“Yes, he is,” Page went on doggedly, suddenly determined to make her believe it.
“All women think things like that from time to time. You're overwrought with this problem with Allyson.” Problem? You mean like the fact that she's been in a coma for three weeks and might die? Oh that problem.…”You know, your father and I had our little arguments at times too, but they never amounted to anything serious. You just have to be a little more understanding.” Page stood staring at her mother then, unable to believe what she was hearing. She was willing not to discuss what had happened in their family, but she was not willing to pretend it had never happened.
“I can't believe what you're saying,” Page said hoarsely.
“It's true …hard as it is to believe, your father and I had our difficult moments.”
“Mom, this is me …Page … do you remember what we went through?”
“I have no idea what you're talking about.” Her mother turned away and started to leave the kitchen.
“Don't do this to me!” Page said, crying as she looked at her. “Don't you dare do this to me after all these years, with your pious, holier-than-thou lies …! Little problems.' Do you remember who you were married to? …what he did for all those years? How can you say that to me! Look at me dammit!”
Her mother turned slowly and stared at her blankly, as though she were unable to understand what had gotten into her daughter. Brad had just come in from the garden then, and he saw them, and the look on Page's face, and instinctively knew what had happened.
“Maybe you two should discuss this some other time,” he said quietly, and Page turned to him in fury.
“Don't you tell me what to do and what not to do, you sonofabitch. You're out f*cking your brains out night and day, and now you want me to take this shit too? I'm not going to let her do this to me anymore.” She turned back to her mother then. “You can't play these games with me …you let him do what he did! You helped him! You let him into my room and locked the door, and told me I had to make Daddy happy … I was thirteen years old! Thirteen! And you made me sleep with my father! And Alexis was only too happy to turn her back on me, because he'd been doing it to her since she was twelve, and she was happy it was me and not her anymore! How dare you try and pretend that didn't happen! You're lucky I let you in my front door and I'm willing to see you.”
Maribelle looked at her, deathly pale, and Brad could see that she was shaking. “Those are terrible accusations, Page, and you know they're not true. Your father would never have done a thing like that.”
“He did and so did you, and you know it.” She turned away from them then, with her back to them, and sobbed, but Brad didn't dare approach her. She turned back to face her mother then with a look of outrage. “I spent years trying to get over it, trying to heal myself of what you'd done …and I could have lived with your telling me how sorry you were, how terrible you felt …but how can you try to pretend it never happened?”
Alexis wandered into the kitchen with absolutely no idea of what was going on. She had been calling David from her bedroom.
“Do you mind making me some camomile?” she asked Page sweetly, who let out a groan of disbelief as she leaned against the counter.
“I don't believe you. The two of you. You've spent so many years hiding from the truth that you can't face anything. You can't even open a f*cking bottle of water for yourself. How can you live like that? How can you do this to yourselves?”
Alexis looked suddenly terrified as she looked around at them. “I'm sorry …I …never mind …”
“Here!” Page tossed a bottle of Evian at her and she caught it. “Mom was just telling me how Daddy never f*cked either of us when we were kids. Remember that, Alex? Or have you had a memory lapse too? Remember when you shoved me at him so he wouldn't do it to you anymore? Remember that?” She looked at both of them miserably. “He did it until I was sixteen and threatened to call the police on him, which neither of you would ever have had the courage to do. How could you do that for him? How could you help him?” She was sobbing by then. “I could never understand that.” Especially once she had children, and Brad felt sick listening to her. He knew about it, but he had never heard her talk about it so bluntly, or confront them with it.
“How could you say a thing like that?” Alexis looked terrified. “Daddy was a doctor.”