Page 81 of The Un-Apparent Heir

“I thought you hated me—still do—and I thought life was better without me. I expected you to toss me out.”

“Lucy, I would never do that,” Winston said. “I love you and want you to come home. I want to talk. The boys are desperate to see their mother. I will come down there and leave the boys with Mum. I’ll come out to Windsor, and we can go from there.”

Lucy agreed. “Okay.”

“Lucy, I’m sorry I made you feel the only option was to leave. I have much to atone for, but I could never hate you. You would never do something to deserve that.”

Choked up, Lucy said, “I will see you when? At the weekend?”

“Sure. Friday. I’ll bring the boys down in the afternoon. Drop them, Come to you?”

“Sure.”

Lucy soon hung up. She got up and walked down the hallway towards the TV room at the end of the hall—too emotionally exhausted to cry. There, she found George working on something on his laptop.

“Well, she lives,” he joked.

“Fuck off,” Lucy groaned. “Do you mind if I watch something?”

“Go mad. I don’t care. Patrick told me my typing was keeping him up.”

“What are you doing?”

“Working on my memoirs.”

“Really?”

“Fuck no! No, I’m working on a statement about moving back. The trouble is… how do you come back after leaving?”

“I dunno,” Lucy said. “I can think of a few ways, but?—”

“Luce, can you help? Please help Nat and me!”

The ask came out of nowhere.

“I’m no use?—”

“Bullocks!”

“I am shot to hell,” Lucy sighed. “You don’t understand. I’m no use.”

“You’re out of practice but never out of your depth, Lucy. We need you.”

Look shook her head.

“What happened?”

“Uh, I got married, had children, and became a mum.”

“You made yourself small and lost who you were, but you’re a bright light, Luce—always have been. You’re wasted on being the stay-at-home spouse.”

“George, you are the stay-at-home spouse last I checked.”

“My point remains.”

Lucy snickered.

“Ah, she is capable of smiling.”

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