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“Exactly. The Loxford title doesn’t allow females to inherit, so it would die out unless you had a son before your father died. He could have named his grandson as his heir and all would be well, but nobody wanted to put that pressure on you,” Granny explained. “Far too much for anyone to deal with. About a year after their discovery, your mother confided in me that she was going to divorce your father.”
I stared at her. “What?”
Granny shrugged. “She knew how much the family history meant to your father and to your grandfather, and she refused to be the reason the earldom would potentially revert back to the Crown. I thought she’d lost her mind, but she was adamant that he should move on.”
“Obviously he took the chance,” I said bitterly.
“No.”
“What?”
“No. He didn’t. Your mother served him with divorce papers, and from what she told me, he marched them over to the kitchen sink and set them on fire, then told her he was going to find her a therapist because she’d clearly lost her mind.”
I wanted to smile.
That was the man I remembered.
“You can laugh,” Granny said airily. “I did when she told me. I’d tried to warn her that she was being a merry fool, but she wouldn’t listen. She was on a crusade to deliver your father the thing she thought would make him happiest without listening to whathewanted.”
“Like that time she gave me an Ariel birthday party when I wanted a Cinderella one,” I muttered. “All because we had matching hair.”
“Exactly. Anyway, she eventually came clean to your father, and I believe they had some counselling sessions, but then I didn’t hear much about it. I reasoned that she’d given up on the idea since it’d been two or three years since she served him the papers. Until one day she showed up on my doorstep with you in tow, grumping about not being able to go to your friend’s party that weekend.”
I frowned. “I remember that. It wasn’t long after Grandpa died, and she said you needed our help for a little while, so we were going to stay with you for the summer, maybe longer.”
“She was lying.” Her lips twitched. “She’d finally worn your father down. I don’t know why he agreed, but they went through a trial separation of sorts. For six months. I believe the agreement was that he was to actively date, and if he found anyone that he could see himself pursuing a relationship with, then they would divorce, and he could go about his business.”
“Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know, Gracie. That’s something you’d have to ask your father. I disagreed with the entire operation—I thought it was ridiculous, but then Harri told me why she was doing it.”
“Why?”
“She’d just found a lump in her breast,” Granny said softly. “She was undergoing testing, but her doctor had told her it was most likely cancer again. She didn’t tell your father, he got Carmen pregnant, and that’s how the story went.”
“He still cheated on her, trial separation or not.”
“True. I doubt he’ll argue with you. He certainly doesn’t argue it when I remind him of that fact.” She looked pointedly at me. “But I believe if it weren’t for your mother, he never would have left.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he still loves her to this day.”
I snorted.
“No, he does. Rest assured, my dear, that man would have given your mother the moon in the divorce if it was his to give. He didn’t find out until after he’d remarried and your brother was born that she’d had the cancer scare.”
“It wasn’t cancer? So they went through it for nothing?”
“No, and no, not with hindsight,” Granny said. “Because it did come back, just a couple of years later, and we both know how that ended.”
I looked down at my hands. “How do you know he still loves her? Why are you defending him? You’ve never liked him!”
“On the contrary, I used to like the little swine very much,” Granny replied. “I loved him as my son, and that didn’t change until I met Carmen and saw how she treated you after you rejected her advances to be your mother. His willingness to let his wife treat you like you weren’t a part of his family is the reason I lost a lot of my respect for him.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Also, you have to agree that you and your mother never wanted for anything. When your car broke down, he bought her a new one. Your dance lessons? School trips? New clothing and shoes? The holidays the three of us would have together? That hamster you had for three weeks before the cat ate it?”
