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Kate thought about going to see her mom. It had only been a couple of weeks since they saw each other, but it was always nice to have mom and daughter time… right?
The front door opened. The sound of it drew Kate out of her mind, her eyes darting over to the opening door. There, with a bag slung over her shoulder and the keys lodged in the door, was Claire.
She was only eighteen, such a young precious thing. Kate smiled widely, beaming as she looked at her daughter. Just like Kate’s mom, Claire had long, curly blonde hair. Somehow the genes had skipped Kate and gone to Claire instead.
Even Claire’s face looked like her mom’s. She had a wide jaw that made her look like a model, with eyes that were just a little farther apart than the normal population. In the middle of her face, she had a beautiful ski-sledge nose that belonged to Claire’s father.
Kate hated that she could see him in Claire. She loved her daughter’s face—and she loved her daughter—but the constant reminder ofhimthere was unnerving. The fucker had abandoned them when Claire was only five years old. Why did he get to be a part of her when he chose to leave them behind?
Claire looked up to her mother, her dark blue eyes glittering amongst the deep freckles she’d accumulated over the summer break.
“Why are you home so early?”
What a greeting,Kate thought.No “hey, how’s your day mom?”
Kate closed her laptop and forced a smile onto her lips as she turned in the seat to face her daughter properly. “I’m going to take a vacation,” she said, trying to make it sound like her idea.
Claire dropped her bag onto the floor, a shocked look in her eyes. “Who’s making you take a vacation?”
“No one,” Kate laughed. “I thought it would be good for me.”
Claire just stared at Kate, her face clearly unamused.
“My boss,” Kate sighed. “He thinks it will be good for me and… I agree.”
The last words out of her mouth sounded pained, even to her own ears. She grimaced as she turned around in the seat, leaning into the back. Kate folded her arms across her chest and shook her head from side to side, ever so slowly.
“What a fucking joke,” Kate mumbled.
“So, you’re not fired?” Claire asked.
Kate could only shake her head in reply. The words swimming around her head haunted her:not yet, not yet, not yet.
“I’m going to go and meet a friend,” Claire said, sounding uneasy. “Are you going to be okay?”
Kate forced a smile onto her lips once again. “Sure, sweetie,” she said. “You have fun with your friend.”
That wasn’t exactly true, though, was it? Kate had been monitoring her daughter’s phone for years. She had to. Ever since she’d found her daughter sitting inappropriately on her piano teacher’s lap, she’d had to have some control over the situation.
Claire was a lovely girl, there was no denying that, but she had issues with men. All because of her good-for-nothing father. If he hadn’t abandoned them, Kate knew that all of this would be non-existent.
But no. He had to be selfish. He forced Kate to work herself half to death just to keep up with the middle-class lifestyle Claire deserved. And with two absent parents, that meant that Claire was raised by nannies and tutors.
And now her daughter was having an affair with a married man, twice her age. The thought of it made Kate’s skin crawl. But what could she do? Force Claire to stop seeing him? Kate wasn’t even supposed to know about it. The only reason she knew was because she’d seen the dirty texts Claire had been sending him.
Of course, Kate had looked the guy up to find out who he was. That’s how she’d known he was married. A very rich, very married man. The fact that Claire could do that to another woman disgusted her, but she couldn’t bring it up. She just had to pretend like nothing was wrong and hope to hell her daughter saw sense.
Aside from the obsession with older men, Claire was a good girl. Smart, funny, good at school, lots of friends. She was well-rounded with a bright future ahead of her… unless this behavior continued.
The lying, the cheating, the hiding. It was awful, and way too heavy for an eighteen-year-old to try and juggle. Kate remembered back to when she was eighteen—she’d been a mess of hormones and emotions, way too immature to handle something as complicated as an affair with a married man. She didn’t know how Claire had the patience for it, or the mental capacity.
“I’m going to go and have a nap,” Kate said slowly, rising from the stool at the breakfast bar to make her way over to Claire.
When she was standing over her daughter, she planted a kiss on the top of her head.
Oh, my baby,Kate thought.When did everything get so messed up?
Author's Note:for a big thick, full-length novel about Claire and her affair with the married man, read my bookDemanding Husband.
