‘Cleo, I know we’ve never talked about your mother.’
Damn right they hadn’t.
‘I never wanted to take her place,’ said Teresa.
You never could! Cleo wanted to yell at the woman, sling her chopsticks across the room, and walk out. But the beer handed to her by the waiter brought her to her senses and she let the coolness of the bottle seep into her skin.
‘My mother walked out when I was eleven years old.’ Teresa’s confession grabbed Cleo’s attention as they looked at one another across the table. ‘And she never came back.’
‘What happened to her?’
Teresa shrugged. ‘To this day I don’t know. She never tried to find out how I or my younger brother was. And I know I don’t know what it’s like to have my mother die like you did, but I do know what it’s like to have that relationship ripped away from you.’
Teresa ordered another red wine from the passing waiter and Cleo felt guilty she hadn’t done it earlier.
‘I was so angry with the world,’ Teresa explained. ‘I was angry with my dad, with my younger brother, with myself for not being enough to make her stay. I hated everyone. Anyone who stepped into my life was in the way.’
‘How did you get through it?’ Cleo’s voice sounded even smaller in her head than it did out loud. All those years Teresa had been with them, and she’d never known, she’d never thought to ask about her life.
‘My dad held me together when I felt as though I was falling apart, and he was so busy doing that, he lost sight of his own life. Everything he did was for me and my brother. He never met anyone else, sadly, so he was alone until the day he died.’
The thought of her dad being alone, going the same way, suddenly scared Cleo, and it made her see him through different eyes, not just as the man who had to look afterher, but as an individual who had to look out for himself and make the best out ofhislife.
‘We do everything we can for our kids.’ Teresa had tears in her eyes, and Cleo realised she was referring to her. ‘Your dad is a lot like my father was. He picked himself up and did what he could for his daughter, but he did it better than my dad did, because he also allowed himself to have another life too. He met me.’ She waved a hand in front of her face, embarrassed. ‘It makes me sound as though I think I’m something special and a godsend, but I don’t mean it that way. What I mean is that your father is a good, kind man who is happy. He’s happy with me, but he’s happy with his daughter too. You were always number one to him and given a choice, he would’ve picked you if you’d asked him to choose.’
Cleo’s eyes filled with tears because she knew it was true. Her dad would’ve sacrificed his happiness for hers. She looked down at her plate of rice and beef. She’d barely eaten any of it.
‘Cleo, I’m not saying any of this to make you feel guilty. I’m saying it because you’re your father’s daughter. You have that same strength. You lost your mother and you’ve battled on and found a life for yourself. I guess… I think what I’m trying to say is don’t let your feelings for me come between you and your father, not ever. You’d break his heart. He always thought your move here had something to do with the choices he’d made.’
‘How could he think that?’
Teresa set her chopsticks down. ‘I have to ask. Was it to get away from us, from me?’
‘When Aaron and I got divorced, I didn’t know which way to turn. I wanted to run but I was stuck. And coming over to New York happened at just the right time.’
Teresa dabbed the side of her mouth with a napkin. ‘We always thought you were happy to go through with the divorce, that it’d been your decision. Was it?’
‘I won’t go into exactly what happened with Aaron and me, but please know that I needed to leave, to put some distance between me and the life I’d always had. I had focus when I came to New York and it worked, I’ve felt so content. I don’t think I could’ve reached the same point if I’d stayed in England.’
Cleo hesitated before she spoke again. So far she hadn’t mentioned the lease on the store and had asked Grandpa Joe to keep it quiet when he spoke to her Dad. But maybe it was time to be more open. ‘The store’s lease is coming to an end,’ she blurted out.
‘What does that mean?’
She took a deep breath. ‘The owner has sold to a company and all store owners will be getting a year’s extra lease to give them time to either relocate or simply close.’
‘Why didn’t you mention it before?’
‘I didn’t want to worry Dad.’
‘So what will you do?’
Cleo shrugged. ‘I haven’t decided yet. I could relocate, I could shut and do something else entirely, or I could return to the UK.’
Teresa stopped chewing and when she’d finished she said, ‘I wasn’t expecting that. Are you sure it’s what you want to do?’
‘I’m not sure about anything. Part of me wants to come back, especially to be near Dad, and the other part of me loves the life I’ve built here. I’m not sure how I’d feel leaving it behind.’
‘From what I saw of the store today, Cleo, I’d say you’d found your vocation.’
