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“Do I need to say it?” Dad asks once she’s out of hearing.
“Mason,” Sherry warns.
“She’s drunk,” he says bitterly.
“She’s had two glasses of champagne,” Gaby replies sharply.
“She smelled of alcohol before she started on the champagne,” Dad states.
I glance at Damon, who’s looking at his fiancée. Belle’s eyes are downcast—this is the last thing she wants at her wedding.
“She’s been snotty since she got here,” Dad says, “and she was rude to Missie.”
Missie glances at me, unsurprised by the comment, so she obviously did pick up on Kait’s sarcasm. “I don’t think it was directed at me,” she says. “No offense taken.”
“If she keeps on like this,” Dad says, “I’ll—”
“Dad,” I say mildly. He glances at Belle and has the grace to look ashamed.
I get to my feet. “I’ll talk to her.” I bend and kiss Missie on the top of her head. Then I walk across the terrace toward the house.
Inside, I can hear staff in the kitchen, and the vacuum cleaner on deeper in the house, but here it’s cool and quiet. I stand by the window, looking out at the view, and wait for Kait to exit the bathroom.
When she eventually comes out, she sees me and rolls her eyes.
“He’s sent you to have a word with me,” she states sarcastically.
Hands in my pockets, I don’t reply, I just hold her gaze, and eventually the tension leaves her shoulders.
“Come and sit down for a minute,” I say gently, gesturing with my head toward the room along the corridor. It’s a quiet reading room overlooking part of the garden, with a small library of books and a coffee machine, the sofa and chairs decorated with colorful throws and bright cushions.
Kait lowers herself onto the sofa, and I sit in the chair opposite her. She sits stiffly, looking uncomfortable and miserable as she glances around.
“What’s up?” I ask.
My feelings toward my mother are complicated. She’s a very difficult woman, what some men would call high maintenance, and certainly not easy to live with.
From the age of eighteen, I blamed her for the breakup of her marriage. I know Dad tried hard to make it work, and I also know how difficult she can be.
But Belle’s revelation that Dad’s affair with Sherry began before Kait left shocked me deeply. Nobody knows what goes on inside a marriage. Dad can be stubborn and unsympathetic, and I’m not sure how understanding he was of Kait’s struggle with depression. The fact that he cheated on her upset me a lot, especially as he’s always acted like the hurt party because of what happened with Tom.
And deep down, I know I’ve blamed her for what happened to Belle.Shewalked out, she chose Tom, and she didn’t notice what was happening to Belle for a whole year.
But I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it this year. Putting myself in her shoes. She’s an actor who lives in the spotlight. Every word she says, every pimple she has, every time she has a bad hair day, it’s splashed across the media. She doesn’t eat because she knows if she puts on a pound, someone will notice, and she probably won’t get that role she’s been hoping for. Her life is about control. And she loves her career. I get my drive from her, not my father, and she’s always been supportive of me. She’s harsh on Gaby and Belle, but ultimately I think it’s out of love—she wants her girls to be resilient, and to be able to cope in this harsh world.
“Is it about Ryan?” I ask. She broke up with the actor earlier in the year.
But she shakes her head. “That’s done.”
“Are you seeing anyone else?”
“No.”
“Why not?” She’s beautiful, accomplished, and rich. There must be hundreds of guys who would be thrilled to have her on their arm.
But she just shrugs and looks away.
I frown, frustrated. “You don’t have to talk to me, but you’re on the verge of alienating everyone else here this weekend. And speaking of which, I don’t appreciate you being snarky with Missie. She hasn’t got a spiteful bone in her body.”
