Page 39 of The Island Villa

She appealed to her father. “You can’t get married again. Why would you? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Oh, Adeline, please stop.” Her mother turned to her father in desperation. “Say something, Andrew. She listens to you. You’ve always been able to reason with her.”

As if she was the problem.

“Don’t reason with me. Don’t handle me.” She dug her fingertips hard into her palms. “Do you have no idea how I’m feeling right now?”

“I know how difficult it has been,” her mother said. “I know it has been hard—it has been hard for me too—but I want to put the past behind us. I want us to start fresh, from this moment. I thought you’d be happy for us.” Her mother’s eyes were shiny and Adeline’s own eyes stung because there were few things as frustrating as having your feelings ignored or dismissed. It said you’re not important. Or, perhaps worse, what you feel isn’t important.

It had been years since she’d allowed herself to be driven to this point.

She swallowed past the dryness of her throat and tried again. “You can’t just ignore the past.”

“Of course, you can. It’s a choice. This is a chance for us to heal as a family, but you refuse to meet me half way and now you’ve upset Cassie.” Her distress was visible and Adeline felt her own face grow wet with tears.

Bury it, ignore it, pretend it never happened. That was how her mother dealt with life’s bumpier moments.

She had a ridiculous urge to behave like an insecure toddler and throw herself into her father’s arms for comfort but at that moment her father, forced to make a choice between the women in his life, sent her a look of agonized apology and pulled Catherine into his arms.

“There. It’s all right. Everything is going to be okay.”

Adeline watched in disbelief as he held and soothed her mother.

He’d made a choice, and it hadn’t been her.

She told herself that it didn’t matter. That she was more than capable of soothing herself. After all, she’d had more than enough practice. She was old enough not to need a hug from her dad when things were bad.

She wasn’t thinking of herself, she was thinking of him.

“Dad, everything is not okay—”

“It seems complicated. I understand, and maybe this wasn’t the best way to handle it but there probably was no easy way. We’ll talk about it, I promise, the way we always do, but not right now.” He held Catherine against him. Protective. Solid.

Adeline stared at him in despair.

“But you can’t just—”

“I’m asking you to trust me, Adeline, the way we’ve always trusted each other.”

“How am I supposed to trust you? You didn’t tell me the two of you were involved again. You didn’t tell me you were here.” Although she tried not to mind read, or make judgments without facts, it was impossible not to imagine them together, laughing over the secret they were sharing. Because at some point they had obviously decided not to tell their daughter. “Not telling me wasn’t an accident or an oversight, it was a choice. And it was a hurtful one.”

The pain was a thousand tiny knives, digging into all the sensitive parts of her.

Was there anything worse than a betrayal of trust? She didn’t think so.

She stood alone and isolated, worried about her dad, and worried about her sister. Cassie was definitely not okay. And she felt guilty, because that was her fault.

“I should go and check on Cassie.” Her mother was obviously thinking the same way, because she pulled away and blew her nose. “Cassie is very sensitive and emotional. She’ll want to talk about it.”

I’m sensitive, Adeline thought. I want to talk about it.

Her father kept his arm round Catherine. “Maybe give her some time.”

Catherine gave him a despairing look. “I want this to work. This has to work. And Maria is about to serve the food. She’s been in the kitchen all day. The champagne is chilled...”

Adeline saw her father put his hand on Catherine’s arm.

“We need a pause, honey. Both girls are a bit shocked. They need time to digest our news.”

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