whole life trying to meet this woman, and I suppose, stupidly, I thought she’d meet me and want to be . . . well . . . my mother. I thought she’d realize how much she’d missed me.” Annabel laughs bitterly. “I had this vision of her throwing her arms around me, and it would feel so real, I could literally feel what it was like—like coming home. And part of me never wanted to meet her in case that didn’t happen, but I never thought it would be like this. I never thought she’d be such a fucking bitch.” She spits out the last words and Kit recoils slightly.
“Let me talk to her. Will you be okay with Adam? ”
Annabel nods and looks up at Adam, whose face is filled with concern.
Kit watches her closely before turning to Adam. “Would you drive Annabel home? Is that okay? The kids are still with you tonight, aren’t they? ”
“Yes. And sure, I can drive Annabel back to your place. If you need some time with your mom, Annabel can always stay with us.”
“Where will she stay? ” Tory interjects, suspiciously.
“She could sleep on your trundle bed,” Adam says, with a vague hint of regret.
Tory’s face lights up. She has been suspicious of her father and her aunt. Nothing she can put her finger on, nothing she can, at thirteen, name, yet there has been something that doesn’t feel right; but all that is forgotten.
“Yes! That would be awesome! Will you? Say yes! Please! Say you will! ”
“Are you sure? ” Annabel flashes a look at Adam.
“Sure I’m sure. We’d love to have you.”
Steve pulls Kit aside. “I was hoping I could come back to your house.” He nuzzles her ear.
“You can,” she says, although there are other things on her mind tonight, like how to talk to her mother, and how to comfort Annabel. “Why don’t you come over in an hour? ”
“Will your mother be at your house? ”
“I doubt it. My house has never been good enough in the past. I’m almost certain she’s got a suite at Seasons Hall.”
A small Relais & Châteaux, a couple of towns over, it is fiercely expensive and exclusive enough to satisfy even Ginny.
Steve raises an eyebrow. “Seasons Hall? Nice.”
Kit doesn’t react to Steve. She just wants to get out and talk to her mother, do something she’s never been able to do before: vent her fury.
For how dare her mother be so dismissive? Kit can’t even begin to imagine how Annabel must be feeling. Yet another rejection, after all these years, and this one in public.
How dare Ginny do this to her sister?
“You have no idea what she’s like,” Ginny says, as soon as Kit pulls out of the car park of the Greenhouse and on to the Post Road. “You think I’ve been rude and cold, but let me tell you, this girl is dangerous.” Ginny closes her eyes and sighs. “I can’t believe she came looking for you and found you, and I can’t believe you’ve been so naive as to let her in.”
“What are you talking about? ” Kit says derisively. “She’s not dangerous. She’s a kid who’s lost, who wanted nothing more than to meet her mother, and you didn’t want to know. Not that I’m particularly surprised. It’s not like you were ever going to win any awards for being a great mother, but you could at least have had the grace and the good manners to pretend you were interested. I’ve never seen anything like the coldness you exhibited toward her tonight.”
Kit’s words pour out in a torrent. Words she has never dared say to her mother before, their relationship always having been distant and formal. But her rage is forcing her on, the years and years of pent-up frustration and fury finally coming out, finally being expressed in the open.
“I know I haven’t been a good mother.” Ginny’s reply is slow, measured. “And I do feel guilty about that, and I apologize to you for not being around more, but do not point the finger at me about that Annabel Plowman.” She takes a deep breath before continuing. “Do you really want to know who she is? Do you really want to know what kind of fire you’re playing with? ”
“Sure,” Kit says, knowing that her mother will attempt to justify her behavior in any way she can.
“She’s an alcoholic and a drug addict.”
“So? You told me that already and she and I have talked