Page 157 of Mistaken Intention

“I know, and I heard you. That’s why I told Mom she couldn’t come to your wedding, even though she wanted to.”

Ella narrows her eyes. “Don’t make it sound like you’ve done me a favor, when you’ve so obviously invited her here tonight. This is a family celebration. She doesn’t belong here.”

I can see the hurt on Lindsay’s face, and the surprise on Hunter’s. He’s clearly taken aback by his sister’s outburst.

“Is that true?” Drew says from beside me. “Did you invite her?”

“Not exactly. After I’d told Ella about Mom’s visit, Mom and I had a long conversation. She was upset about Ella not wanting her to come to the wedding, and she asked if she could visit afterwards. I couldn’t say yes or no straight away. We hadto wait for you to be well enough, but once you were, I spoke to Josie and she…”

Drew leans forward, looking down at me. “You knew about this?”

I nod my head. “Don’t get mad. Hunter asked if I thought you were ready and I said ‘yes’.” I glance at Ella, just briefly, and then look back at Drew. “I appreciate it’s not just about you, but there are things your mom needs to tell you, and putting it off isn’t gonna help anyone.”

“You think?” Ella says, glaring at me.

I suck in a breath, but before I can reply, Hunter gets there first. “Don’t blame Josie. It was my decision. I told Mom she could come tonight, providing she accepted the outcome.” He moves a little closer to Ella, looking down into her upturned face. “If you decide you never want to see her again, that’s fine. She’ll respect that. But at least hear her out before you jump to any conclusions.”

Ella glances over his shoulder at her mother, just as Mac gets to his feet, coming to stand beside her. “It can’t hurt to listen, can it?” he whispers.

She shrugs, but doesn’t answer, and I look up at Drew. “Are you mad at me?”

“No. I wish you’d told me, but I guess you were worried I wouldn’t show.”

Hunter turns, smiling at him. “I was more worried you’d tell Ella and she wouldn’t show.”

“No shit,” she mutters, folding her arms across her chest. “But having ambushed me, I guess it would be interesting to know why our mom abandoned us.”

She tilts her head, looking directly at Lindsay, the older woman blushing as she sucks in a breath, her eyes wandering over the assembled faces.

“I—I hadn’t expected there to be so many people here.” She turns to Hunter. “I thought it would just be the three of you.”

Hunter shakes his head. “We’re the family you left behind.” He holds out his arms to Livia and Mac and myself. “These are the people we love. This is what we made of ourselves without you.” Lindsay looks over toward Julianne and Connor. “They’re my in-laws,” Hunter says. “They’re part of the family, too.” Lindsay opens her mouth, but then snaps it shut, hesitating for a moment before she nods her head and glances at Pat and Mick, who are sitting side-by-side. She frowns and turns to Hunter, raising an eyebrow. “Our father hired Pat and Mick to care for us and look after the property when you left. Pat raised us. She did your job when you weren’t here to do it anymore. She has more right to be here than you do, so you either talk in front of her, or you can leave.”

Pat stares at Hunter, blinking hard, fighting back tears, while Lindsay flounders, unsure of herself until the man beside her steps a little closer.

“I’m here, Lin. I’ll help you. But you need to tell them. It’s what you came here for.”

She takes a deep breath and looks back at Hunter again. “Would you mind if I sat down?”

He nods, stepping aside so she can sit in the corner of one of the couches, the man perching on the arm beside her. Hunter returns to his seat as do Ella and Mac, and we all stare at their mom, waiting.

She’s twists her fingers in her lap, biting on her bottom lip and then she looks up, making direct eye contact with Hunter.

“You want to know why I left, but to tell you that, I’ll have to explain how I came to be here in the first place.”

“Okay.”

She sighs, and glances up at the man beside her, who nods his head, and rather than looking at any one of her children, Lindsay gazes at the low table in front of her.

“When I first met Theodore Bennett, he was just making a name for himself in the advertising world. It was at a party, and I was there with my parents…”

“Your parents?” Hunter says, surprise evident on his face. “How old were you?”

She turns her head, looking at him. “I was a couple of months shy of my sixteenth birthday. My father knew Theodore, and they talked about work for most of the evening, although he spent a lot of time staring at me. I was flattered, in the way that teenage girls can be when an older, attractive man pays attention to them. So, I didn’t think too much of it when I came out of the ladies’ room later in the evening and found him waiting for me. When he pushed me up against the wall and kissed me, I enjoyed it. When he told me he’d fallen for me, I believed him. I let myself be swept away, and I agreed to meet him the following evening.” She stops talking and looks up at the man beside her again. He smiles and gives her another encouraging nod of his head. “He waited for me in his car, on the corner of the street where I lived with my mom and dad, and then he drove me to his place.” I feel Drew tense beside me, although I daren’t look up at him. I daren’t move for fear of breaking the moment. “He didn’t bother with the niceties of food or drink. He said he couldn’t wait, and he held my hand as he took me upstairs,” she says with a slight crack in her voice. “ He was very reassuring… and then afterwards, he took me home. I didn’t see anything wrong in what we’d done. We were in love… or so I thought. I certainly believed myself to be in love with him, and when he asked if he could see me again, I couldn’t believe my luck.”

Hunter sits forward, his hands clasped tightly together, his knuckles white. “Didn’t it occur to you that what he was doing was statutory rape?”

“No. I didn’t even think it was odd when he held my hand in the car and told me I couldn’t tell anyone about us. I liked the fact that there was an ‘us’, and that he said it would spoil what we had if other people knew about it. He was very… plausible. Either that, or I was very gullible. One way or the other, though, I believed every word he said.”

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