Chapter Six #2
There had been a massive argument, and she had fallen out with Drew’s wife, the impossibly perfect Rosalyn.
She was homesick and desperate to come home.
Or … worst of all, absolutely the very worst of all, someone had done something unspeakably vile to her precious daughter!
‘I thought you should know,’ Emily said, her voice barely recognisable, it was so thick with emotion. ‘It’s Dad, he’s …’ Her voice wobbled and broke off.
Yes! thought Cassie. The veil had at last been lifted and the real man had been revealed.
‘Tell me, darling, what’s happened, what’s he done?’
Emily shook her head and kept on shaking it, her lower lip trembling. ‘It’s not what he’s done,’ she said, ‘it’s … there was an accident … and … he’s in intensive care but they don’t know if he’s going to make—’ Her words were swallowed up by an enormous shuddering sob.
Her distress tore at Cassie’s heart. ‘Take a breath, Ems,’ she said, desperately wishing she could put her arms around her daughter and comfort her.
‘It was a car accident,’ Emily said at length, her voice still shaky.
‘He was driving back from Abu Dhabi last night … it was raining, and people always joke that they don’t know how to drive here in the rain because it hardly ever does.
And that’s when it happened. It was a lorry.
A witness said it lost control and drove straight into Dad’s car. ’
Filled with heart-pounding relief that Emily hadn’t been in the car with Drew, Cassie said, ‘Was anyone with him?’
‘He was on his own. Rosalyn and Finlay were at home with me. I was with her when the police came to the house with the news. Oh, Mum, it’s just too awful. I can’t believe he might die.’
Cassie couldn’t believe it either. ‘It’s too soon to know for sure,’ she said, wanting to ease the pain her daughter was feeling. ‘Your father’s tough, he’ll make it.’
‘You’re just saying that to make me feel better. What you’re really thinking is that you’re glad he’s going to die!’
‘Ems!’ Cassie cried out. ‘That’s a dreadful thing to say.’
‘But it’s true, isn’t it? All my life you’ve never once said anything good about him so why wouldn’t you be pleased?’
As stunned as she was by the accusation, Cassie knew that her daughter was in shock and was merely lashing out as an emotional release. ‘Ems,’ Cassie said gently, ‘you’re saying things I know you don’t really mean, it’s the shock. Now is there anything I can do to help?’
Sniffing loudly, Emily thrust the palms of her hands against her bloodshot eyes and rubbed them hard.
She then looked back at Cassie, her expression so bleak it made Cassie want to insist that she take the next flight home.
Come home so I can look after you and make all this pain go away for you.
It was what any mother would want, to have their child close so they could be wrapped in love and protected from anything that could harm them.
‘There’s nothing you can do,’ Emily said flatly.
‘If it all gets too much, you only have to say. And if you want to come—’
‘Don’t say it, Mum! Don’t you dare suggest I fly home. I’m staying right here where Rosalyn needs me.’
Hearing those words from her daughter was a direct strike to her jealously possessive heart.
She should be proud of Emily caring so much for a woman she barely knew, a woman Cassie had mentally mocked as a fool for having thrown in her lot with a lying, cheating man like Drew, but to her shame she couldn’t do it.
‘Of course,’ she forced herself to say, ‘I understand completely. All I was going to say was, if things become too difficult, I’m here for you. Ben too.’
‘Well, I’m here for Rosalyn,’ Emily said, with what sounded like defiance, ‘because if Dad dies, she’s going to need me. She’s already in a terrible state.’
‘What about her family? Can’t her parents be there with her?’
‘They don’t get on. Anyway, I’m her family, aren’t I?’
Another strike to her jealous heart. ‘But there must be others there in Dubai who can help,’ Cassie said. It’s not your job, she wanted to add. ‘Aren’t there friends there to support her? And didn’t you say there’s live-in help, a Sri Lankan maid?’
‘She needs more than just practical help, Mum. She needs emotional support.’
But you’re just a child! Cassie wanted to say. You need emotional support too, and I’m the one who’s always done that for you!
‘You should be pleased that Emily is being so caring,’ Ben said in bed that night.
With her head resting on his chest and listening to the soothing rhythmic beat of his heart, Cassie said, ‘I’m trying to be, but I’m fighting against years of resentment, and I’m only too aware how pathetic I sound and that it casts me in a bad light.’
‘Hey, I’m not judging you.’
‘You don’t need to; I can do that all on my own.’
‘You’re always so hard on yourself.’
‘And you,’ she said, lifting her head from his chest and kissing him, ‘are far too good for me.’
‘Can you put that in writing, please?’
She smiled. ‘Only if you’ll always say the right things at the right time.’
‘I’ll do my best, but no promises.’
‘Then promise me this, you’ll stop me from becoming any worse than I already am.’
He kissed her long and hard. Then, ‘Enough with the misplaced self-hate,’ he said, moving his hands in slow, sensuous movements, his intent clear.
She welcomed it, wanting to lose herself in their lovemaking, to forget that somewhere in a hospital thousands of miles away, the man who had caused her so much pain, but had helped create their beautiful daughter, was now fighting for his life.
She should feel something for Drew, but she didn’t.
What she did feel was a profound sense of fierce love for Emily and for what she was going through.
However it had happened, the girl had connected with her biological father and just as she had made that connection, it looked like she was about to lose him.
Would she ever get over that? And would she always blame Cassie for not trying harder to bring her and her father together when she was a child?