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“Nope,” Kate smiled. “But, now that you mention it, I might go somewhere warm without you.”
Claire’s face dropped in an instant. “You wouldn’tdare.”
“You put the idea there,” Kate said.
Her hands grabbed either side of her laptop and pulled it closer to her. With her finger on the trackpad, she moved her cursor from her emails to her browser. A quick double click and everything was loading.
Kate knew exactly where she wanted to go—South America. Somewhere cheap, somewhere fancy, and somewhere warm. Claire was smarter than she looked. Somehow she knew exactly what it was that Kate was craving.
“So,” Claire said, the cheeky tone back in her voice, “does this mean that I get to stay home alone while you’re gone?”
“Hm,” Kate thought. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll hire a sitter for three weeks to watch you.”
Claire only stared at her mother, her eyes icy cold. “I can’t believe you would eventhinkof doing that to me,” she snapped. “I’meighteen,not eight.”
“It was a joke,” Kate said as she began her search. “Calm down… or Iwillhire a sitter.”
That didn’t help Claire’s little tantrum. She poured out a bowl of cereal in silence. It was clear she was fuming. Kate didn’t even have to look up to know it. She could feel Claire radiating hate through the air.
Kate tried to ignore it as best as she could. After all, she’d been a moody teenager once. With all those hormones rushing through the body, it was hard to keep a cool head. She remembered how it had been, even if the memory was distant and faded.
It didn’t take Claire long to finish off her breakfast and storm off upstairs. Once her back was turned, Kate couldn’t help but break out into a smile. All teenagers were so melodramatic and hers wasn’t much better. Of course, life was difficult, but it wasn’tthatdifficult.
Kate knew that in a couple of years, Claire would get over this spell and she’d be back to a normal human being. For now, she’d just have to grin and bear her daughter’s mood swings. Trying to ignore the stomping feet above her, Kate went back to looking at her laptop.
All she wanted was a cheap getaway, something to burn the time she was now faced with. She scrolled through a couple of websites, looking at all the destination packages they offered. Kate couldn’t be bothered booking everything herself—she just wanted to hand over a lump sum of money to a company and have them take care of all the details.
A couple of the places looked fantastic. Big, beautiful rooms in gleaming hotels with their own gyms, dozens of swimming pools, spas… The list was endless. Kate was lapping up all of the information, imagining herself spread out on a lounger, soaking up the hot sun.
A shiver ran down her spine then. It was perfect. She needed somewhere warm—hot, even—so she could come back home with a beautiful tan to make her even more confident.
When Kate saw a beautiful beachfront hotel in Argentina, she was instantly sold. The sand on the beach was light and warm, the sea was a crystal blue that matched the sky, and the straw umbrellas looked quaint in the best possible way. In the distance of the pictures, she could see women sunning themselves with large shades and huge brimmed hats.
Kate knew that she wanted to be one of those women. She wanted to be on that beach, soaking up the sun with every inch of her body. Nothing could have stopped her from booking the vacation. She was sold. She was going. There was nothing to think about.
After she’d paid for the vacation, a horrifying thought struck her. Claire was going to use this chance to further her affair with the married man. That was the only downside to all of this. Kate leaned back in her seat as she waited for her confirmation email, thinking about what this could mean for Claire.
Kate worried about her. There was no way this wasn’t going to end in trouble… but what kind of trouble?
Claire wasn’t going to get accidentally pregnant. Kate wassureof that. As soon as Claire had mentioned that she was sexually active, Kate had taken her to the doctor and gotten her an implant. No forgetting to take pills, no entrapping the man for eighteen years worth of child support.
The only other trouble it could mean is that Claire breaks up their marriage. Or, even less likely, that her married man could leave his wife and try to be with Claire.
A knot formed in Kate’s stomach as she thought about a middle-aged man making moves on her daughter. There was nothing she could do short of contacting the police, and that would ruin her relationship with Claire and it would ruin the man’s life. Sure, it was wrong of him to pursue Claire, but she was involved in this as well. She was eighteen. Just scarcely legal.
Kate dragged her laptop a little bit closer to the edge of the breakfast bar. Within a second she’d opened a new tab and gone straight to Claire’s chosen social media page. She looked at the blue outlines around the page as she stalked her daughter.
Of course, nothing was public. Her profile looked like the normal teenage feed. Pictures of her and her friends, far too many pictures of herself, and even more angsty posts about how everything sucks.
Kate looked through Claire’s friend list, trying to find his familiar face. She’d known his name for a long time but somehow she always managed to forget it, even though he was some huge deal in the architect world.
There he was. Vince Bugatti. Kate clicked on his face, bringing up his profile. In his picture, it was easy to see his dark hair and beard. The beginnings of wrinkles around his eyes and the corners of his mouth were deep, making him look more dignified than he probably was. His clothes exuded wealth, a crisp suit paired with a crisp, linen, open-collared shirt.
Vince was being caressed by his wife. Tight dress, high heels, the lady could have easily been a model in her younger days. And her daughter was getting between that, ruining what could be a happy marriage.
She wasn’t just blaming Claire, though. Vince was deserving of the blame as well. He made vows before his friends and family to love and cherish his wife. Kate knew that cheating wasn’t included in that. She didn’t know how Vince could even stomach sleeping with her? It was disgusting.
There was no point in thinking about it and there was definitely no point in stalking their social media. It was all fake. People only uploaded the best parts of their life. They weren’t going to air their dirty laundry to the world. After all, wasn’t that exactly what Kate was guilty of? She wasn’t posting on social media about having to take a month off work.
