Exile
Prologue
DARWYNN
My mother was a provocative witch.
No, let me try that again.
My mother was a narcissistic bitch.
“Arrogant asshole. And how rude was he toward that poor woman? She was just doing her job.”
I stared at my mother as she sat on the couch, her arms crossed over her chest and her head tipped back in the most stuck-up way.
“Her job was to ask questions, not to insult him on live TV!”
I argued, pointing at the television in front of us. “She crossed the line. I would’ve reacted the same way.”
“Of course, you would’ve. You don’t see the bigger picture, and you don’t have your emotions under control.”
Raising a brow, I wondered if my mother had gone mad or if I had just skillfully ignored her cruel behavior all these years.
I ignored the comment about my emotions. “Are you serious? What bigger picture? Your father has just been insulted on live television! God, what is wrong with you?”
Mom looked at me with emotionless eyes.
Seemed like she had no emotions at all.
“Since when do you care about him?”
“I don’t.”
Admittedly, I didn’t care about anyone the past couple of months. But that didn’t mean I was a heartless bitch who wouldn’t stand up for the people who were being wronged.
“But he’s your father, and all he has done is explain himself because he wanted to be honest about everything that happened. The whole world has been lying about him, and you’re now sitting here, stabbing him in the back because, what, you’re still mad at him for not coming to that one Christmas dinner twenty years ago?”
She snorted and shook her head, muttering something under her breath.
“What was that?”
I asked, tilting my head to the side to say I didn’t hear her.
“I said, your grandfather is a selfish prick.”
“Uh-huh, you’ve been the perfect daughter, right?”
I crossed my arms with a heavy sigh.
“What is going on here?”
Rolling my eyes, I turned my head to look at Dale.
I didn’t like Dale, nor did I dislike him. He was just…Dale.
Mom’s boyfriend.
Vegan.
Animal lover.
Cactus fanatic.
Just. Dale.
“My daughter is becoming my father.”
She got up and threw the remote his way. “Rewind. Watch the interview, and you'll agree that he has overreacted.”
Dale looked lost.
I sighed. “Grandpa—Caspian King—did a live interview about the things that happened during the filming of his newest movie, and the interviewer was blatantly rude and disrespectful, so he lashed out. And Mom thinks he was the disrespectful one.”
“Is he okay?”
Dale asked sincerely. He looked concerned.
“Are you seriously taking their side?”
Mom asked, her eyes wild. “My father is a monster!”
Damn.
I never knew my grandfather, who happened to be a Hollywood actor. Well, he did say he would retire after what happened on that movie set. Either way, I didn’t know him—not really. I only knew what I saw of him on TV.
“Julie, slow down.”
Dale held up his hands, with one still holding the remote. “I’m not taking anyone’s side. I just think interviewers can be intentionally cruel when they want to get a reaction out of a famous person.”
Thank God Dale wasn’t stupid.
Well, stupid enough to fall in love with someone like Mom.
“I don’t care what the interviewer’s intentions were. I care about the way my father reacted. Do you have any idea how bad I look now?”
I raised a brow. “Sorry?”
Stepping closer to her, I pointed at the TV again. “Who the fuck cares about you? You haven’t spoken to Grandpa in years. You never wanted anything to do with him or his career. Nobody even remembers he has a daughter, let alone a family. God, Mom, you’re such a—”
“All right, we need to step back here and take a deep breath.”
Dale’s crooked smile told me how uncomfortable he was. Mom and I fought a lot, and he was often caught in the middle. Not because we pulled him into our arguments but because he was always there.
I threw my hands into the air and turned away. “Gladly.”
“He chose to push us away,”
Mom stated.
I stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
Yes, he did choose to push away his family, according to Mom, but I never believed that he did it out of spite. I believed that as a damn Hollywood star, he was simply too busy. He started acting at seven years old and was in hundreds of movies since then, and the older he got, the more famous he became.
Besides, my grandmother was never in the picture either—at least not in mine. She was an actress, too. She got pregnant with my mom and aunt, raised them until they were eighteen, and then she disappeared from the face of the earth.
We were never a functioning family anyway.
My father was never around, either. I didn’t even know who the hell he was. Mom never talked about him, and her sister lived in Amsterdam.
Like me, my aunt didn’t get along with Mom.
Maybe I should move to Europe.
I’ve always wanted to go to Finland. And Italy.
Switzerland and Hungary.
Didn’t matter, honestly, as long as I got a break from my life here.
I closed my eyes tightly and took a deep breath before looking back at Mom. “I need a break from you.”
She furrowed her brows. “What are you saying, Wynnie?”
“I’m saying, I’m going on a trip.”
I was twenty-one. Still lived at home, and I had no fucking clue what I wanted to do with my life. I had finished college a year early, and ever since, I had been working at a bank’s front desk. It wasn’t my dream job, though it paid well enough to keep me motivated to get up every morning, but I’ve had enough of that job now, too.
I’ve had enough of Burlington, Vermont.
“That sounds lovely. Where do you plan on going?”
Dale was more understanding and supportive than Mom, but then, he had no say in my life.
“I have no fucking clue,”
I sighed, shrugging. “Canada, maybe.”
“Canada is a beautiful country. I have a book about it if you want to read through it. It might help you decide where you want to go.”
“I can just google it. But, thanks, Dale.”
I gave him a tight smile before shooting another glance at Mom. I had so much more to say to her but kept my mouth shut.
I went to my room, grabbed my laptop, and started researching.
I needed to breathe fresh air.
Needed to see new things.
And, most of all, I needed to find myself.