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Genevieve put the last plate into the dishwasher and slammed the door.
“You’re thinking awfully loud, Mom,” Willow observed, her tone wry. “Seriously, Willow, you fell for that?andI thought you were smarter than that.”
An inadvertent smile flashed across her mother’s face. “You can hear that, hmm?”
“Loud and clear. I can’t argue with it. What I came to understand is that what Andy wanted was to cut me from my herd.”
Genevieve muttered a curse, reached out, and flipped on the garbage disposal. As the grinding noise filled the kitchen, Willow picked up the leftover trifle from the table, covered it with plastic wrap, and returned it to the refrigerator, all the while trying to collect her thoughts. She needed to keep to her script and say what she needed to say, make the points she wanted to make while she had her mother’s attention.
Because she never, ever wanted to revisit this subject again.
Then, of course, she still had to drop the AJ bomb. And share the new bit of bad news she’d received from Maggie this morning about Tom.
The garbage disposal went silent. Willow said, “It wasn’t all bad, Mom. Honestly, I was happy in Nashville for a long time. And you know Drew and Emma mean the world to me.Andy was an excellent con man, Mom. He had me totally fooled. I did love him for a long time. I was enthralled. Maybe I turned a blind eye to a thing or two, but what wife doesn’t? I needed him to be as perfect as he appeared to be. I think—and please don’t take this the wrong way—but I think that not having a father during my teenage years had a bigger effect on me than I ever realized.”
Tears flooded her mother’s eyes, and Willow wanted to call back the words. Except, they were the truth.
Genevieve wiped her hands on a dish towel and said, “Chocolate’s not enough. I need booze.”
She marched from the kitchen and headed for her great room bar, Willow assumed as she followed behind. Sure enough, her mother removed a crystal highball glass from the cabinet. “Want one?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
Genevieve poured a generous shot of bourbon, tossed it back, then poured another.Oh, Mom. Better pace yourself. I’m just getting started.
Genevieve’s voice sounded weary as she said, “I recognized the void being without a dad left in your sister’s world, even before the trouble last year, but I thought you were okay.” She swirled the whiskey in her glass. “I thought you were happy with Andy.”
“I was. Honestly, Mom. For the most part, I was. It wasn’t until Drew was born that I began to see what he was doing.”
Willow wrapped her arms around herself and paced her mother’s great room. “At first, I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong, and even when I did, I thought I must be mistaken. But deep down, I think he was jealous of Drew.”
“Oh.” Genevieve’s brow creased as she considered the idea.“That’s not unheard of in some marriages. It’s crummy. I never saw any sign of it. He always seemed like a very loving dad. I thought he was an adrenaline junkie and should have curtailed some of his hobbies once the children came along, but you didn’t seem to mind.”
“I did. I just couldn’t say it. Andy would blow. He was Andy Eldridge, a loving husband, son, and father to the outside world. I’m not sure anyone else saw how controlling, critical, and demanding he was. At home, it was his way or the highway.”
“That bastard,” Genevieve muttered. Her mouth set into a grim line, she carried her drink into the media room, where she had hung pictures of her family on one wall. Willow followed and studied her mother studying the photograph of Andy taken during a climbing expedition in Ecuador. “That sorry SOB.”
Willow drew in a deep breath. Here was her moment of truth.But heaven help me, this is so danged hard.“There’s more, Mom. I found out he had a lover.”
She turned away from the photographs and met Willow’s gaze, a combination of sympathy and fury gleaming in her eyes. “Oh, Willow.”
“Yeah.” Willow took comfort from her mom’s reaction, and as a result, she opened up a little more than she had intended. “I was clueless. He promised he’d always remain faithful to me and our marriage, and I believed him because he was so devasted by the affair Tom had when Andy was a teenager.”
“Oh.” Genevieve slowly nodded. “I’d forgotten about that.”
“Andy so often railed on about the damage it did to their family that I never worried about it. Even during those last months when I had nagging little suspicions, I dismissedthem. Despite our problems, I never dreamed he’d cheat on me.”
“Well, I don’t see you ever putting up with that.”
“No. But Mom, that’s not the worst of it.”
Warily, her mother said, “Okay?”
“The worst of it is…” Willow’s voice trailed off. She didn’t want to do this. She knew her mom. Genevieve Prentice would blow a gasket.
“Honey, just tell me,” Genevieve said, exasperation in her tone. “It can’t bethatbad.”
Oh yes, it can.“Brace yourself, Mom. Andy got his girlfriend pregnant. When the Eldridges came here for Jake’s wedding, they told me the woman had a son. She named him Andrew John. They call him AJ.”
