18. Melanie
As the family chatter droned on around her, Melanie smiled into her wine glass.
Petrus van der Beek wanted her to represent him.
A Booker Prize-winning author had sought her out and asked her to potentially represent him.
It was incredible. She wanted to shout and scream and jump up and down.
But everyone was so muted. No one seemed to care.
Ross was jealous. Frank and Jamie were happy for her, but they didn’t really get the significance of one of the most gifted authors in the world seeking her out.
Nancy got it, but Nancy was never going to jump up and down.
Melanie knew that she was pleased, but her mother-in-law would never over-praise her.
Nancy was the boss and Melanie was now bringing in more income than she was.
Melanie reckoned Nancy was beginning to feel threatened by her success.
Before, Melanie had been driven by a need to succeed for herself and to cover Frank’s lack of success, but now …
Now she was on a whole new level. She was already being inundated with calls from authors after Sloane’s big win, but once she bagged Petrus, she’d be snowed under.
She was now, by her own reckoning, one of the top agents in Europe.
But no matter what she achieved, she would always be Nancy’s subordinate, an employee of the Fitzroy Agency.
She studied her mother-in-law and noticed she had aged.
She looked frail. There was no way she could continue to run the agency as before.
Someone needed to lead from the front and the natural successor was her.
But then there were Ross and Jamie … and now Lucy, for God’s sake.
Melanie would always be a non-blood relative.
Nothing would ever change that, and it meant she needed to figure out how to protect herself and her future.
She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Katie’s. ‘Earth to Melanie, would you like some birthday cake?’
‘Sure.’ She held out her plate.
‘A big slice for your big news. Congratulations.’ Katie lowered her voice. ‘Poor old Ross is turning green with jealousy.’
Melanie smiled at her sister-in-law. Katie was always generous and supportive. It was one of the many reasons the twins adored their aunt.
Katie handed out plates and when she leant over to give Nancy hers, the plate tipped and the cake fell onto her mother-in-law’s lap.
‘Oops.’ Katie giggled. ‘Sorry, Nancy.’
Nancy was not amused.
‘Oh, no! Let me help.’ Amanda jumped up and began to pick the cake out of Nancy’s lap.
‘Leave it! You’re making it worse.’
Crikey, that was rude, Melanie thought.
‘She’s just trying to help, Mum.’ Ross frowned.
‘Get me a cloth,’ Nancy barked, at no one in particular.
Jamie moved first and handed her a tea towel.
Nancy tried to mop up the chocolate cake as the icing spread across her cream skirt.
Melanie was about to tell her that it needed a specialist dry-clean, when Katie suddenly snapped her fingers and said, ‘I know! White wine! That’s supposed to get stains out.
’ Before anyone could stop her, Katie picked up Jamie’s half-drunk glass of wine and tipped it into Nancy’s lap.
‘Mum!’ Lucy gasped.
‘OMG!’ The twins snorted.
‘Babe!’
Amanda’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘What are you doing?’
Melanie’s attention was fully back to the lunch now. She tried not to laugh. It was an absurd situation, with everyone looking at Nancy in horror.
‘What? I saw it on TikTok. It works,’ Katie told them. She began to rub the icing and wine mixture into Nancy’s skirt, which made everything a lot worse. ‘Uhm, okay, so it doesn’t seem to be working.’ She giggled. ‘Sorry, Nancy. I’ll go and grab you a tracksuit to put on.’
Nancy slapped Katie’s hand away. ‘Don’t touch me, you stupid fool.’
‘Granny!’ Lucy said, her eyes wide.
‘Just trying to help, Nancy,’ Katie said. Nancy was on thin ice here.
Nancy glared at Katie. ‘But you’re not helping. You’re just making things worse, as usual. Perhaps if you spent less time on TikTok, you wouldn’t make so many stupid mistakes all the time.’
‘Hang on now, Mum …’ Jamie tried to defend his wife, but clearly Nancy had touched a nerve because Katie’s face turned bright red and her whole body reared up.
Visibly shaking, Katie bent down and hissed at her mother-in-law, ‘Why do you always have to be such a poisonous bitch ?’
Jesus Christ! Had Katie actually called Nancy a ‘poisonous bitch’? Melanie was shocked.
Everyone was staring at Katie, who was locked in a glaring match with Nancy.
This was bad, Melanie thought. The twins had their hands over their mouths, to stop themselves laughing.
Theo, who was standing beside Melanie, looked up from his phone.
‘She’s not wrong,’ he muttered, under his breath.
It didn’t sound like he was Nancy’s greatest fan.
‘KATIE!’ Jamie’s voice broke through the shocked silence.
Katie shrugged. ‘She is. She treats everyone like dirt and I’m sick of it.’
‘Stop it, Mum.’ Lucy began to cry. ‘Granny is the best.’
Melanie watched as Katie wavered.
‘How dare you speak to my mother like that?’ Ross bellowed. Just like him to overreact, Melanie thought. He certainly wasn’t helping the situation.
Frank stepped between Katie and Nancy. ‘Hey, let’s all take a breath. Things have got heated. No one meant to insult anyone. Accidents can cause strong reactions.’
‘Apologize at once,’ Ross demanded.
‘Leave it, Ross.’ Jamie’s voice was shaking with anger.
Melanie knew she shouldn’t but she was kind of enjoying this.
She respected Nancy and was grateful she had hired her, but her mother-in-law could be a domineering cow at times.
She had always been dismissive of Katie, and she was rude to Amanda.
You could only push people around for so long and Melanie wasn’t surprised Katie had blown up.
Mind you, if someone had spilt chocolate cake all over her skirt and thrown wine on top, she’d have been pretty annoyed too.
But this wasn’t about the skirt. This was years of pent-up resentment coming to the surface.
The problem was, how the hell did you come back from calling your mother-in-law a poisonous bitch? Was it even possible?
‘Take me home, Ross. I’m not staying another second in this house,’ Nancy barked. Her eldest son jumped up to help her and handed his mother her crutch.
‘Why is everyone cross, Daddy?’ Toby asked.
‘Just a silly fight over the spilt cake. Don’t worry.’ Jamie ruffled his son’s hair.
Silly fight? More like a family implosion.
Nancy, helped by Ross, stormed out of the room.
‘Oh, my God, Auntie Katie, you’re mad!’ Janis squealed, when the kitchen door closed behind them.
‘Mental, but also – go you!’ Joni gushed.
‘You went too far.’ Jamie was not happy.
Katie said nothing.
‘Mum, why did you shout at Granny? She’s got a sore leg.’ Lucy’s voice shook with emotion.
Melanie felt sorry for her niece. Lucy adored Nancy and she was clearly upset about the argument. It was one thing to fall out with Nancy, quite another for Katie to burn bridges with her daughter.
Katie sighed. ‘She’s … I just … I’ve had enough of her snapping at me, Lucy. It’s been going on for a long time.’
‘I think you’re the snappy one.’ Lucy ran out after her grandmother.
Theo put his phone into his pocket, and said, ‘I think you described her perfectly.’
‘Theo!’ Amanda spun around. ‘Your grandmother is very good to us. Don’t be mean about her.’
Frank went over to Katie and put an arm around her. ‘I think everyone needs to cool off. Don’t forget that the best relationships are the ones that can survive arguments.’
Although Frank drove Melanie nuts a lot of the time, he was a good man. She could see how grateful Katie was to have his support.
Lucy came back into the room and stood, red-faced, in front of her mother. ‘Granny is furious and so is Uncle Ross. He said you’re a bad example to me.’
‘Whoa, stop right there.’ Jamie held his hand up. ‘Ross had no right to say that. You have a great mother. He is bang out of order.’
‘Leave it,’ Katie said, trying to take Jamie’s hand, but he shook her off.
‘ROSS!’ he roared, as he charged out of the room.
They all looked at one another. Then Melanie jumped up and ran outside. The others followed her.
Ross was standing at the door of the car. Nancy was sitting in the passenger seat.
‘Whatever happened in there, you have no right to criticize my wife in front of our daughter.’
Ross sneered at him. ‘So it’s okay for your wife to insult our mother? You just stood by while Katie cursed at our mother. You need to grow a pair of balls, Jamie. Your wife is a basket case.’
‘Fuck you.’ Jamie pushed Ross.
Ross pushed back.
They began to tussle aggressively.
Nancy shouted, ‘STOP!’
Frank jumped in and pulled Jamie away from Ross. ‘Come on, the kids are watching, cop yourselves on.’
‘Stop fighting, Dad.’ Lucy began to cry again.
‘It’s okay, sweetie. They’re just a bit cross,’ Frank said.
‘It’s all your fault, Mum,’ Lucy wailed, as Katie’s face fell.
‘This is the maddest kids’ party I’ve ever been at,’ Joni said.
Melanie shot her a warning look.
‘Let’s all calm down,’ Frank said. ‘Ross, drive Mum home. Everyone needs to take a beat before anyone says anything else they’ll regret.’
‘I so wish I’d got a video of that,’ Janis said.
‘Me too,’ Theo agreed. ‘It was intense.’
‘Not now,’ Melanie said quietly, to both of them.
Frank stood in front of Jamie. ‘Come on, we’re a family. Let’s sleep on it and chat in the morning.’
‘Into the car. We’re leaving,’ Ross snapped at Amanda and Theo. Melanie felt sorry for Amanda, going home with a hyped-up Ross and a furious Nancy. But, to her surprise, Amanda shook her head.
‘You go on, love,’ she said to Theo. ‘I’ll stay and help clear up here.’
‘Seriously?’ Ross said. He looked furious.
‘Yes,’ Amanda said. She turned on her heel and walked back towards the house.
Wow! Melanie thought. So she does have a spine. Good for her.
Ross climbed into the car, slammed the door and drove off at speed.
Jamie stormed back into the house, followed by Katie, who looked pale and shaken.
Melanie and Frank looked at one another, and Melanie nodded towards Lucy, who was still standing on the path, crying as though her little heart was breaking.
‘Hey, Lucy.’ Frank bent down and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks. ‘All families argue, sweetheart. This will blow over. Don’t worry.’
‘Really, Uncle Frank?’
‘Absolutely, pet. I promise you.’
The twins made an aww sound. Lucy went back inside.
‘Dad is so kind,’ Janis said.
‘So nice,’ Joni agreed.
‘It’s a good thing he married you, Mum, or people would probably walk all over him,’ Janis said.
Was that a compliment?
‘Totally. He needed a tough, hard wife,’ Joni agreed.
‘Gee, thanks.’
Janis nudged her mother. ‘Tough and hard in a good way.’
‘Yeah, in, like, a don’t-mess-with-me way. It’s a good thing.’
Melanie smiled. It was so rare that her daughters ever did anything but complain to or about her. She’d take this as a compliment.
‘Do you think Granny will forgive Auntie Katie?’ Joni asked Melanie.
Melanie reckoned hell would freeze over first, but she didn’t want her daughters to worry about a family feud so she lied.
‘I’m sure in time, when Nancy cools off and Katie apologizes, it’ll be fine.
We’re all tied together by the agency, so we have to forgive and forget.
’ She smiled at them. ‘Why don’t you go home with your dad and watch a movie?
You all need to decompress after that. I’ll help the others with the tidy-up. ’
‘Thanks, love,’ Frank said. ‘A bit of decompression sounds good. Come on, girls. You choose the movie. I’m at your mercy. See you later.’
Melanie watched them walk away, then headed back into the kitchen where Amanda was stuffing paper plates and cutlery into a black sack. Katie was scraping leftovers into the food bin. Melanie opened the dishwasher and started stacking it.
Jamie walked in, dressed in running gear.
‘I’m going out. Clear my head,’ he said.
Katie nodded. ‘You do that, babe. I’m sorry.’
Jamie didn’t reply. He just headed off, sticking in his earbuds. He clearly needed to let off some steam.
Katie took Toby and Lucy to bed while Melanie and Amanda put everything back the way it had been. When Katie came down, she smiled at them.
‘Right, that’s enough cleaning. Thank you both so much. Let’s have a drink. I need one.’
‘Me too,’ Amanda said.
‘Me three,’ Melanie added.
The three women sat up at the kitchen counter. Katie poured them all large glasses of wine.
Melanie reckoned Katie had had enough wine for the day, but they were all shaken up, so a glass was welcome, and she wasn’t going to start lecturing her now.
Katie sighed. ‘I’ve fucked up royally, haven’t I?’
‘I’m sure if you apologize on bended knee she may forgive you.’ Amanda sipped her wine.
Melanie decided to be blunt. ‘You’re dead to her now.’
‘Jeez, Melanie, give it to me straight, why don’t you?’ Katie laughed. There was a hint of bitterness and regret in the laugh.
Melanie didn’t see the point in lying to Katie. Her sister-in-law knew she had blown it with Nancy. You can’t call someone a poisonous bitch – least of all your mother-in-law – and expect things to be okay afterwards. Nancy was never, ever going to forget it.
Katie sighed. ‘The thing is, I don’t care if Nancy never speaks to me again. In fact I’d welcome it. But Jamie’s angry and, worst of all, I’ve upset Lucy. As much as I dislike Nancy, I don’t want to destroy Lucy’s relationship with her.’
‘You won’t,’ Melanie reassured her. ‘Nancy adores Lucy and she isn’t going to let your argument affect that. She can go through Jamie to contact Lucy.’
Katie’s eyes welled with tears. ‘Do you think Jamie will be okay with me?’
Amanda squeezed her hand. ‘Of course he will.’
‘Jamie adores you and he knows Nancy is difficult. I think it’s Ross he’s really annoyed with,’ Melanie said.
Amanda shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. ‘Ross overstepped. He was … he is very wound up. I can only apologize for him. It was a rotten thing to say.’
‘Thanks, but just as Jamie has no control over what comes out of my big mouth, you have no control over what comes out of Ross’s either.’
Melanie admired Katie’s response. She was immediately separating Amanda from Ross’s nasty comment.
‘Oh, God, girls, what have I done!’ Katie covered her face with her hands and gave in to the tears.
You’ve blown it, Melanie thought. Nancy would take this insult to the grave.