The Sun Sister (The Seven Sisters #6) - Lucinda Riley Page 0,41

the contents of the nightstand next to the bed I’d once shared with him, thinking it would be where I’d sleep forever . . .

‘No, Electra! You. Will. Not. Let. Him. Hurt. You. Any. Freakin’. More!’

Calling down to the concierge, I asked him to send the trolley back up to collect the boxes.

‘Anything that your wives or girlfriends want from them, it’s all theirs. And send the rest to Goodwill,’ I instructed the porter when the trolley had been reloaded.

‘Okay, Miss D’Aplièse, will do, thanks.’

I stepped out onto the terrace, holding the envelope Mitch had sent with my stuff, along with a book of matches. I set fire to his note without opening it. Then I went to the drinks cabinet and fixed myself a vodka tonic with some ice. I deserved one after that. And even though I tried to rein back my mind from thinking about it and to concentrate on the good news – that Pa’s letter had turned up – I couldn’t help myself. I could only picture Mitch arriving home from his tour. Knowing his fiancée was to join him there any day soon, he’d cleaned out all of my stuff from his house and erased me from his life.

I took another great gulp, then gave myself a top-up. As long as I kept off the coke, that was okay, wasn’t it? Then I stared at Pa’s letter, sitting like a ticking time bomb on the coffee table.

‘Do I open you?’ I asked it.

Thinking how all my sisters seemed to have found the golden ticket to future happiness within theirs, I took another mega-slurp of vodka, grabbed it and peeled it open.

Atlantis

Lake Geneva

Switzerland

My darling Electra . . .

‘Oh Christ!’ I gulped as tears filled my eyes before I’d even read a word.

There is part of me that wonders whether you will ever read this; perhaps you will put it away somewhere for the future, or even burn it – I do not know, because you are the most unpredictable of all my daughters. And ironically, I believe, the most vulnerable.

Electra, I know we have never had the easiest of relationships – two strong and determined personalities often fight. Yet they also love the most passionately – another quality we share.

First of all, let me apologise for the last time we met in New York. Suffice to say that neither of us was at our best. For my part, it pained me deeply to see my extraordinary youngest daughter having to resort to substance abuse to get through a dinner with her father. You know all too well how I feel about drugs and I can only hope and pray that you have decided – or will decide – to take the necessary steps to rid yourself of them for good. Any parent watching a beloved child destroy themselves will naturally be devastated, but there is only one person who can help you, Electra, and that is yourself.

Now, no more of that. I also want to explain why it may have seemed that I was not as obviously proud of you as perhaps you thought I should be. Firstly, let me tell you that every time I saw your photo in a magazine, my heart would fill with pride at your beauty and elegance. And of course your talent, for I understand it takes a gift to know how to make the camera love you. As well as the kind of patience that I’m not sure I could ever possess – and that I did not think you could either, for that matter! But you have somehow learnt it and for that, I truly admire you.

The reason that I became so frustrated with you when you were at school is because I could see just how clever you were, perhaps the most naturally clever of all your sisters. I only hope that, one day, you will be able to combine the fame you have earned with the brains you were born with. If that happens, you will be a force to be reckoned with. There are no limits to what you could become – a voice for those who can’t speak for themselves. Truly, my beautiful girl, you are capable of greatness.

I hope that this explains why I have often found it difficult to be your father; to see a child with so much potential yet to understand that she does not realise what she possesses can be very frustrating. And I do wonder if I

readonlinefreenovel.com Copyright 2016 - 2024