The Guilt Trip(76)
They all fix false smiles on their faces, with the men already beginning to edge discreetly away so they don’t get caught up in whatever else she’s about to say.
“I mean it’s just breathtaking,” she goes on, looking out across the fuchsia cliffs as they descend into a sea of the same color. A full moon has now replaced the sun, but it’s the neon pink of lasers that’s reflected in the inky black water.
“It is,” agrees Rachel, at a loss for anything else to say.
“She so deserves this,” says Maria, as if to herself.
“I’m going to get another drink,” says Paige, curtly, obviously unable to listen to anyone singing Ali’s praises. Rachel’s going to find it hard to stomach as well if Maria intends to go down that line.
As Paige moves away, Maria turns to face Rachel and looks at her so intently that it makes Rachel shift her stance in an effort to snap her out of it.
“Please don’t hate her,” says Maria.
“Ex-cuse me?” says Rachel, unable to believe that Ali’s mother is in on this ridiculous charade as well. “Do you have any idea what she’s been doing?”
Maria nods. “She’s told me what’s going on and I’m sorry, I truly am, because you seem like such a nice person.”
“Mrs.…” starts Rachel.
“Please, call me Maria,” she says, putting her hand on Rachel’s arm. “It might not seem like it right now, but she’s only trying to do the right thing by you.”
Rachel looks at her through narrowed eyes, trying to put herself in her position as a mother. Without knowing what part of Ali’s catalog of deception Maria is alluding to, it’s hard to judge whether she’d try and make the same excuses for Josh if she had to. Does she know, for example, that her daughter has been essentially blackmailing her former boss? Trying to force him into a predicament that he doesn’t want to be in, or else she’ll tell his wife that it’s happening anyway? Does she know that now that Ali’s on the ropes, she’s accused another woman of having an affair with him? An allegation so potentially damaging that it could have a devastating effect on two families.
“No disrespect, but I don’t think you have any idea what your daughter is capable of.”
“You know,” says Maria, leaning in. “When I had my accident, if Alison hadn’t been there for me, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Rachel looks around, hoping for an escape opportunity to present itself. This woman is clearly as deluded as her daughter.
“When they got me into the hospital, I had a twenty percent chance of survival,” she goes on. “Unbeknownst to me, Alison had already been told that I had a hundred percent chance of losing my leg.”
The admission takes Rachel so by surprise that she can’t help but look at the two shins and sandalled feet that appear from below Maria’s long floral skirt.
“False,” she says, tapping on the prosthetic.
“I’m sorry,” says Rachel. “I didn’t realize.”
“As I say, if Alison hadn’t made the sacrifice that she did, I honestly wouldn’t be here now, so just know that whatever she does, it’s always from a good place.”
“Sacrifice?” asks Rachel, unable to help herself. “If she hadn’t been driving, you wouldn’t be in a wheelchair.”
Maria pulls her head back, her expression vexed with confusion. “Alison wasn’t driving,” she says. “I was.”
“But I thought…” starts Rachel. “I thought Chrissy said she’d found your accident hard to deal with because she blamed herself.”
Tears spring to Maria’s eyes. “Only because she called that night to ask me to pick her up from a party. I’d fallen asleep in front of the TV, so I was a bit disoriented when the phone rang. She could tell and told me she’d get a cab, so that I could go back to sleep. But I wasn’t having any of it.” She looks at Rachel and smiles. “The thing is, your children grow up so quickly that it’s just nice to be needed, even when they’re adults. And it wasn’t that late, so I didn’t think twice. But it was pouring rain outside and as we were coming back, a car came out of nowhere on the other side of the road and smashed straight into us.”
“So, it wasn’t Ali’s fault?” says Rachel, almost to herself.
“Of course not,” says Maria. “And it pains me that she still thinks it is. She couldn’t have done anything more for me if she’d tried. She stayed by my side, twenty-four-seven, for two years after my accident.”
Rachel feels her body swaying; it’s as if she’s outside, looking in. She has so many questions, but she’s afraid the answers are not going to be ones she wants to hear.
She pictures Ali’s résumé, with the two-year period she’d so readily allocated to “Serving at Her Majesty’s Pleasure,” being replaced by “Caring for Her Sick Mum.” It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, and it most certainly doesn’t fit in with the warped caricature of Ali that Rachel’s created in her head.
“So, she gave up work?” asks Rachel, her voice wavering.
Maria nods. “She was doing so well—her career was going like a train—but she packed it all in for me. That’s why I’m pleased she’s doing so well now—least of all, it makes me feel less guilty for holding her up. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.”