“Then Dad should’ve cheated with Beatrice,” I said. “Call Hannah. I’m not keeping this to myself.”
They exchanged a glance. “You do it,” Mom said.
Half an hour later, my sister sat in Dad’s tiny living room, a look of horror on her face. “You made Beatrice leave,” she said to them both. “The best parent of the three of you, and you drove her away to another continent. Dad, I’d expect this of Mom, but you?”
“Hannah, really,” Mom said, looking bored. “Is that kind of passive-aggressive insult necessary?”
“I learned it at your knee, Mother,” she snapped. “Dad? Explain yourself.”
Dad was looking increasingly uncomfortable. Good. I felt a little betrayed myself, given that he’d crossed enemy lines. “Okay, girls, settle down,” he said. “Obviously, your mother and I have a . . . bond.”
“No, you don’t,” I said. “You can barely stay in the same room together.”
“I think we clearly proved you wrong on that point, Liliana,” Mom said.
“Gross! Stop it!”
“Anyway,” Dad said, “um . . . well, we, uh . . .”
“We ran into each other on the street a few months ago,” Mom said. “I told him he looked good. We started talking. The sparks were undeniable. Your father may be a Luddite, but he exudes animal magnetism.”
Hannah and I shuddered simultaneously. “Please,” I said. “Let something be sacred from our childhood, and let that be the hatred between the two of you.”
“?‘Hate’ is such a strong word,” Mom said. “We don’t exactly love each other, or even like each other, to be honest. Am I right, Pedro?”
“You are, Officer.” He raised an eyebrow at my mother.
“There were handcuffs, Hannah,” I said. “She was wearing a state trooper’s hat.”
“Don’t tell me these things!” Hannah said. “God, I need a bleach shower after this.”
“I can’t carry this alone,” I said. “And I’m taking a bleach shower right after you’re done.”
“Girls, stop acting like wounded tweens,” Mom said, and if she’d had a cigarette, she would’ve blown a stream of smoke into the air. “The sexual attraction between your father and me has never faded. We gave in to it.”
“And you broke Beatrice’s heart,” Hannah said. “You never deserved her, Mom. She could’ve done so much better.”
“And now she’s free to do so,” Mom said, ever unmoved where her daughters’ emotions were concerned.
“Hannah, let’s get out of here,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“Tomato,” Dad said to Hannah, pulling his best sad-dad face, “don’t be mad at your old man. I might not have many years left.”
“Because I might strangle you if you don’t stop talking,” Hannah said.
“Call me, Lillie,” Dad said, shifting his puppy eyes to me.
“No! I’m not going to!” I would, and probably tomorrow, but I had to show some solidarity with Hannah.
We left. Her hands were shaking, and her face was pale.
“Let’s see if the Mews has a table for us,” I said. “Your treat. I’ll drive so you can drink.”
A half hour later, we were seated on the lower level of the Mews, looking out over the choppy bay, the dark clouds hanging low on the horizon. Hannah was gulping down a martini with two kinds of vodka in it. I ordered us some food, since Hannah was shell-shocked and furious. Lots of food, because I was starving.
I took a sip of my water. “So . . . thoughts?”
“I want to kill them both. They put us through so much, Lils! They’ve been divorced for thirty-four years, never a civil word between them. Remember when you had to have them over in shifts on Dylan’s birthdays? Or when we’d have to make sure they didn’t sit within earshot of each other at his football games? All those miserable back-and-forth trips between the two houses, and now suddenly they’re screwing?”
“I know,” I said.
“Poor Beatrice,” she whispered, and tears slid down her cheeks. “I’m going to call her right now.”
“Maybe wait till tomorrow,” I suggested. “It’s late there, right?”
“Oh, yeah. Right.” She looked so miserable. “I can’t believe they were both . . . complicit. I mean, Mom is basically a reptile when it comes to morals, but Dad? Dad? Sleeping with a married woman?”
I winced. “Well, a married woman he was once married to . . . who cheated on him . . . with Beatrice . . .”
“No, Lillie! Save his defense for later.”
“Roger that.”
Our food arrived—I had ordered a bunch of appetizers and salad for both of us, since Hannah was in no state to think, and I got to work eating all this deliciousness Hannah was paying for.
“Here we are, in our forties, and our parents are still torturing us,” she said.
“I hate that Mom always comes out on top. Shit. Bad choice of words.” Because yes, Mom had been . . . Never mind. I shuddered.
“She’s like Voldemort, except there’s no Harry Potter,” Hannah said, her voice forlorn.
“You know what?” I said. “There is. You need a Dylan fix. Let me call him.” I pulled out my phone. “And obviously, say nothing about this. Let him cling to his innocence a little longer.”
There. I got her to smile. And fortunately, my wonderful son answered. “Hey, Mom!”
“Hi, honey, how are you?”
“I’m fine. Just laying around. What’s up?”
“Your auntie Hannah is having a rough day. We’re out at the Mews, drowning her sorrows. Want to say hi?”
“Of course.”
I passed the phone to my sister, and she brightened. “Hi, sweetheart. Oh, no, it’s . . . nothing.” She gave a slight dry heave. “What’s new with you? How much snow do you have?”
They chatted in their easy way, and I felt something move in my heart. Hannah and I might not have been close for many years, but she’d always been great to Dylan, taking him to Fenway, always giving him the best presents, swapping inside jokes (about me, probably, but hey). I was glad they had each other.
When she hung up, her eyes were wet. “Thank you,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said. “You’re paying. You gonna eat, or what? We need our strength.”
My sister smiled at me reluctantly. “I love you, Lillie,” she said.
I stopped chewing. “I love you, too, Han. Now order another drink, because yours is gone, and you have a designated driver. Maybe we should go see Filipe at the Crown and Anchor. Nothing like a drag show to cheer a person up.”
“He doesn’t perform in the winter.”
“Damn. Well. Another time, sis. We’ll make a date of it, how’s that?”
“Yes, Nurse,” she said. “Whatever you say.”
I asked Hannah to sleep over, but she had to give Thomasina some medicine and wanted to sleep in her own bed. She asked me if I’d like to stay there, but the snow was sticking now, and I figured I should get home. It would be a snug night, and I’d make a fire, have a glass of wine, curl up with my dog and google “hypnosis to erase traumatic images.”
The studio lights were off—Ben was in Boston, visiting his daughter, who’d come in for a friend’s wedding. I was glad he had another chance to see her. He didn’t talk about Reese much, but when he did, his face softened, and the pride and love were evident.
The snow was deep and heavy and would be a bear to shovel tomorrow. I made my way up the steps from the driveway and gave a start.
Ophelia sat on my steps, dressed in a parka and carrying a backpack. “Hi,” she said. “Can I hang out here for a little while?”
CHAPTER 30
Lillie
Hey!” I said. “What are you doing here, honey?”
“I took a walk.”
Pretty long walk, especially in the snow and dark. “Well, come on in. Have you been here long?”
“About an hour,” she said, brushing snow from the top of her parka.
“You must be freezing.”
A thousand questions ran through my mind, but first things first. Get the kid warmed up and settled. Zeus greeted her with utter delight that Mommy had brought home a friend.
“Teeny’s in my backpack,” Ophelia said. “Will your dog eat her?”