The Merriest Magnolia (Magnolia Sisters #2) - Michelle Major Page 0,14
must regret staying with him and giving up your life. He wanted you with him because he needed a puppet, and once I wouldn’t subject myself to that treatment any longer, that left him you as a stand-in. That town has nothing to offer you now.”
Carrie swallowed against the emotion her mother’s words conjured within her. “Other than a home and a community.”
Vanessa stared at her for a long moment as the waiter set down their tea and the tray of pastries and dainty sandwiches. “We don’t need the explanation, Martin. I know the selections. Thank you.”
“Of course, Ms. Reed.”
Another bow and he disappeared again without making eye contact with Carrie. Truly, she felt invisible in her mother’s world.
“I apologize if you’re offended by my words,” Vanessa told her as she poured the tea. “I thought I’d worked through my anger toward your father. His death opened old wounds for me. I’m sure you understand how hard it was.”
Carrie plucked a crustless cucumber sandwich from the silver tray and shoved the whole thing into her mouth, earning a disapproving frown from her mom. At least it gave her an excuse not to respond.
On the surface, her parents had always seemed like the epitome of opposites attract. Niall, the eccentric and nonconformist artist and her polished mother, who’d enjoyed being the wife of someone famous but hadn’t wanted to stick it out once the spotlight faded along with the sales of her husband’s mawkish paintings.
She’d come to realize they were more alike than she’d understood, both self-centered and emotionally immature. She’d lost her father and discovered that he’d kept the secret of her two sisters from her. A revelation that, coupled with the financial mess he’d left behind, had rocked her world to its core. Her mother, who’d been divorced from him for a decade, felt justified in lamenting how difficult his death had been on her.
“It’s good to see you,” her mother said, inclining her head.
Carrie took a big bite from one of the scones and nodded.
“You should try the jam and Devonshire cream.” Vanessa nodded. “Your appetite seems to have returned.”
As Carrie swallowed the pastry, it seemed to turn to ash in her throat. There wasn’t enough clotted cream in all of England to make the questions she had for her mother any easier to ask.
She placed the uneaten half of scone on the bone china plate. “Did you know about Avery and Meredith?”
Her mother’s lips pursed. “We’ve been through this already, Carrie.”
“I’ve asked you the question,” Carrie countered softly. “Over the phone after I learned about them from the attorney. But you didn’t answer me.”
“Have you come to see me after years of estrangement out of some bizarre need to understand how much I knew about the levels of your father’s betrayal?”
“I wouldn’t call it bizarre.”
Her mother breathed out a laugh, and something that might have been respect flashed in her eyes. How strange. Carrie had spent most of her life trying to make everyone around her happy and now that she was growing a proverbial pair, people seemed to like her more.
“Your father cheated on me many times during our marriage.” Vanessa’s fingers tightened on the cup. “Probably more often than I even knew. There were things I overlooked in order to make the marriage work or maybe because I didn’t want to see that part of him.” She shrugged. “I wanted the fairy tale and was enamored by his larger-than-life personality.”
“And the fame,” Carrie added softly. She expected her mother to argue but she only looked into her half-empty cup as if reading the tea leaves.
“We were a good match, or at least that’s what I told myself. He needed me because of who he wanted to be in the community. I could host parties and talk to wealthy clients and make him...” She waved her fingers as if searching for a word to pluck from the air.
“Respectable,” Carrie supplied.
Vanessa sighed. “We were a team for a time. But it became clear that the compromise needed to make a marriage work wasn’t what either of us wanted, especially as his ego took hits when the criticism of his talent began to outweigh his sales. That’s a long-winded non-answer to your question. I knew about the other women, but I never had a clue he’d fathered more children.”
“So you knew about Meredith’s mother?”
“Yes, although not when the affair happened. I found out later. Niall and I had a huge fight shortly before I left him.”