that she had seen some of Lydia’s work and that yes, she definitely did deserve all the rave reviews.
‘And what about you, Dom, what are you doing? Still working with Luke and Gerry?’
‘Yes, we have a property business actually – buying and selling, renovation, interior design, that kind of thing. It’s going pretty well.’
‘Oh my goodness, that sounds great! And it sounds so clichéd, but you have grown, you look wonderful. You are so beautiful, Dom, such a good-looking man. I always knew you would be. Do you have a girlfriend?’
His response was vague. An image of a recent conquest came into focus, but it was futile. What girl would stick around once they knew his story? He had no intention of confiding in his mother. Instead, his eyes assessed the room in which they were sitting.
Kate had known that their first meeting might be this way, but it didn’t make it any easier. She wanted so badly to hold him tight.
‘I can’t tell you how very happy I am to see you.’
He ignored her words.
‘This is a nice set-up you have here. The house is interesting…’
Kate nodded. She didn’t want to talk about the house.
‘Dom, I have missed you dreadfully.’
‘Well, you knew where I was. If you missed me that much…’
She held his eye.
‘Darling, that’s not fair. You made it quite clear that you didn’t want to see me and I respected your wish. I figured you would come to me when you were ready.’
Dominic laughed, but it was an insincere chuckle that for a brief moment put her in mind of Mark.
‘Well, clever old you. All that amateur psychology is obviously paying off, here I am! You once told me that I could always talk to you, that you would listen. You said it was your job.’
Kate smiled. Yes, she had said that.
‘Well, you’ve been doing it really badly and I am majorly pissed off with you, Mum!’
He sounded like a little boy; it made her heart constrict. She pictured him using the same tone to protest about bedtimes or having to eat Brussels sprouts. But he had called her Mum! How she had missed that.
‘Dom, it’s been too long that we have been apart. I don’t want to spoil it by fighting.’
‘Maybe it’s not all about what you want. Maybe there are things that I want, that I need.’
‘What things, Dom? Tell me what they are and I will do my best to help you. I love you so much. I don’t want to see you hurting.’
‘Hurting?’ He put his splayed hand over his mouth and gripped his chin and cheek, again stifling that incongruous laugh. ‘Christ, you have no idea about hurt.’
‘Oh, Dom, I think I have more than an idea.’
She swallowed the words that bubbled on her tongue. ‘Your father was a monster. You have no idea how I lived; I was tortured for eighteen years, but I put up with it for you and Lydia.’ But she kept them to herself, not wanting to burden her son still more.
‘I don’t expect you to understand, Dom, and I do know what my actions have put you through—’
‘Do you, Mum?’ He interrupted again. ‘Do you really know what your actions have put me through? Have put Lydia through?’
Kate cast her eyes downwards and awaited the onslaught that she knew was coming; the one she had been waiting the last ten years to receive.
‘Mountbriers was all I’d ever known. Those people weren’t only my friends, they were my family. I loved being part of it. I used to feel so proud putting on that uniform and walking through the stone archway every day. It made me feel so special; it was everything to me. I was working hard, doing great, planning for the golden future that you kept telling me I would have. But you were lying, weren’t you? You had other plans for my future, for all of our futures. And it wasn’t as if I left in the way that other kids did. I didn’t win a scholarship and flit off to another school; my parents didn’t run out of fees and send me to the local comp. Plenty of kids did that and it was okay for them; they could still be part of it, if they wanted to. But not me. I couldn’t keep in touch or pop over for weekends, or even finish off the bloody term!’
‘Dom, I—’
‘No. Let me finish. The police questioned Lyd and me for hours, did you know