Page 13 of The Knitting Club at Wagtail Ridge

‘So do I, Vicki. So do I. Now, you go to sleep and have nice dreams. Okay?’

‘Yes.’ Vicki wrapped her arms around her favourite stuffed toy and closed her eyes.

Matt sat with her for a few minutes, but when it was clear she was asleep, he got to his feet. He left the door open a little so he would hear if she called out in the night. His bedroom, the one he had shared with Kim, was across the hall. He didn’t bother turning the light on when he went inside. It was easier sometimes not to see the emptiness. He lay down, still dressed, on top of the bed as he did so often when getting into bed only reminded him he was alone.

I’m worried about your mother, Kim. She’s struggling and won’t get help. It’s starting to affect Vicki. I want to help Sally, but I have to protect our daughter. I don’t know what to do.

Silence was his only answer. He lay staring out into the empty darkness until sleep finally claimed him.

CHAPTER

6

‘Brianna, you are going to regret this. It’s not too late. I can cancel tonight’s event. It won’t look good, but—’

Bree looked up from the box sitting on her desk. This was her last afternoon as a member of her parents’ firm. ‘Mother, how many times have we had this conversation? I am leaving. I’ve sold my flat and bought the property at Wagtail Ridge. The sale will close next week. It’s done.’

‘I’m very disappointed in you.’

‘Well, it wouldn’t be the first time, would it?’

A shocked silence filled the room. Bree realised she had gone too far, but it was too late to change that.

‘I see. Well …’ Margaret turned on her heel and left the office. Bree thought she caught a glimpse of regret—or some other emotion—on her mother’s face. But she couldn’t have. Margaret seldom showed her emotions, and never in the office.

Bree wanted her departure to be amicable. She loved her parents and hoped they’d support her in this new venture, maybe even leave the city, something they seldom did, to visit her in her new home. She tried to imagine Margaret wearing jeans and gum boots, walking through a paddock where grazing animals had left their mark. No. That wasn’t going to happen. She had to accept that her relationship with her parents was going to drift even further apart and there was nothing she could do about it.

As she continued packing, Bree began to realise that avoiding her mother’s judgemental looks and constant pressure was one of the best things about this change in her life. She should have done it years ago.

‘Ms Johnston. It’s time.’

Bree shut the company laptop she was leaving behind. The box held all the personal possessions she’d had in her office. A couple of books and photos. A small fluffy alpaca given to her as a joke by a friend who had long since left the firm. The toy was a reminder of how long she’d held the dream that was about to become a reality. Apart from that, there wasn’t much to show for a career that was about to end before it had really started. Five years was no time at all in the legal world. There was, however, one thing she was not going to leave behind with her case files and her official documents. She opened the top drawer of her polished wooden desk and picked up a folder. Inside were letters from clients. Not the big corporate clients who had financed her flat, but the ones she’d taken on for free. People she’d helped despite the fact they couldn’t pay. Or maybe because of it. The letters were not company documents and they all said the same thing. Thank you. From a mother who kept custody of a child. From a battered woman who escaped an abusive husband. From a family who got compensation for damage to their home. This was the only part of her legal career Bree was going to miss.

She put the folder in the box along with her other possessions.

‘I’m coming,’ she said to the assistant waiting anxiously by the door. ‘Can you get this delivered to my home tomorrow, please.’

‘Yes, Ms Johnston.’

‘You know, I don’t work here any more. You could call me Bree.’

‘Yes, thank you, Ms Johnston.’ The woman was her mother’s assistant and being on first-name terms with her boss’s daughter was a step too far.

Bree reached for the jacket hanging on the back of her chair, then stopped. There was no reason to wear that. She wasn’t going into a courtroom or a deposition. She was going to a farewell party. Her own farewell party.

The entire staff of Fuller and Johnston had gathered in the big board room. Bree grimaced. A memo had probably been sent from her mother’s office, requiring everyone’s presence. She barely knew some of the people there and she liked very few of those she did know. Ken, her assistant, grinned at her from a corner and she wished that this could have simply been a night out with her few friends in the firm, rather than a formal occasion. But, if she was effectively deserting her parents—her mother’s words—the least she could do was show up for this party she didn’t want.

Fixing a smile on her face, she walked into the room to a polite round of applause. She accepted a glass of champagne that was thrust at her and crossed to where her parents stood. ‘You know I didn’t want to make a fuss,’ she whispered.

‘Nonsense,’ said her mother. ‘We couldn’t let this go unmarked. What would that have said about us and the firm?’ She stepped forward and the room fell silent.

‘Thank you for being here, everyone.’

The speech that followed highlighted the ‘excellent solicitor’ that Bree had become and the ‘considerable skills’ she had brought to a number of high-profile cases, enhancing ‘both her own reputation and that of the firm’.

Bree was starting to squirm with embarrassment when Gary joined his wife.

‘As the name partners of this firm, Margaret and I are very proud of Brianna,’ he said. ‘As her parents, it was always our desire she join us in the firm and we are sad to lose her.’ He smiled at Bree. ‘As her father, I am also very proud that she has decided to step out on her own in a totally different field. That takes courage, and I am sure she will be just as successful there as she has been here. To Bree.’ He raised his glass and the whole room followed suit.

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