Whispering in French by Sophia Nash

Author:Sophia Nash
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Her eyes large with shock, Lily flew through the front door just as I descended the stairs to go to les halles to buy vegetables. She came to an abrupt stop when she saw me—her chest heaving, her eyes accusing.

“What’s going on?” I reached for two baskets at the door.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Her anger pulsed in waves.

“Tell you what?”

“That you’re selling Madeleine Marie. Why didn’t you tell me?” Lily paused. “Why? You never tell me anything. You never do anything! And now you are. Why this? Why now? Why haven’t you mentioned this to me?”

“I honestly thought you wouldn’t care, Lily,” I said softly and tried to stroke her cheek.

She pulled back out of reach. “Well maybe I do care. Did you ever think of that? You’ve told me about this place my whole life,” she said.

I carefully replaced the baskets to their spot near the door. “I’m sorry. More sorry than I can say. But we can come back to visit anytime we want. I found a nice cottage for Jean and—”

“What is wrong with you? Of course I care. This place is the coolest ever.”

I could see the storm of emotions roiling within her, and I prepared for the blast. The curtains were closing on my reactions and a sense of calm washed over me. At a certain point, I’ve learned, you can withstand everything with a smile.

“You should have divorced Dad a long time ago and made a real home for us like this one. But you didn’t. You just made us live there in that house of hell.”

I swallowed. “I made a huge mistake, a very bad judgment call, and I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I wish I could rewrite what happened, but I can’t.”

“It was awful, Mom,” she said slowly.

“Lily, I stayed because I wanted to protect you. I wasn’t sure I’d get full custody. I didn’t want to take that risk.”

“That’s the problem with you, Mom. You never ever take risks.”

“I won’t take a risk when the potential loss is too great.”

“Yeah, well, you lost me.”

“I almost did,” I said quietly. “I made a nearly fatal mistake that will always haunt me.”

“And now you’re doing it again. You’re refusing to take a risk. You’re refusing to try to save Madeleine Marie.”

“Who told you this?”

“Your uncle Jean-Michel. He’s in the garden. I met him when he drove up. He said he’s come to take one long last look around. When I asked why, he said you were selling the villa and I ran inside to ask you if it was true.”

“Lily, you have no idea the impossibility of keeping a villa going like this. There’s no money to do it. If I could, I would.”

“Really? You can’t figure out a way? Well, I think you can, but you just don’t want to be bothered. You just want to tuck everyone into their neat little boxes, including me, and go back to the States.”

A small part of me was thrilled that she was challenging me.

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