“You knew? Why didn’t you say anything? You could have saved me two years of wondering why he rarely wanted sex.” She made a cringing face when her mother sighed. “Sorry, Ma.”
“I hoped I was wrong,” Jade said.
“See, he didn’t leave Kaitlyn, he was gay. They shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place,” her mother added.
“What about dad? He left.” Heaviness sat like a rock on Jade’s chest.
Her mother slumped in her chair. “I left him.”
Jade’s mouth fell open, and even Kaitlin look surprised. “That’s not true.”
“It is.”
Shaking her head, Jade said, “No, he kept leaving for trips until he never came back home.”
“That’s because I told him not to. Our marriage was over. I put an end to it.”
They’d never talked about why their father left. Jade had assumed the family curse was to blame. She didn’t know her mother was the one to walk away. She thought they were in love.
Her mother continued. “As you know, I fell pregnant with Connor while we were dating. Your father wanted to do the right thing and get married. We probably shouldn’t have—we were too young—but I’ll never regret it, because then I had you two girls. We tried to make our marriage work for you kids, but it was only making us miserable. Your father wasn’t happy about divorcing, but I didn’t want you kids growing up around two people who would probably eventually hate each other.”
Jade and Kaitlin both slumped back in their chair, looking at their mother with shocked expressions.
“Wow,” Jade said while her insides shook with the news.
“I never thought you included your father in your list, but there really isn’t a curse. I would never have made fun about it all these years if I’d known what you believed. We should have explained things better when we separated. It was a hard time, and we thought we were shielding you from the painful details.” Her mother’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry I’ve ruined your chances of finding love.”
“But the diary at Granny’s house…it’s all written in there.” Jade was still unconvinced.
“There’s a box in Granny’s attic filled with old diaries and stories about many things your ancestor wrote about. I remember reading one about how she’d cursed the men in someone’s family to be born with scales because the fisherman wouldn’t give her free fish. No one is walking around with fish scales. There were many more stories like it, and none of them were true.”
Jade clasped her trembling hands on her lap. Not true? For most of her life she’d believed it. “Okay, if you left Dad, why did he still leave us?”
Her mother jolted upright in her seat. Even Kaitlyn’s eyes widened with surprise.
“Your dad never left you. Why would you say that?” her mother asked.
“Because that’s what he did. He left his family to travel around the world, hardly ever coming home,” Jade explained.
Jade’s mother folded her arms on the table. “That’s his job. He didn’t leave because he took off on holidays, he left to provide for us. And as soon as a flight was done, he came back to spend time with you kids. Even when we separated, you were the first thing he came home to.”
She looked toward Kaitlyn, hoping for support. But her sister only stared back with a sad expression. “Dad always tries when he’s home, and he calls all the time. When we were younger, he was never gone for over two weeks at a time. And when he came home, he’d spend every day with us before he had to fly out again. Now that we’re older, it’s changed. He knows we have our own lives to live, but he’s constantly in touch.”
A knot tightened in Jade’s chest. Could she have gotten it wrong all these years? Were the breaks in between his flights not as long as she’d imagined? At the time, she was only a kid, could she have exaggerated the time frame? And Kaitlyn was right. Every time he flew into Brimland Point he’d arrange for them to spend time together. He often called, but Jade didn’t always answer. Was she the one who’d put the distance between them?
“You were young when we separated and such a Daddy’s girl. You were his shadow, following him around everywhere. I should’ve known you’d take it the hardest. But you seemed so strong. I never knew you thought he left me but most importantly you.” Her mother lifted her hands and covered her face. “I’m so sorry, Jade. I tried protecting you from the separation only to have made it worse.”
Jade slid her chair closer to her mother and pulled her hands away from her face. “It’s not your fault. Divorce is never easy. You did the best you could.”
Tears shone from her mother’s eyes. “I’m still sorry, sweetheart. If I’d known you’d been carrying this around with you all these years, I would have put things right.”
“I know.” Jade hugged her.
“Maybe now you can make things work with Nate?”
Jade could now hope for love and family in her life, but the only man she could picture in that role was Nate. Her heart dropped. The curse wasn’t real, but Nate was leaving her anyway.
Chapter 27
