Page 94 of The Island Villa

“If I’d known what you know, then maybe I never would have found myself in the situation I did. I saw it though, finally, in the weeks after Cassie was born.”

“But that doesn’t make sense.” Cassie’s head was swimming. “You already had Adeline. It was never just the two of you. He always had to share you.”

“Adeline was older. And you were always a very quiet, thoughtful, self-contained child.” Catherine glanced at Adeline, her smile tired. “You loved to read, and draw, and sometimes you’d just sit and think. I think Rob barely noticed you in those early days. But then Cassie was born, and everything changed. Babies are demanding of attention.” She looked at Cassie. “You had terrible colic in those early months, and you cried a lot. That was when I saw him change. Or rather, that’s when I saw who he really was.”

Andrew shook his head, although this couldn’t have been the first time he’d heard the story. “I wish you’d told me. Right at the beginning, when you first realized.”

“How?” Catherine’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “The ink wasn’t dry on our divorce papers. You were angry with me because you’d hoped we might fix things, and maybe we would have done. Who knows?” She gave him an agonized look. “I couldn’t tell you. I had too much pride. I’d made a huge mistake, but I believed I was stuck with it. I couldn’t see how to unravel it. And I didn’t know, at that point, how bad it would get.”

“I wish I’d known too.” Adeline looked pale and tired. “I would have helped.”

“You did help. You were the reason we stumbled through those first couple of years. You adored your little sister and you spent almost all your free time with her, which meant that I could work and pander to Rob’s need to be the center of attention. But sometimes it went wrong.”

Adeline removed her arm from around Cassie. She sat up straighter, eyes wide. “That time you broke your arm...”

“He broke it,” Catherine said. “My publisher had asked me to do a book tour to support my twentieth book, Forgotten Wishes. Rob didn’t want me to go. Make an excuse, he said. Tell her no. I tried to explain that it was part of my job. He said that I wouldn’t be able to sign books with a broken wrist.”

Adeline was horrified. “Why didn’t I guess?”

“Why would you? You were a child. And although the divorce had shaken your sense of security, you didn’t have any reason to doubt what he told you. You hadn’t encountered violence.” She paused to breathe. “And I didn’t want you to.”

“He wouldn’t let us into the room,” Adeline was frowning as she thought back. “He told us you needed to rest. I thought he was being caring.”

“Us?” Cassie turned to look at her sister.

“Yes. You were there too,” Adeline said. “You were little. You wanted Mum. You were squirming, I remember that. You wanted to go to her, and I kept asking him if we could see our mother just for a minute. He told me to think about someone other than myself. That you needed rest.” She swallowed. “He was keeping us away.”

“He didn’t want you to see me at my worst,” Catherine said. “Perhaps he was afraid I might say something to you. I was relieved you stayed away. He frightened me.”

Cassie felt those words deep in her stomach. Frightened? This was her father they were talking about. Not some stranger. Not one of those stories that you read in the media. Her dad.

Not a hero at all. Not the love of her mother’s life. Not the one.

She heard an intake of breath from Adeline.

“The vase...”

“You remember that?” Catherine gripped the edge of the table, turning her knuckles white. “Yes, he threw it at me when I told him I was expected to fly to New York to meet my agent and publisher. He said if I did, he’d take both you and Cassie and I’d never see you again. Would he have done it? I don’t know. And I was trying hard to protect you both from what was going on.”

Cassie felt a humming in her ears. She couldn’t connect what she was hearing with real life. She couldn’t connect it with her father.

“At that point, I didn’t know what to do,” her mother said. “I knew it was just a matter of time before he seriously hurt me. I was afraid for you girls, and what he might do to you. About what might happen to you if I met with an accident. I swallowed my pride. I called Andrew and asked him to take Adeline. It was one less child to worry about.” She reached for Andrew’s hand and he murmured words that Cassie couldn’t hear.

Maybe it was because her head was still buzzing with other words.

If I met with an accident?

Had her mother been afraid for her life?

“You sent me away to protect me?” Adeline’s voice was barely audible. “Not to punish me. Not because you were tired of me, or because you didn’t love me enough, but to protect me?”

“Yes. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, and I knew you’d hate me for it. You adored your sister and she adored you. But I couldn’t see an alternative. And I couldn’t tell you the truth, so I simply told you that your father and I had decided you were going to live with him.”

Adeline’s breathing was shallow. “I thought I was in the way. I thought I was disrupting your new life. I thought you didn’t want me as part of your family.”

“No.” Catherine shook her head, emotion thickening her voice. “Sending you away almost killed me. But I couldn’t see another choice. Sometimes love requires seemingly impossible sacrifice. It seemed like the right thing to do, although I’ve questioned it a million times since. We were very close, you and I, and I shook your faith in love. And in me. And I’ve never been able to fix that rift I caused between us. Apart from getting involved with Rob Dunn in the first place, it has been the biggest regret of my life.”

Adeline looked strained. “I didn’t know.”

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