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It was an impressive dance. One I wasn’t sure I had the patience or disposition to handle on a daily basis. She ended a call and sighed as she relaxed against the oversized executive chair. Her eyes opened and fell on me. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s my business. Am I not allowed to visit?”
She sighed again. “Did you need something?”
“Yes. I figured we could make up for yesterday by getting a few items checked off the wedding planning list today.”
“Can’t. I’m busy.”
“Fine, Kat, I’m sorry. Is that what you need to hear to make you feel better?”
Fucking entitled children. They could never make things easy, could they?
“I don’t need to feel better about anything. I made time in my scheduleyesterday,which means I have a lot of work to catch up on today. Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m sure you can handle one more disappointment.”
“Stop acting like a petulant child, Katherine.” The words rushed out with an angry growl, but I didn’t beg anyone for any fucking thing. Not anymore.
“I’m not doing this with you, Sadie. I’m busy working, not daydreaming and not getting shitfaced. Deal with it.”
She glared at me, and for the first time, I could see that Kat wasn’t angry with me. She didn’t even seem to hate me. She was disappointed. She was hurt. Most of all, she was done.
And I knew it was my fault.
“Since this isyourplace, I’m sure you know the way out.”
“If you change your mind, you know how to reach me.”
She nodded. “I won’t.”
Since Kat was in the middle of a tantrum, I let her be and called Oliver to pick me up.
I stepped into the back seat without his help and said, “Just drive until I tell you to stop,” then, once again, I let myself get lost in the past.
This time, it was my parents and my relationship with them. I was a good kid, a responsible girl who believed in good and evil and fire and brimstone, all the bullshit that came out of the church.
I was obedient, but when it came down to it, none of it had mattered. They’d given me up so easily that it was almost like I never mattered to them.
It wasn’t until later that I realized my presence merely completed their picture of the perfect Catholic family. It didn’t matter if it was true or not—it wasn’t—it only mattered what it looked like to the people of the church.
It hurt to lose them, but it took me no time to find my own family, to create a family that suited me as a woman and a mother.
I’d found it in Colm, for a little while anyway. And when Colm was no longer what I needed or wanted, it was too late to go back. Too late to reconcile.
So I pulled up my big girl panties and put up withhisbullshit until it wasmyturn.
CHAPTERSIX
Sadie
Colm and I were newlyweds and the days were ideal. They were perfect, at least what I took as perfection after everything that happened with Owen and my parents. Colm was always sweet, always charming, and he fucked like a god. I couldn’t imagine a time he wouldn’t be that sweet, charming man.
I was the luckiest girl in the whole damn world. I couldn’t have imagined just how much my luck would change.
Or how quickly.
Colm wasn’t all bad. No one was. Deep down, he was good. He helped me get rid of some of my demons even though he couldn’t get rid of his own. Or wouldn’t. Most days, I didn’t know.
Maybe I loved him for helping me overcome what Owen had done to me and rescuing me from my parents and my mundane life.
