Twenty-two
Gill stared at her daughter’s name, too stunned to answer. Her first thought was that something had happened to Freya, and this was a friend or medico calling to tell her. Her stomach lurched as she pressed to accept the call, her hand suddenly slick with sweat.
‘Hello?’
‘Is that you, Mum? You sound strange.’
Gill’s heartbeat returned to normal at the sound of her daughter’s familiar voice. ‘I’m fine, just a dental procedure,’ she lied again. ‘It’s so good to hear your voice. What…’ But before she could say anymore, Freya was speaking again.
‘Have you heard what Dad’s done now?’ she said.
Gill flinched. Freya had been incommunicado for years and now, in her first phone call, she wanted to talk about Max. To which of his many offences was she referring?
Freya didn’t give her time to wonder. ‘He’s taken up with a woman who’s no older than me… and she’s pregnant.’
If Freya hadn’t sounded so outraged, Gill would have laughed. Max hadn’t been much help first time around, when Freya was a baby, preferring to leave all the hard work to Gill. How was he going to cope with an infant in his fifties? But it was news to her. Maybe this was the reason he’d become more demanding. A younger partner and the prospect of a child would certainly stretch his finances.
‘What about me?’ Freya wailed.
Gill suddenly understood her daughter’s fury. She’d always been her dad’s little girl, his favourite. With another child on the horizon, she’d be forced to share his love and attention.
‘Mum? Why don’t you say something?’ Freya demanded.
‘What do you want me to say? I’m the last person to defend your dad after all we’ve been through… are still going through.’ Gill thought of her decision to give in to his demands. Maybe she’d been too hasty. He’d kept very quiet about this new relationship, the pregnancy.
‘You’re still married?’
‘We are, but not for much longer.’ Hopefully.
‘Can I come home, Mum?’
Gill’s heart leapt. This was the last thing she’d expected. It was years since Freya had left Australia to take up a place in a doctoral program at a university in California, promising to come home regularly. Then Max had left, Freya had accepted a teaching position in the university, and any communication with Gill had dried up.
‘With Dad doing this… it’s made me realise that perhaps I’ve been unfair to you. I thought… I thought it was all your fault. Dad said… Anyway, I want to see you. My contract here is up soon. I can take a break, find something else, maybe in Australia.’
Gill swallowed. She’d wanted this to happen for so long, but not in this way, not because Freya was upset with Max. But she’d take what she could get if it meant seeing her daughter again. ‘I’d love to see you, sweetheart,’ she said, tears coming to her eyes at the thought of having Freya back home.
‘And I can’t wait to see you, Mum. I’ll let you know when I’ve booked my flight.’
‘Wonderful. I love you, darling.’
‘I love you too, Mum… and I’m sorry.’ Freya ended the call.
Gill didn’t need to ask what Freya was sorry for. Remembering all the unanswered calls and texts, she knew. But it didn’t matter. Her daughter was coming home.
*
Gill clutched the silent phone wondering if she’d imagined the conversation. She’d dreamt about it so often. Now it had actually happened. She should have predicted Max’s choices would eventually catch up with him and alienate their daughter. Freya had always put Max on a pedestal, assumed she’d always be his blue-eyed girl. Gill could understand how the thought she’d have to share him would anger her. Although she didn’t endorse Freya’s need to be her dad’s number one, she did empathise with the girl who had always been the apple of her dad’s eye.
She gazed around the apartment. Freya had never lived here, in the apartment she and Max had bought when Freya left for university and which they’d furnished in an austere Scandinavian style. It had suited them, and Gill still loved its clean lines. It always made her feel good when she returned home from a busy day at the office, or when she received yet another demand from Max via her solicitor. Freya had only spent the odd weekend there, preferring to remain in the city or go off somewhere with her university friends on the holidays. Then she’d accepted the position in the States, and she’d been lost to Gill… until now.
Well, it was an ill wind, as Gill’s mother would have said. And this one, Max’s unthinking new relationship and the prospect of him becoming a father again, had resulted in Freya reaching out to her mother. For a brief moment, Gill wondered how he felt about this pregnancy, then the thought passed. It was none of her business. Her heart hardened reversing her earlier decision about Max. She certainly didn’t intend to be forced to sell her apartment to fund his new family.
Meanwhile, she had Freya’s arrival to look forward to. She couldn’t wait. Maybe she could arrange her diary to enable her to spend quality time with her daughter.
She thought back to their conversation. There had been something in Freya’s voice, something more than the anger with her dad. Gill had the impression something else had happened to unsettle her daughter, something completely unrelated to Max and his relationship. And she intended to find out what it was.