Page 15 of The Island Villa

“You have mixed feelings. And that’s understandable.” Mia leaned forward. “But this is your mother.”

Mia didn’t know every uncomfortable detail of their relationship, of course, because Adeline hadn’t shared it. She hadn’t shared it with anyone, and not only because there was a particular type of humiliation involved when your own mother didn’t like you very much.

“I was at her last two weddings. I feel as if I’ve paid my dues.” Adeline sighed, accepting the inevitable. If she didn’t go, she’d feel bad. If she went, she’d feel bad. She was destined to feel bad either way. She might as well go. At least that would keep her father happy. “I’ll wear what I wore to her last wedding.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Mia worked for a fashion magazine, and clothes were her job and her obsession.

“There is nothing fun about my mother getting married again.” Adeline reached for her sunglasses. A heat wave was spreading across Europe. Corfu would be scorching in July. She’d fry, and keeping her hair smooth would be impossible. “Maybe you’re right. I do need clothes. I don’t have anything suitable for lounging around on a beach. I need a large sun hat to hide humidity hair, and I need swimsuits. Sleek swimsuits, so that if I decide to drown myself, at least I’ll look good.” The prospect of shopping for a trip she didn’t want to take filled her with nothing but gloom.

“Adeline, you can’t go when you feel this way.” Mia put her glass of wine down. “Can’t you just explain to your dad?”

“No, because then I come across as mean-spirited. I like to pretend I’m better than that, even though I’m not. And you know what my father is like. Forgive and forget. The past is the past. Don’t bear grudges.” She laughed at the irony. “I’m the psychologist, but it turns out he’s the most emotionally evolved of the two of us.”

Mia tilted her face to the sun. “You’d think your dad would be bitter and twisted, given the way your mother treated him. Although I suppose it was twenty years ago. Water under the bridge?”

“Maybe, although even when it happened, he wasn’t bitter. Just hurt. He loved her deeply.” And that moment when she’d walked into the room and found her father on his knees sobbing had stayed with her. “Anyway, I’m probably bitter and twisted enough for both of us.” She was honest enough to admit that the hurt, angry little girl she’d been back then still lived inside her, along with the words her mother had spoken on that perfect summer morning when her whole life had changed.

You’re going to have a new father, Adeline, and a baby sister.

“You’re so hard on yourself,” Mia said. “You were eight years old. It must have been a horrible time.”

Horrible didn’t begin to describe it.

“I’ve had plenty of time to get over it. I should have moved on. I thought I had moved on, and then that letter arrived in my apartment and wham, I’m back there again.” It was more than she would usually admit to anyone, but she was frustrated that she wasn’t handling it better. She dished out so much advice, trying to help others, but it seemed she was incapable of helping herself.

Mia gave her a sympathetic look. “I don’t know how you’re supposed to move on from the fact that your mother sent you away when she had her new family. How old were you? Nine?”

“Ten when that happened.” Adeline felt uncomfortable. She couldn’t quite believe she’d told Mia that. It was unlike her. “And living with my dad was definitely the best thing for me, so I don’t know why it bothers me.”

She knew why it bothered her.

Her mother had given her away without a fight. She’d wanted to focus on Cassie.

“Give yourself a break, Adeline. You’re a human being with feelings. And you’ve made a really good life for yourself.” Mia gestured to the sunny balcony and Adeline’s small but delightful apartment. “You live in the best city in the world. You have your own place, a great job, a circle of brilliant friends. I am the most brilliant of course.”

That made Adeline smile. “Of course.”

“I could come with you for moral support. I could be your plus-one. I wouldn’t object to two weeks in Greece. I could be a shield between you and your selfish mother.” Mia sat forward, her short dress sliding over bare tanned legs. She wore bold jewelery and red lipstick and was the type of person who never entered a room unnoticed.

They’d met five years earlier when Mia had commissioned Adeline to write a feature on dressing for confidence and been close friends ever since. At least, as “close” as Adeline ever allowed herself to get to anyone. She told Mia enough to form a bond of friendship (she knew how these things worked), but not too much. There were things in her past that she knew she’d never reveal to anyone.

Dr. Swift encouraged people to “tell all,” but there was no rule that said she had to do the same herself.

“I wish I could take you. Unfortunately, she only invited me. No mention of a plus-one.” And she was relieved about that. She was a master at hiding her feelings. She’d describe it as her superpower, but that power was challenged in the presence of her mother and she didn’t want the additional stress of having people she knew around her.

“What about Mark?” Mia topped up her wine. “Your mother hasn’t invited him?”

“She doesn’t know about Mark. I haven’t seen her since we went for lunch a year ago when she was over here on a book tour.” Her mother’s assistant had scheduled the meeting as she always did. Lunch at her favorite hotel in Mayfair. 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and on no account could the meeting overrun. That didn’t bother Adeline, who usually couldn’t wait for the lunch to end. It wasn’t as if their conversation was deep and meaningful. Her mother preferred fictional worlds to the real thing. It frustrated Adeline that her way of dealing with life was to escape it. Adeline took the opposite approach. She faced reality and dealt with it. As a result, there was no emotional connection between them and there hadn’t been for years. There was no way to cross that chasm that had been created in childhood.

She knew plenty of people had dysfunctional family relationships, but that didn’t change the fact that the whole thing felt unnatural. Perhaps it would have been easier to accept were it not for those early memories nestled deep in her brain. Memories of curling up next to her mother while she read to her, of picking flowers from the garden together so that they could enjoy a painting session, of being sick and feeling her mother’s cool hand on her forehead. Security. She could remember when her life had felt secure, safe and certain.

But then Cassie had arrived, and everything changed.

Adeline felt something tug in her chest as she thought about her baby sister.

She pushed them away.

Some memories were best forgotten. But the one memory she’d never been able to forget was the day she’d been sent to live with her father.

---