Page 38 of The Island Villa

“No!” The word shot out of her mouth before she could stop it. And maybe she wouldn’t have stopped it even if she could because what other reaction was there to what she was seeing? That look they were exchanging meant only one thing. They weren’t just together—they were together. “You have to be kidding me.”

She took several steps backward and would have fallen into the pool if Cassie hadn’t grabbed her.

This couldn’t be happening. They couldn’t be serious. They couldn’t possibly be thinking of doing this. It was inconceivable, which was why it had taken her a few minutes to realize what was going on. Her father wasn’t a guest—he was the groom.

And now it all made sense. It was like a thriller where the clues had been laid but made no sense until the big reveal at the end. The reason her mother hadn’t mentioned the name of the man she was marrying hadn’t been a lapse of memory or an oversight, nor had it been driven by a romantic urge to surprise everyone. Instead, it had been a considered choice designed to lessen the chances of outside interference. She’d wanted to tell her daughters face-to-face because she’d known that there was no way Adeline would have agreed to be a witness to this car crash.

Nearby, a bee buzzed its way through tightly clustered blooms, and a tiny lizard scuttled from sun to shade.

Adeline was oblivious to the small details of life going on around her.

She’d thought she was past being shocked by anything her mother did or said. Past caring. But this involved her father too, and she definitely wasn’t past caring about him.

She had plenty of examples of her mother’s poor judgment, but her father had only showed poor judgment once—when he’d married her mother—and now he was thinking of repeating the mistake? It was like a toddler burning itself on a hot plate and then reaching out a hand to do the same thing again.

And she was supposed to be part of this circus. She was supposed to celebrate, and be delighted, and—

She couldn’t breathe. Her heart was pounding so fast she thought she might pass out right here on the terrace.

She was an expert at handling stressful situations, she taught other people how to handle stressful situations, but everything she knew had abandoned her.

Her emotions were in a turmoil. Her vision blurred. She felt as if someone had flipped a switch inside her.

Her father stepped toward her, hands outstretched. “Adeline. I know this is a shock, honey, but everything is going to be okay. We need to sit down and talk, but all you really need to know is that your mother and I love each other. We want to spend the rest of our lives together. I hope you’ll wish us well.”

The sheer naivety of that statement unlocked the words that had been trapped inside her.

“Wish you well? She broke your heart, Dad!” She couldn’t bear it. She couldn’t bear the thought of her kind, gentle father exposing himself to that pain again. “Why would you do this? Why?” She prided herself in never reacting in an emotional way. She was rational and measured at all times, but she could feel control slipping from her fingers.

“Adeline—”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this. I can’t believe you’d put yourself through this a second time. She cheated on you.” She kept her voice low and steady. “She had an affair. She got pregnant and had a baby.” She heard a choked sound from beside her and remembered too late that the baby was standing right beside her.

She’d forgotten about Cassie. From the moment her father had walked onto the terrace, she’d been unaware of anything but him. But this didn’t just affect her, it affected her sister too. And gradually it dawned on her that Cassie hadn’t said a word since her father had appeared. Not a single word.

Her half sister, who chatted incessantly about everything and had an almost unnatural ability to find the positive side in any situation, still hadn’t spoken.

A waft of Cassie’s perfume scented the air, but even that could do nothing to sweeten the atmosphere.

Mortified, Adeline turned to look at her sister, but before she could say anything—and she had no idea what she would have said—Cassie stumbled away from them across the terrace, bumping into the table in her haste. A bowl of olives fell to the floor and scattered. Ajax jumped and fled into the bushes, but Cassie didn’t pause. Her flight was wild and uncoordinated as she headed for the path, stumbled again and then vanished from view.

Adeline, who considered the use of bad language to signify the ultimate loss of control, bit down on the profanity that hovered on her lips.

Guilt stabbed her hard in the ribs.

She got pregnant and had a baby.

If she could have snatched those words back, she would have done so. Not because of her mother, but because of her sister. It had been a thoughtless remark and saying it left her feeling deeply ashamed.

She felt a rush of frustration.

Being around her mother so often did this. It turned her into a version of herself that she didn’t recognize and definitely didn’t like. She liked calm and order in her life, but wherever her mother went, there was drama, disorder and chaos.

“That was a very cruel thing to say, Adeline.” Her mother sent her a wounded look. “You’ve hurt me, you’ve hurt your father and you’ve hurt Cassie.”

She felt a lump form in her throat. There was a strange pressure in her chest.

She hadn’t meant to hurt Cassie and it was something she would deal with, but in the meantime, it was hard not to notice that her mother cared about everyone’s feelings but Adeline’s.

---