Chapter 3
M eghan came back to the apartment a few hours later.
She had gone to see a friend.
She came to find her mother in her study, and sat down heavily in a chair.
She looked exhausted.
They all did.
It had been a shocking morning for her and Will, and Oona was worried about them.
She had been worried about how they would take it, and they had weathered it better than she’d feared.
The part that made Charles look bad, and made him seem selfish and heartless, was his running off to Argentina with his new love, with seemingly very little concern for his kids and how they felt.
In his mind, they were adults now, and he had a right to his new life, and expected them to understand and even be supportive.
It was too much for him to ask, especially of his children.
“Wow, that was quite a morning,”
Meghan said.
“I never could have guessed that.
I didn’t see it coming.
He blindsided us.
Poor Will was a mess.
I can live with finding out Dad is gay.
It’s a lot harder for Will.
Dad is his role model and idol.
I think his running away with his boyfriend is shitty.
He should stick around for your sake at least.”
“For me, maybe it’s better this way,”
Oona said quietly.
“I would hate to run into them somewhere.
At least I won’t have to worry about that.”
“Are you going to divorce him, Mom?”
“I don’t know...maybe...probably, I guess.
I’m not ready for that yet.
But I don’t think he’ll come back from what he discovered about himself.
I don’t think we could ever make our marriage work again.
It’s less shocking for me than it is for you right now.
I’ve known for a month.
He told me the night you both left after Thanksgiving.”
She crossed the room to hug her daughter and sat down in the big cozy chair next to her.
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
Meghan asked her, feeling betrayed and disappointed by her father.
“I thought he had a right to tell you himself.”
“I nearly fell out of my chair when he said it,”
Meghan admitted.
“I guess shit like this happens, I just never thought it would happen to us.”
“Neither did I.”
Oona smiled at her.
“We’ll be okay.
He’ll come back to New York eventually, with or without Roberto, and you’ll be able to see him whenever you want.”
“I don’t want to meet Roberto,”
Meghan said angrily.
“You may feel differently in a few months, if he’s still around.
I hope he realizes how much your father has given up to be with him—our marriage, and possibly the respect of his kids, given how he handled it.
He’s stepping aside from his job while he’s in Argentina.
He told them he’d go into the office there.
I doubt that he’ll ever make CEO now.
Maybe he doesn’t care anymore.
He’s leaving them in the lurch.
That won’t sit well.
He’s putting everything on the line.
He must really love Roberto.
I don’t think he would ever have done all this for me.”
It was a harsh realization.
He was desperate to leave with Roberto now, and pursue the path he was on.
He had discovered passion late in the day.
It was nothing like the relationship Oona had had with him.
It had never been feverish and urgent like this, or even very sexual.
The sex had been satisfying enough, but never exciting.
Meghan and Oona spent the afternoon together and had dinner in the kitchen.
Will had texted both of them that he would be home late.
Oona waited up for him to make sure he was all right, after his father’s revelations.
She heard him come in, and Meghan was still awake.
He fumbled at the lock with his key, and Oona let him in.
He was dead drunk, barely able to stand up, and she helped him to his room as he mumbled that his father was a jerk.
Meghan came out of her room to help, and they got him onto his bed, took off the boots he was wearing, and left his clothes on.
It would have been too hard to undress him in the state he was in.
Oona lovingly covered him with a blanket and left a dim light on so he could find his way to the bathroom if he needed to.
He was passed out cold before they left the room, and he looked like he’d had a rough night.
At least no harm had come to him, and he was home.
Meghan kissed her mother good night, and they went to their rooms, and lay in their respective beds, thinking about the day, and Charles’s admissions to his children.
Oona wondered if he had any regrets.
He hadn’t communicated with her after he left.
Whatever comfort he needed now he would get from the man in his life and not from her. Her job as his wife was over. He belonged to Roberto now, and had for the past year.
Charles came to say goodbye to Will and Meghan four days later, before Will went back to California to spend New Year’s Eve with Heather.
He was relieved to leave and get back to her.
He needed more right now than his mother or sister could give him.
He wanted to sink into Heather’s arms, and forget everything that had happened in New York.
Heather could give him what comfort he needed better than his mother.
Every time he looked at his mother, he could see the pain in her eyes.
She was a strong woman and wanted to help them.
But Will hated his father every time he saw the devastation on Oona’s face.
He had told Heather about the trip to France in February, and she was excited to go.
He was going as a gesture of support for his mother, not because he wanted to.
He was doing it for her.
And having Heather with him would make it more fun for him.
Charles’s visit to say goodbye to them was short and awkward.
He and Will shook hands, and he hugged Meghan, and he reminded both of them that they could reach him in Argentina on his American cell phone.
Roberto had sublet his apartment for the year he was in New York, and it had been recently vacated.
They would be living there.
It was a simpler life than Charles was used to, and he said he didn’t care.
Roberto said the apartment was small, in a slightly rundown residential neighborhood.
Oona was out when Charles came to see them, and she preferred it that way.
She had made a point of not being there.
She didn’t need to say goodbye to him—they had said everything that needed to be said.
He had emailed her to tell her he was going to put a generous amount in her bank account every month and told her to spend what she needed.
He didn’t want to make any formal financial arrangements with her, as that would make it seem too final.
In the back of his mind, he thought he could come back if he wanted to.
Oona doubted that he would, but she already knew she wouldn’t let him come back to her.
She wasn’t ready to file for divorce, but she knew she would when she was ready to, whenever that was.
Until then, she had her own salary, and whatever he gave her.
All she needed now was to find her way to solid ground again.
She felt as though the world had collapsed under her feet.
She told Gail about the separation when she went back to work after New Year.
Gail was shocked when she told her.
She had always been sure that their marriage was rock solid and would last forever.
“I thought so too,”
Oona said with a sigh, but she looked better than she had before Christmas.
She felt more like herself again.
It was beginning to sink in.
“If you had told me he would figure out that he was gay and fall in love with a man, I would never have believed you,”
Oona said.
“I guess it happens that way sometimes,”
Gail said, still stunned by everything Oona had told her.
Oona’s news was rapidly eclipsed by the news the next day that the acquisition of Shipsted and Breck publishers by Hargrove was definite.
The deal had been signed.
They would be merging the two publishing houses in the next two months, and by March, they would be making room for new members of the staff, inherited from S and B.
It was inevitable that some members of the old Hargrove staff would have to go, but Oona was assured by the CEO that her imprint was safe, as an iconic part of the house they were proud of, just as Gail had said.
“I’m glad I’ll be away when the initial transitions start to happen.
Everyone is going to be panicked.
I’ll be in France then, and by a month later when I get back, things should have settled down a little.”
“Yeah, if I haven’t been fired by then,”
Gail said glumly.
“You’re as safe as I am,”
Oona reassured her.
It was anyone’s guess who would have to go, but at least both of them were secure in their jobs.
A merger always meant a lot of management and policy changes, which would take months for operations to run smoothly again.
They weren’t looking forward to it.
At the end of January, Meghan secured the job of her dreams with a paid internship in the children’s section of a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya.
They had a population of close to two hundred thousand refugees in the camp, mostly Ethiopians and Somalis, many of them children.
They were desperate for more workers at the camp.
They were willing to wait for her until the end of February.
She had to start getting her vaccinations immediately, and she would be trained on the ground when she got there.
She was going to spend a week with her mother at the house in France, and fly straight from there to Nairobi, and then by chartered flight to Kakuma.
Meghan was thrilled with the job they described.
It was exactly what she wanted.
The United Nations Refugee Agency, where she had applied, had hired her.
Oona was happy for her but concerned for her safety.
They told Meghan that conditions there were relatively safe for the workers.
And the camp workers’ housing areas were well guarded, and respected by the local government.
That reassured Oona somewhat, and Meghan couldn’t wait to go after her week in France.
Meghan and Will had both heard from their father by then.
It was summer in Argentina, and he loved it.
Meghan told him about the job in an email and he congratulated her and told her he was very proud of her.
The words felt empty to her.
He seemed like a phantom father to her now.
He was pursuing his own dreams, and not involved in her life.
He was too far away to call regularly, and too self-involved.
It was all about him.
They were reading about a serious flu epidemic in China by then, but there was no sign of it in Africa, so Meghan wasn’t concerned.
It appeared to be contained in China.
By the time Oona flew to France on Valentine’s Day, there were rumors of cases of the flu from China appearing in Italy, around Milan, among Chinese factory workers who had flown to China, and specifically Wuhan, to celebrate Chinese New Year.
But there were only ten cases in France, all people who had been to China, or had been in contact with them.
The cases in France had been detected three weeks before, and were in Bordeaux, only one in Paris, and a few in the Haute-Savoie.
Air France had suspended all flights to Mainland China two weeks earlier, except for a single daily flight to Beijing and Shanghai, and they had stopped all service to Wuhan, the hub of the flu epidemic in China, three weeks before Oona flew to France.
The situation appeared to be under control and Oona wasn’t worried.
China was a long way away, and ten cases of Covid did not constitute an epidemic in France.
Meghan and Will would be joining her a week later, and Oona was excited to see the house she had rented for a month.
She hoped it would be as beautiful as it was in the photographs.
It had a fascinating history and had been built for the favorite mistress of the French king whose country chateau was nearby, in Milly-la-Forêt, an hour outside Paris.
There were said to be underground tunnels leading directly to the chateau when the house was built.
The king’s chateau had been burned and destroyed during the French Revolution, but the mistress’s house, named “La Belle Florence”
after her, was still intact, 230 years later, and full of charm.
The young mistress was said to have died a mysterious death, and the house had been in the hands of numerous owners in the two centuries since it was built.
La Belle Florence was a 230-year-old very large house with eight main bedrooms, but it was not unmanageably large and had looked gracious and elegant in the photographs.
It had been impeccably restored with all modern conveniences and beautifully decorated by the family in Hong Kong that currently owned it, but seldom used it, and rented the property out to carefully screened renters.
The month there had been Oona’s anniversary gift to Charles, and he had been thrilled when she told him about it.
That was irrelevant now.
After the shock of the last three months, being there alone didn’t seem daunting to her now.
She needed the break and wanted to get away.
There was a definite feminine feel to it, which the current owners had maintained.
And the broker had told her that there were several fairly large chateaux in the area, but they were not related to the mistress’s house.
One of the chateaux now belonged to a famous British film producer.
He lent it to friends occasionally.
By comparison, the mistress’s house that Oona had rented looked like a little jewel.
The week she was planning to spend there with her children would be the last time the three of them would be together for many months, since after that Will would be in San Francisco, Meghan in Africa, and Oona in New York.
Charles was in Argentina now. They were spread all over the world. She wanted everything about Will and Meghan’s stay to be perfect, to add a happy memory to the recent unhappy ones that she knew had marked both her children, just as the end of her twenty-five-year marriage had marked her. They needed some good times now to boost their spirits and put balm on the wounds inflicted by Charles.
Oona was planning to spend the first week there getting settled and exploring the area, so she would know where to take Meghan, Will, and Heather when they arrived.
There were some quaint small restaurants in the area, a famous church, and another well-known chateau farther away with exceptionally beautiful gardens.
And La Belle Florence had exquisite gardens as well.
It was still winter, but there were walks one could take on the grounds.
Oona had been assured that the house was well heated.
There was a daily housekeeper who came with the house, and they were going to try the local bistros.
The young people were only staying for a week, and Oona would have two weeks there alone after they left.
It was only an hour outside Paris, and there was a car service available if they wanted to go into the city, which she was more likely to do after they left—Will didn’t enjoy shopping or museums, and Meghan was going to a place where she would wear only rough clothes for the next year, so she had nothing to shop for.
Oona was planning to save her day trip to Paris for when she was alone.
It was mainly a time for the family to enjoy being together, and she was glad they were willing to come.
And there was plenty to see in the area of historical interest to keep them busy.
She had a few emails from Charles the first week she was in France, telling her he was sorry he wasn’t there.
It seemed simpler not to respond, since his saying that seemed hypocritical in the circumstances.
She was sure he had no regrets, and if he did, she didn’t want to know about them.
As soon as Oona saw the house, she had none herself.
It was even more beautiful than the photographs she had seen when she rented it.
It was in immaculate condition, and all the historical details had been respected and restored according to the original plans.
The Hong Kong family and their architects and decorators had done a beautiful job with it.
It was an elegant home, in the midst of lush countryside despite the winter landscape.
The gardens were impeccably kept by a fleet of gardeners, and there were stables with half a dozen horses if she wanted to ride.
She knew that Will and Meghan would enjoy the horses.
The bedrooms were big and comfortable.
The kitchen looked antique but was in fact ultramodern, and the house had been decorated with high-quality furniture of the period.
She loved everything about the house and smiled broadly as she walked from room to room.
She couldn’t wait for her children to see it.
She told Meghan about it on the phone.
“It is gorgeous,”
Oona said, delighted after she had completed her tour of the house and the grounds.
The broker had been there to meet her and show her everything—there was even an excellent stereo system, and a movie theater in the basement.
She tried not to think about it, but Charles would have loved it.
There was a well-stocked wine cellar for her use, with a locked section with the owner’s exceptional wines.
But what was there was more than adequate for her, and she had no one to entertain there after her children left.
She described it all to Meghan, who was happy to hear her mother so enthusiastic.
She had FaceTimed Meghan to show her some of the details, and Oona didn’t stop smiling for the entire call.
She had barely seen her mother for three months, and she sounded like herself again, once she’d seen the house.
She looked genuinely happy.
“Be careful while you’re there though, Mom,”
Meghan warned her, “the virus seems to have migrated from China to Europe and is wandering around.
They think it’s in the States now too.
There have been cases in California, brought in by people traveling from Asia, and some cases in New York, possibly from Europe.
I heard it on the news this morning.”
“There’s no one on the property except us, and the housekeeper who comes every day.
There are gardeners outside, tending the gardens, which are dormant, and two men in the stable for the horses, but we won’t see anyone unless we go to Paris, or some of the local restaurants, which the broker said we should try.
Some of them are excellent, but we have everything we need here at the house.
We don’t have to go out at all if we don’t want to.”
“It sounds fantastic, Mom.”
Meghan was happy for her mother, and Oona sent Will a text as soon as she and Meghan hung up.
She told him to bring boots he could ride in.
She knew he’d love the horses.
There was a big swimming pool out of sight as well, and tennis courts.
The owners had modernized it in just the right way, unobtrusively, and Oona was surprised they seldom used it, but the broker said they had a larger home in Switzerland as well, which they preferred, a house in London, and an apartment in Paris.
She said they had bought La Belle Florence more for its charm and history, which the owner’s wife loved, but her husband was happier at their home in Switzerland.
The mistress’s house was more intimate, but too small for the large entourage the owners traveled with, and there wasn’t enough room for their staff, who came from Hong Kong with them in their private jet.
It was just an additional home they liked to own but seldom used, and Oona couldn’t help thinking how fortunate they were to own something like it.
She wished she could stay longer but had to get back to work.
She had four weeks off and intended to enjoy every minute.
The housekeeper, Marie, had left dinner for her.
There were all the local delicacies.
There was an excellent paté, some sausages, a chicken she had kindly roasted for her, lettuce for a salad, pasta in the cupboard if she wanted it, and local herbs—the area was famous for its aromatic and medicinal herbs.
Marie had also left an assortment of fruit juices, local bread, some cheese from a nearby dairy, and an espresso machine Oona wasn’t sure how to use, which the broker said made cappuccino.
Her children were going to love it, and she couldn’t wait for them to come.
By the time they arrived, Oona had explored the area with one of the stable hands to guide her, and he had pointed out all the best places to go and taken her to a local market where she bought all the things she thought Meghan and Will would enjoy.
Her French was limited but adequate for her to ask prices and speak to the vendors.
The stable hand had given her a map of the area.
They arrived on separate flights from San Francisco and New York, and Meghan was the first to arrive, on an overnight flight that landed her at Charles de Gaulle at seven o’clock in the morning.
With the hour’s drive after she claimed her luggage, it was nine A.M.
when Oona heard the car that she had ordered to pick her up come up the driveway.
Meghan was bringing with her everything she needed for Africa packed into an enormous backpack and two big duffel bags.
She looked sleepy when she arrived after the night flight and had dozed in the car, and Oona was standing in the driveway to greet her, in a knitted cap, jeans, boots, and a heavy jacket.
It was a cold, sunny February morning, and Oona was beaming when she saw her daughter and hugged her as soon as she got out of the car.
Meghan hadn’t seen her look that happy in months as they walked into the house together and Meghan looked around, stunned by the beautiful rooms that were elegant but warm and inviting.
The fabrics were lovely and historically accurate, and the art on the walls was impressive.
The housekeeper had lit a fire in the living room for additional warmth, and Oona walked Meghan upstairs to her bedroom, while one of the stable hands brought up her luggage and set it down in the bedroom Oona had chosen for her.
It was all done in delicate pink silks with a big down comforter on the four-poster bed.
Meghan grinned as soon as she saw it.
“This is amazing. It’s even prettier than you said.”
“I love it. I want to stay forever,”
Oona said happily, and showed her the even larger bedroom she had chosen for Will, since he would be sharing it with Heather, and it looked a little more masculine than Meghan’s pink room.
His had blue and yellow striped satin curtains and upholstery, and slightly larger-scale furniture.
Meghan went back to her own room to wash her face and hands and take off her jacket, and walked down to the kitchen with her mother, where Marie, the friendly housekeeper who spoke a little English, had coffee ready for them, and a basket of warm croissants and local pastries, with a bowl of fresh fruit on the table.
“You’re going to ruin me for life in a refugee camp, Mom,”
Meghan said with a grin as she sat down at the table, helped herself to a croissant, and sipped the coffee, while Oona had a cappuccino and enjoyed her daughter’s company.
Will wasn’t expected until noon, and after breakfast Oona walked Meghan around the grounds, and they visited the stable before going back to the house.
“This is magical,”
Meghan said, and Oona agreed with her.
“I was terrified it would turn out to be awful, and we’d hate it here.
Now I wish I could stay longer.”
“Why don’t you, Mom?”
“I can’t, especially with the new merger.
They’re all nervous wrecks at the office.
I need to go back and set a good example.”
Meghan’s face clouded as her mother said it.
“It doesn’t seem fair that Dad turned your life upside down, and he’s going to spend the next six months working part-time in Argentina, going to the office when he feels like it, and you have to go back to work.”
“He’s on a sabbatical. I’m not,”
her mother answered.
It annoyed Meghan that he had no responsibilities now, and could play around in Argentina with his boyfriend, and her mother had to go back to a job and an empty apartment, with both her children far away.
They both knew that Oona was going to be lonely when she went back to New York.
She and Charles hadn’t spent a lot of time together in recent years, but he was there, someone to come home to, and in her bed every night.
He was a live human to talk to, and to be there if she was tired, lonely, or sick.
She wouldn’t have that now, or even her children in the same city.
Oona was acutely aware of it.
She hadn’t lived alone for twenty-five years, except for the few weeks just now between Thanksgiving and Christmas, until Meghan got home.
Now she would be going home to a dark, empty apartment every night.
Oona tried not to think about it.
She had this exquisite house in the meantime, for the next three weeks, and then real life and the reality of her current situation would hit her.
Meghan hated the thought of it for her, and the fact that both she and Will would be so far away.
But she knew that Oona was resourceful and not one to feel sorry for herself, and she would keep busy. It seemed so unfair that her mother was going to be alone, and her father would be having all the fun with the romance that hit their life like a bomb. Her mother would be the one to pay the price for it, although she had done nothing wrong. Every time Meghan thought of it, she was furious at her father. He was changing his whole identity at fifty-nine, and her mother had to go on alone, and reinvent her life.
Will’s plane was slightly delayed, and he and Heather arrived at one-thirty, which was four-thirty in the morning for them, but after a look around their bedroom, they were wide awake and sat down to a hearty lunch with Meghan and their mother in the kitchen.
The formal dining room had a table that seated twenty, with a beautiful antique crystal chandelier.
Heather looked slightly intimidated, but Meghan admitted to her mother later that she liked her more than she’d expected to.
She had assumed she would be some pushy woman who was taking advantage of Will, and instead she was a nice girl from Salt Lake City who had gone to UCLA.
She seemed very knowledgeable about art, and looked carefully at all the paintings in the house, admiring them, and thanked Oona profusely for allowing her to come.
She seemed like a nice person and was crazy about Will, and the three of them went riding that afternoon, while Oona organized dinner.
Heather had brought several books with her about the historical sights to see in the area.
She had a long list of chateaux she showed Oona, and they chose Chateau de la Bonde, a thirteenth-century castle, to visit the next day, and the fifteenth-century covered market in the town square.
Supposedly one could find treasures from several centuries there.
It was frequented by Parisian antique dealers and sounded like a fun adventure for the four of them.
That night, after their long flights the night before, they all went to bed early, and planned to use the movie theater the following night.
The owners had an entire library of movies, most of them British, so there were lots of films for them to enjoy.
Oona made breakfast for all of them the next morning, and Chateau de la Bonde, with two towers and a beautiful stone bridge, was well worth the visit.
They had lunch at a local restaurant, and then went on to a nearby antique market they had read about, and they each found something to take home.
Meghan discovered some Bakelite jewelry she loved that she could wear on special occasions in Africa, Heather bought a stack of old books, which she collected, and Will was delighted with a nineteenth-century military cap that fit him perfectly.
Oona found a set of tortoiseshell toiletry articles for her dressing table at home, and Heather bought a vintage leather jacket.
They returned to the house with their treasures, and sat by the fire, drinking cappuccino, which Will had figured out how to make and was delicious.
He put some music on the stereo and they all felt at home.
Oona was relieved to see Will back to his old self, despite his father’s revelations of two months before.
Heather fit in perfectly.
She had brought some games with her to add to the party, which they played after dinner, and then went to watch a movie in the very comfortable movie theater.
Meghan giggled at how much fun it all was, and Will delighted in telling embarrassing stories about their childhood.
Heather came from a family with five children, and said she was enjoying being with Will, Meghan, and Oona.
She missed her siblings a lot, living in San Francisco, and she said she couldn’t believe how lucky she was to be there with Will and his family.
She had never been to Europe before, and she’d been reading about French art before the trip.
It gave Oona the idea that maybe they should go into the city after all, and she arranged for a car the next day, and asked the car service if they could get them tickets for the Louvre, which they said they would do.
As it turned out, the trip to Paris was one of the high points of their holiday.
They started at the Louvre, which thrilled Heather, and she had tears in her eyes when she saw the Mona Lisa.
Oona treated them to lunch at the Bar Vend?me at The Ritz nearby.
They walked around the Place Vend?me, visited the Bon Marché, an elegant department store, and went to the food hall and bought all kinds of things they wanted to eat, and then drove to the Place de la Concorde, and up the Champs-élysées to the Arc de Triomphe, got out to take some photographs, and drove back to Milly-la-Forêt in time to make dinner with many of the special items they had bought at the Bon Marché.
They made a delicious dinner together and sat talking for a long time about other trips they’d taken as children, to England and Italy, and Spain.
Oona and Charles had loved traveling with their children, and Heather was in awe of the experiences they had shared.
It seemed like part of a different life now that their father had embarked on an entirely new life, which no longer included them.
Heather was aware of the drastic changes Will’s father had made, and the impact it had on all of them.
It was different now, having met Will’s mother and sister, and she suddenly realized how deeply it had affected each of them, and not just Will, when his father admitted to being gay and announced that he was moving to Argentina for six months.
For the time being at least, he had abandoned all of them for his adventure in Argentina with the man he was in love with.
It was a lot for all of them to absorb, and impossible not to feel betrayed.
Will had told her that his mother had rented the house in France to celebrate his parents’ twenty-fifth anniversary, and now they would probably be getting divorced instead.
Heather gave Oona a warm hug that night before they went upstairs and thanked her for including her on their family trip.
“I really like her,”
Oona commented to Meghan when she came to her bedroom a little while later.
“I do too,”
Meghan admitted.
“I thought I was going to hate her, since he had to transfer at work because of her.
But she’s nice, and he needs her right now.”
Their father’s change of life had hit him hard, maybe even harder than his sister, because his father had been his role model and hero all his life.
“I like that she’s from a big family.
She’s unassuming and very bright,”
Oona said of her.
“It’s too bad he met her now.
He’s too young to take her too seriously.
At twenty-seven, she’s closer to settling down than he is at twenty-four.
I hope he doesn’t get married for a long time.
He’s too young to think about that now.”
“I don’t think he is.
They’re just having a nice time together, and she’s been kind to him after the whole mess with Dad.”
Will had said as much to his sister, and she could see that Heather had a very nurturing side, maybe from being the oldest of five siblings.
“I’m glad you let her come, Mom.
It means a lot to Will.”
“It turned out to be a very different trip from the one I planned, but I’m having a lot of fun with the three of you,”
Oona said with a gentle smile.
She’d had a terrific two days with them so far.
“So am I,”
Meghan said, hugged her mother and went back to her bedroom.
She smiled, looking around the room before she went to sleep.
She was going to be living a very different life a week from now, in a dormitory tent at the refugee camp in Kenya.
This was all going to seem like a dream to her then, but in the meantime, they were building another memory for the future, the first one without their father.
In her room, Oona was thinking the same thing.
From now on, everything would be “before Charles left”
and “after,”
and for the first time she realized that maybe the life they would lead “after Charles”
wouldn’t be so bad after all.
They were still a family and their stay at the mistress’s house would be the first of many new memories.
She didn’t know when she would be with both her children again, but they were all she needed now.
She didn’t need a new man in her life, nor want one.
Charles had caused her too much pain.
Will and Meghan were enough.
And for the very first time since Charles had told her he was leaving her, she knew now that she would be fine on her own.
She had survived the shock of losing him and she was still whole.