The Show Must Go On: A Stepmother Novel by Tereze Melissa

Author:Tereze, Melissa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: GPC Publishing
Published: 2023-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

With a heavy heart, Diane watched Hayley walking away from the coffee bar, her shoulders sagging further as she stopped and glanced back. Diane simply smiled, not willing to show Hayley her own emotions right now. She had to keep a sensible head, and she had to do what Hayley had asked of her. Then she could be on her way home to process all of this.

Because Diane knew exactly where this was going. Hayley’s mother wasn’t to blame for the years missed…Mike was. Diane felt it deep in the pit of her stomach.

When Hayley turned away again, Diane pulled her shoulders back and cleared the emotion lodged in her throat. While she had slight sympathy for Sheila, she wasn’t going to walk back into the bar and be a friend to her. Hayley was who mattered in this. She was Diane’s concern.

Okay. Do this and leave.

Diane stepped back inside the coffee bar, staring at Sheila’s back as she approached the table. She sat down, noting the tears in Sheila’s eyes. “Hayley has left. I’m sorry.”

“I’m surprised she agreed to meet with me at all, so I should be grateful for that alone.”

Diane nodded slowly, toying with her cup of lukewarm coffee. “Why are you here?”

“It was Erin who convinced me that it was time. She’s been incessant about all of this since she found out she has a sister.”

“So, you don’t actually want to be here?”

“I do. God, I really do. But I think you and I both know how much Hayley hates me. And yet, it was her decision for it to be this way. At least, that was the impression I was under.”

“I’m not going to discuss that with you while Hayley isn’t here. Any new information, she should hear it firsthand. She did want me to ask you why you initially left, though.”

Sheila smiled weakly. “It isn’t obvious already?”

“To me, it is, yes. But Hayley has tried to block everything out since you came to Ibiza. You—”

“Had an affair, yes.”

“Well, it worked in your favour judging by how happy and healthy you seem. And Erin, she’s lovely.”

“I wanted to take her with me, Diane.” Sheila’s voice broke, her bottom lip trembling. “She was my baby girl. She was all I had in those years with Mike.”

“Yet…you didn’t.”

“I couldn’t. He wouldn’t allow it. Mike threatened to end the pregnancy when he found out about Erin. Everything just…turned into a huge mess.”

Okay, that was too much information. Diane wasn’t going to listen to this. While she wanted to give Sheila the opportunity to tell her story, that would be with Hayley present. “Please, don’t say anymore. Hayley should hear this herself.”

“But she doesn’t want to hear it. You were married to him; you must know what he was like.”

“I only knew Mike for three years before he died. Granted, he was a miserable bastard…but he was never violent or abusive in any way.”

“I wasn’t the only one in the wrong. He’d had an affair a year before I fell pregnant.

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