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I went on around a lump in my throat. "Then one night, Mom was getting ready for work, and Uncle Kay-Kay was supposed to pick me up on his way home from his job at the pharmacy. He was a pharmacist, by the way; he wasn't poor white trash like us."
"Sophie, I would never—" Neil began, but El-Mudad gently shushed him.
"Mom thought he forgot to pick me up. She tried to call their house. Eventually, she called my grandma and asked her to watch me. And the next morning, when Mom came to pick me up, she told me that Auntie T had gotten hurt very badly and that Uncle Kay-Kay had done it. And because he'd done a bad thing, we weren't ever going to see him again.
"She didn't tell me then because it would have traumatized me, but unbeknownst to the family, Casey had always been violent toward Tara. They were just good at mutually hiding it. Until he went too far and caved her head in with a cast iron doorstop. She lived for three years in a nursing home before she died."
"Oh, my love. Why didn't you tell us this?" El-Mudad asked, getting to his feet. "This whole thing must have been so much more personal and traumatic for you than you let on."
I put my hand up and shook my head when it appeared he’d try to embrace me. "I seriously didn't even think of it until right now."
Until I let my own experience inform my thoughts on how to raise Olivia properly.
Until I realized that motherhood or not, I knew what I was doing.
"Olivia needs to know why Laurence is gone. She needs to know in a way that gives Valerie her privacy, but which leaves no doubt that Laurence being gone is for the best." I paused, uncertain if I should tack on the rest of my thought. In for a penny...
"And since neither of you is willing to do that, I will." I folded my arms across my chest and gave them both a defiant lift of my chin.
After a terse silence, Neil spoke. "Since you've gone through a similar situation, perhaps it would be best for you to take the lead."
Was I hearing him correctly?
"What should we do?" El-Mudad asked. "Wait until she asks again?"
"No. She's already asked enough." I checked my phone. "I'll walk down and bring her back. Valerie had to leave at four, anyway."
"Sophie," Neil began, but he stopped himself. "I'm sure you know exactly what to do."
"I don't," I admitted. "But nobody does, do they?"
El-Mudad made an affirmative noise, but I think they were both too embarrassed by my call out to react to my sudden parental assertiveness.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the den after I left. But I had a duty to my ward.
The weather was changing again. Halloween was right around the corner, and storm season would soon be upon us. Still, it was nice enough that I could stroll down to the guest house in my fleece pajama bottoms and one of El-Mudad's sweatshirts, practically a dress on me. I rang the bell at the front door, and Valerie answered with Olivia close behind.
And Valerie looked happy. Actually happy.
I could have broken down crying right then, but I held it together like a champ. "Hey, sorry I'm a little tardy."
Valerie shook her head. "No worries."
But she had her purse on her shoulder.
"Going somewhere nice?" I asked, then winced. "Sorry. I promise I was being cordial and friendly. Not nosy."
"No, it's all right. I could have dropped her off as I left." She leaned down and kissed Olivia's head. "Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I have missed you so much."
"I miss you, too." Olivia's little arms wrapped around Valerie's legs so hard it felt like my lungs were being crushed, too. This whole thing had been a confusing jumble of emotions for the poor kid, and she'd been surrounded by adults who couldn't or wouldn't help her make heads or tails of it because they’d been too uncomfortable.
I included myself in that failure.
"I'll see you again before you move?" Olivia's question took me aback.
"Valerie, are you moving out?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound as pleasantly surprised as I felt.
Valerie had been through some shit. That didn't mean I had to like her.
"I was going to have my assistant contact the three of you." Valerie grimaced an apology. "Olivia saw that I've been doing some packing. The divorce will be final in November. I'd like to be back in London by early December."
"Uh." My first thought was Olivia and how another separation might affect her. "That's a long way away."
"The good news is that my company has a private jet."
Her company?
I let it slide.
"And it won't be forever. It will just be for a little while. To get away from the city." Her tone was airy, but her expression explained it all. She wanted to get away from the reminders of the past few years.
