“I’m sorry, Eloise.”
“It gets worse. Dad kept taking on bad investments. When the economy crashed, he lost everything. We just didn’t know it yet. So, we were in debt up to our eyeballs. I had no clue until my car was repossessed while I was at a pool party.”
My jaw dropped.Repossessed?
She crossed her arms, reading me as judgmental. “Look, I shouldn’t?—”
I stopped her, my hand on her knee. “Eloise, I’m not judging you. I would never say that your circumstances made you or your parents bad people. I hope you don’t think so little of me.”
“I don’t. I don’t know how your parents would feel and I know how the media would. And there is more.”
“Oh?” I let her continue.
“I got a call from Seymour just before my final year—sixth form—and was told I needed to pay my tuition immediately. My mother was off with a mark on a yacht. You see,hersolution to the problem was to run to a man who could keep her in good standing. Meanwhile, I was watching all our belongings being sold to pay off creditors—alone in a massive fucking house.”
“You were a child.”
Eloise shrugged. “Just barely.”
“You werea child,” I reasserted. “Good God! I’m so sorry that happened to you. My childhood was idyllic. I know I whinge but?—”
“That’s why when you do stupid shit and I know it hurts your parents, it kills me. Because I know how much they love you, raised you well, and are there for you. They modeled genuine love for you.”
“How do you know?
“Because I see you interact with children in the most tender of ways. I struggle with that. I love babies. Babies are simple. But kids? No one ever fucking hugged me. Not anyone but Mo’s family. You don’t understand. Dad loved me endlessly, but hewasn’t much for expressing it. It’s taken me years to understand he just struggled. My mom… who knows? But no one who wasn’t paid to care for me ever expressed it until Monique’s parents.”
That killed me. She unexpectedly teared up, reliving this pain I prompted her to unpack. With this context, I now regretted batting my parents away so many times and dragging them through scandal after scandal.
“I only finished Seymour because Mo’s parents paid my tuition. Constance never told me she would do it, but she did. And when I found out my debts were paid by them, I was so embarrassed. I pled with Constance not to pay for the next semester, and she told me it was paid in full and to never ask about it again. She wasn’t sorry she paid. And now, as an adult, if I had the ability to do the same for someone I cared about, I would. And I wouldn’t see it as embarrassing, but you know what public school is like. You know how cutthroat it was. I had no money. Nothing. Occasionally, my mother would send me 100 quid or something here or there. I went from having every luxury good imaginable to not being able to afford a pair of trainers, Duncan. And I was spoiled, so, that felt punishing. I had it so easy, really.”
“No, it sounds like you didn’t have any of your needs met emotionally and were always neglected, Eloise. But I still don’t understand how that isyourfault or why I would love you less?”
“Think about it from my perspective—not as Ella or Mistress Mills, but as Eloise Mills, PR professional.”
I cocked my head. “What? Why?”
She turned to me, annoyed. “Duncan, think about theoptics.”
“I don’t care about that.”
“Youmustcare about that, Duncan. The situation is complicated. It’s a liability.”
“I don’t care, Ella.”
“Think about this story… my mother’s behavior is a template for mine. I’m only here to marry up and take your money. After all, I’m desperate to get back in society’s good graces. I’ll just spend the crown’s funds like a personal checkbook.”
“But you’ve lived your life for nearly a decade without your parents. You found a way to go to uni and suffered through that dreadful place you live. That’s not the work of a climber, Ella.”
“You know that. I know that. To the media, though, I’m the poor little rich girl with a dodgy past. My family lost everything to creditors. You look like just the golden parachute my mother always hoped I’d land.”
I shook my head. “It’s unfair. The story should be that I fell for a capable woman who helped me put my life back together—a partner.”
She sighed. “Painting that picture is much harder. The simplest answer wins.”
Eloise was finally in tears. It had taken that long for her to break down. While I could whinge about my awful texts being made public and Nessa’s treatment of me, it would never amount to being hung out to dry by your own family.
“Your mum isn’t in the picture, right?”
