Page 76 of The Island Villa

Cassie Swift.

She swallowed. She didn’t like it. She was pretty sure Andrew wouldn’t like it (and the name belonged to him, after all). She had no idea how her mother would feel.

What if she thought that this was all Cassie’s idea? That she’d cashed in on her mother’s success without even having the courtesy to mention it?

It was mortifying.

“That doesn’t feel right to me.”

“Reflect on it.” Her agent had a brisk no-nonsense tone that suggested not only should Cassie reflect on it, but that she should then make the decision that the publisher wanted her to make.

“Are you saying that if I want this deal, I have to call myself Cassie Swift?”

There was a pause.

“Not necessarily. I’m saying it would give you a boost. This is the deal of a lifetime,” her agent said. “Think about it.”

The call ended and Cassie stared at her phone, her thoughts and emotions in a tangle.

She was going to be a published author.

Whatever happened, whatever she ended up calling herself, nothing was going to change that. And her agent hadn’t said she had to call herself Cassie Swift, just that it would help. So she could refuse. If Cassie Dunn didn’t work, then she’d think of another name herself.

It really wasn’t a big deal. She was not going to ruin this special moment by overreacting.

She was delighted. And she was sure that despite the fact they needed to sort out the name issue, her mother was going to be delighted too.

Cassie felt a rush of pride.

The best part of this was that the whole world was going to hear her parents’ love story.

How wonderful was that?

17

Catherine

“Second time lucky, I hope. I want this evening to be perfect.” Catherine surveyed the table. Silverware gleamed against snowy white linen and the tall glasses caught the last of the amber sunlight. A simple bunch of white daisies formed a centerpiece in the middle of the table. It would have made a perfect shot to share on her social media—#dinnerwiththefamily—but she had no intention of sharing this moment with anyone. She shared snippets of her life (it was a requirement these days, and occasionally she longed for the early years of her career where her sole responsibility had been to write the book), but she selected the snippets carefully. There was a wide gap between reality and the truth, but these days everyone knew that social media images were carefully curated. And although her publisher was always telling her that her readers wanted insight into her real life, Catherine was pretty sure they didn’t. She treated the darker parts of her life the way she did her laundry. She hid them away in the hamper and didn’t show them to the public.

Satisfied, she glanced at Andrew. “No repeats of last night, I hope.”

They shared a smile of understanding.

It had been an exhausting twenty-four hours. She felt emotionally drained. Picking through the past did that to her, which was why she tried not to do it. She’d selected the parts she could share with the girls, and buried the rest which, now that she thought about it, was very like her social media feed.

“There won’t be any repeats.” He pulled her against him and kissed the top of her head. “We’ve both spoken to Adeline, and you’ve spoken to Cassie. There’s nothing more to be said. Nothing that can go wrong.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Why the doubt? I thought your conversation with Adeline went well?”

“It was perfectly civil.” It was hard to explain exactly what she was feeling, maybe because she didn’t really understand it herself. “I was hoping for more.” She wanted to rebuild her relationship with her eldest daughter. She didn’t want them to be like two polite strangers making small talk. She’d lost her, years before, but now she wanted her back.

Andrew took her face in his hands. “Maybe you should tell the girls the truth, Catherine. All of it. If they understood...”

“No.” She stepped away from him. “I won’t do that to Cassie.” She wouldn’t risk damaging her relationship with one daughter in order to try and fix her relationship with the other.

“It’s your decision, of course,” he said, “but you’re not going to fix this in a few days, Catherine. Adeline was very young. She was bruised by everything. You have to give it time. Build up trust again. It will happen, I’m sure of it.”

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