The Vineyard at Painted Moon - Susan Mallery Page 0,52

much as wondering when she would experience the last time she could say this was her family. Because this was the only family she had in the world, and when she and Rhys were divorced, she would be completely on her own. And then who would she be?

thirteen

Stephanie spent a couple of days watching Avery without seeming to watch her. Not an easy trick, considering Avery was a sixteen-year-old and, by nature, suspicious of her mother. But at the family dinner, Avery had overheard her asking Mackenzie if she was doing all right and had wanted to know what was wrong. Stephanie wondered if she’d done the right thing in telling the girl. Was Avery mature enough to handle the information?

Things seemed to go fine until Sunday morning when Stephanie knocked on her daughter’s bedroom door. Whatever else was going on in their lives, she always made a big breakfast with whatever the kids wanted.

“Avery, sweetie, I’m going to make breakfast. What do you want? Pancakes and bacon? An omelet?”

“Nothing. Go away.”

Normally the rude response would have made Stephanie bristle, but there was something in her daughter’s tone that made her open the door and step inside.

Summer sunlight spilled into the room, illuminating the unmade bed and clothes tossed everywhere. But what actually caught her attention was the sight of her daughter curled up on the floor, in a far corner of the room.

Stephanie rushed to her, sinking down to her knees and reaching for her.

“What happened? Are you sick? Did someone hurt you?”

Avery pushed her away and sat up on her own. “I’m fine. Leave me alone.” Tears poured down her cheeks as she spoke. Her eyes were red, her face pale. “I don’t want to talk about it. Go away.”

Stephanie ignored all that and pulled her daughter close. Avery resisted for a second, then sagged against her. Tears turned into sobs, shaking her body with their intensity.

Stephanie hung on, rubbing her back, waiting out the storm. She was fairly sure her daughter wasn’t sick, which left heartache or something much worse. Rape crossed her mind, but she pushed the thought aside. She would wait to find out what was wrong before she freaked out.

After a few minutes, Avery straightened. “Alexander slept with Bettina. He said he had to because I wouldn’t sleep with him so I can’t be upset because it’s my fault. That made me mad so I broke up with him. Then he got mad at me and said I’m a stupid, immature little girl and he’s done wasting his time with me.”

Instead of screaming and then getting in her car to go beat up the boy in question, Stephanie forced herself to stay where she was.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “Boys can be real jerks. You did the right thing. I’m so proud of you, sweetie. I know it hurts so much. I know you feel sick inside and you’re questioning everything you said and did, but you are so strong.”

Avery nodded, then grabbed a box of tissues from the desk. “I had to be, you know? I wasn’t going to let him treat me the way you let Daddy treat you.”

The statement was made so casually, in such a normal tone, that Stephanie didn’t get it at first.

“What are you talking about?”

Avery wiped her face. “Dad’s cheating. I’ve known, Mom, for a while now. About all the stuff he did.”

She blew her nose. “I talked to him about it. He told me he’d been wrong and that I should never let a guy do to me what he did to you. That he made mistakes, but you suffered for them.”

Stephanie was so incredibly grateful she was sitting on the floor—otherwise she would have collapsed in a heap. Shock and shame and horror swept through her.

“I never knew why you and Dad split up, but when I found out about the cheating, it made sense. I didn’t tell Carson. He doesn’t want to know about stuff like that.” Avery’s eyes filled with tears. “When Alexander told me what he did, I felt so awful. Like he’d betrayed everything we’d had, even as he tried to make it my fault. I knew then it was over, that I had to be strong. I wasn’t going to do what you did and stick around.”

The words were earnest and guileless, Stephanie thought, fighting the need to run as far and as fast as she could manage. Avery wasn’t trying to hurt her—she was explaining the situation from her point