who are you looking for, Dick?” My sarcastic chuckle would irritate him more than the nickname he hated.

“Don’t call me Dick.”

“Really?” My anger rose and my laughter died. “I don’t think you’re in a position to make any demands on me. You never were, you son of a bitch.”

“You’re in way over your head, Juliette.” His voice was low and threatening.

“Speak up. I can’t hear you properly. Are you worried Mummy Dearest will hear you?”


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