Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
The front door slammed, and she jumped at the resounding bang. She clenched her eyes closed and ground her back teeth together, instantly regretting ever giving her mother a key to her place.
The tap-tap-tap of expensive heels drew closer to the living room, and Adalyn pasted on a smile. She pushed to her feet just as her mother breezed into the room, looking elegant as ever.
“Hi, darling.” Evelyn Lowell-Vale-Carrick-Ronstadt graced her with her signature aloof smile.
“Hello, Evelyn.”
She couldn’t remember a single time when her mother hadn’t been Evelyn to her. Never mother, definitely not mom or mama. Just… Evelyn.
She loved her mother, she really did, but Evelyn was a force to be reckoned with.
She operated under the policy that everything was her way or the highway.
The only things that mattered to her were image and money—and lots of it.
She’d cultivated both over the past several decades, moving up the ranks from husband to husband.
For a brief period of time when she was younger, Evelyn had been a nurse.
It was at the hospital where she’d worked that she met Adalyn’s father, Lyle Vale, an esteemed surgeon.
Their marriage had fallen apart when Adalyn was only six, and Evelyn had immediately moved on to investment banker David Carrick.
She’d put in a whole twelve years with him before things began to decline.
Adalyn had a feeling her mother had met someone else, but she never said as much. When she was twenty, Evelyn married Roy Ronstadt, the lawyer who’d presided over her divorce from husband number two. That had lasted barely two years, bringing the grand total up to three marriages.
For the past year and a half, she’d been dating someone new—a man whose name Adalyn couldn’t remember—and she assumed wedding bells wouldn’t be far away. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she cringed. Her mother wasn’t a bad person, exactly. She just… wasn’t good at being alone.
Ironically, she wasn’t good at relationships either—not with any of her husbands, and not with her only child. Personally, Adalyn thought her mother needed the security of money and social status more than she needed someone who cared about her.
Evelyn was always far more interested in herself than anyone else, and Adalyn thought a huge part of her regretted having her.
Hence Adalyn calling her Evelyn—she never wanted to acknowledge that she was actually old enough to be a mother.
She’d resisted any real involvement in Adalyn’s life, instead hiring a nanny to look after her during her early years.
It had been a point of contention between Lyle and her, and it was a huge part of why he’d left her.
Not that he’d had time for Adalyn, either.
Lyle spent every waking moment of Adalyn’s youth trying to establish his practice, and he had little time for a child or wife.
But they rounded out the image he desired, and Evelyn reaped the benefits while she could.
Unfortunately, the fighting over Evelyn spending money unnecessarily still rang in Adalyn’s ears to this day.
Why would her mother hire someone to look after her when she herself didn’t work?
She’d quit nursing the moment they’d tied the knot.
After having Adalyn, she’d pawned her off on a caretaker, gotten back into shape and, consequently, the dating pool.
Evelyn was all about image. She was a beautiful woman, and she knew it.
But that didn’t stop her from seeking constant reinforcement from anyone and everyone who would give it to her.
She was a shameless flirt, but her husbands had allowed it because she made the ideal trophy wife.
She looked pretty on their arms and, after cultivating relationships with the upper crust for years, she had plenty of connections.
Adalyn couldn’t remember the last time she’d spoken with her father.
Last she’d heard, he was also on wife number three, who was just a year older than Adalyn, and they were having the time of their lives traveling Europe.
Both of her parents were self-absorbed serial daters, concerned with only themselves.
Was it really any wonder Adalyn was so jaded?
Yeah, she sold women the gowns of their dreams, but she didn’t really envision that for herself.
She’d had a good dose of the realities of marriage.
Maybe she just wasn’t cut out to settle down and marry and be happy.
She hadn’t exactly had the best role models.
If she ever did marry again, for real this time—and that was a big if—then it would be only for love.
She couldn’t stand the thought of jumping from partner to partner in search of the biggest bank account. Jaclyn was the only bright spot in her life, despite the grief Evelyn had given her when she’d found out about her botched Vegas wedding and fatherless child.
In the heat of the moment, Adalyn hadn’t fully considered the ramifications of having unprotected sex, something she’d always been incredibly diligent about.
She’d scheduled a test once she’d arrived home to make sure she hadn’t contracted anything, but it had come with a huge surprise.
Her hormones must have still been in flux because it was evident she was pregnant just a few weeks after she returned home from Vegas.
She’d stopped taking birth control when Shawn and she became engaged, then resumed as soon as they’d split. Regardless of Evelyn’s feelings on the subject, Adalyn couldn’t bring herself to regret getting pregnant. She loved that little girl with all her heart.
She waited a beat, irritation pulling at her.
Figured that her mother would show up now, just before bedtime.
It was her MO, after all. She’d stay for ten minutes, just long enough to take a handful of pictures of Jaclyn, deliver some passive-aggressive insults Adalyn’s way, then escape.
God forbid should she actually spend some quality time with her granddaughter, Adalyn thought bitterly.
She bit her tongue, trying desperately to tamp down her incredibly uncharitable thoughts, and pasted on a smile. “What brings you here, Evelyn?”
Evelyn waved airily. “I hadn’t talked to you for a while. I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
A tight smile lifted the corners of Adalyn’s lips. “We’re fine. Just getting ready for bed in a minute.”
“I figured. I just wanted to bring a few things by for Jaclyn.” She turned to the little girl, her voice several octaves higher. “Look what Mimi brought.”
Only by the strictest measure of control did Adalyn manage to not roll her eyes at the ridiculous nickname. At least Evelyn hadn’t insisted on being called Aunt Evelyn. She opened the large bag slung over her forearm and produced several toys and frilly dresses.
“She’s not even one, Evelyn. She doesn’t need all that stuff.”
“Come now,” her mother chided as she held a ruffled pink dress up to Jaclyn’s tiny body. “I like to spoil her.”
Adalyn refrained from saying anything because refuting the statement would be pointless.
Evelyn only knew how to buy happiness and love.
It was a shame, really, that her mother was too blind to see what was right in front of her.
Children didn’t need to be bought. They offered love and affection unconditionally.
But Adalyn knew better. After fifty years on this earth, her mother wasn’t likely to change anytime soon—or ever.
She shook off her irritation and tried to swallow her bad attitude.
She hated feeling indebted to anyone, even if it was just her mother—especially if it was her mother.
Because Evelyn never did anything out of the goodness of her heart.
No, there had to be an ulterior motive. Adalyn just needed to find out what it was. “How have you been, Mother?”
Her mother’s eyes flashed with irritation. “Wonderful. How’s your little shop?”
Whether she meant it or not, Adalyn heard the thread of condescension in her mother’s voice, and it set her teeth on edge.
Nothing was ever good enough for Evelyn.
It was the exact same reason she’d tried to pawn Adalyn off on Shawn several years ago.
He’d been exceptionally good-looking, not to mention the fact that he was now partner at a prestigious law firm.
Adalyn was proud of what she’d accomplished all by herself, regardless of the fact that her mother constantly made her wishes known that she should hand the reins over to someone else.
It baffled her sometimes, her mother’s attitude toward the workforce.
She herself had been a nurse—but that had only been a means to an end.
Evelyn should really have never reproduced. She wasn’t maternal in the least, and Adalyn sometimes wondered how she’d managed to turn out as normal as she had. Not that she was catch of the year—far from it. But she at least wanted more… attainable things out of life.
She wanted to be happy and healthy. If she made a little money along the way, great. Her bridal salon would never bring in millions of dollars, but it made her happy to help women find the dress of their dreams, and that was enough for her.
Evelyn still scorned the situation and offered her opinions freely.
Adalyn, for the most part, gritted her teeth and bore it.
She wanted Jaclyn to know her only close relative, and she couldn’t bring herself to turn her mother away.
If Evelyn had her way, Adalyn would be married off already to give the impression of a happy little family, regardless of her feelings on the matter.
To her mother, everything was for show. She had to have the best clothes, drive the nicest cars, and she had to project the image of the perfect family—even if what lay beneath the surface was more than murky.