The Younger Wife(77)

Miles released his hands from Dad’s eyes, and he made eye contact with Tully. He lifted Miles off his shoulders, handed him to Sonny and then made his way towards her.

‘Hello, sweetie,’ he said. He took a seat at the table beside her. ‘How are you doing?’

‘Fine,’ she said. ‘It’s a lovely night.’

‘It sure is. And it will be a great day tomorrow. For the whole family.’ Dad smiled, but his eyes were cautious. ‘Speaking of family, I’ve been thinking . . . maybe we should bring Mum to the wedding tomorrow.’

‘My mum?’

He chuckled. ‘Well, my mum probably won’t be able to make it.’

A group of people walked past and Dad shook a few hands and patted a few backs. Then he returned his attention to Tully.

‘I don’t understand,’ Tully said. ‘Why would you want Mum at your wedding?’

‘I know it sounds strange, but I’ve talked about it with Heather and she agrees. Your mother is a part of this family. That didn’t change when we divorced. And you know how much your mum loves parties.’

Tully thought of last Christmas. Mum had just moved to the nursing home and it had been a shocker of a few months with her getting confused and agitated. But Christmas Day itself, Tully had to admit, had been a strange, but nice Christmas – made better by the fact that they’d eaten lunch in the dining room with the other residents, and when the music started, Mum danced. It was lovely to see her like that.

‘Maybe it’s selfish, my way of wanting to believe she’s happy for me, but I’d love to see her enjoying a party one last time.’

Tully shook her head. ‘It’s just such a strange idea, Dad.’

‘I agree. It’s totally bonkers. But so what? I think we need to give up on any idea of what is normal or expected. That horse bolted for this family long ago.’ Dad laughed and so did Tully, a little. ‘We need to do what feels right for us, for Mum, and for the family. That includes you. And so I’m asking you . . . would you like Mum there?’

Tully thought about it. Part of her liked the idea. Mum did love a party, and maybe having her there would make Dad’s remarriage seem like less of a betrayal.

‘I guess I’d be okay with it,’ Tully said eventually. ‘I don’t know if Rachel will feel the same though.’

‘You leave Rachel to me,’ Dad said with an air of confidence.

‘All right,’ Tully said. But she wasn’t sure his confidence was warranted.





56


RACHEL


Rachel and Darcy stood on the terrace, clutching their champagne glasses. It wasn’t, on reflection, the perfect meet-the-family occasion. Rachel actually felt as if she was at a fundraiser for a local pre-school or a work function. Sure, her dad was there, and Sonny and Tully and the boys. But the rest of the guests – mostly work colleagues of Dad and Heather – were strangers.

There were waiters circling with canapés, but they were few and far between. Heather had mentioned that there would be some ‘more substantial’ food later, whatever that meant. Normally, on a night such as this, Rachel would have found the lack of information about, and control over the food unbearable, but tonight she felt okay about it. She put part of it down to the man standing by her side, but the greater part, she knew, was the fact that she’d finally started talking about what happened to her – first to Darcy and then to Tully. She had a long way to go, but last week she’d even booked an appointment with a therapist to do some more talking about it. One day, with enough talking she might even be able to manage her feelings without food. If not, she was okay with that too.

‘Sorry, sweetie,’ Dad said, coming to stand by her side. ‘I haven’t had much of a chance to chat to you. This is for you, Darcy.’ He handed the other man a beer. ‘I’m so glad Rachel brought you along tonight.’

‘It’s great to be here,’ Darcy said.

Dad clinked his drink against Darcy’s. ‘So,’ he said, after taking a sip, ‘I understand you’re doing some work for Rachel?’

‘Yes,’ Darcy said. ‘I’m one of her delivery boys. Part of her conglomerate.’

Rachel restrained herself from jumping in to say that he’d actually run his own cafe and he’d just last week launched an Everything’s Better Toasted food truck, but she decided against it – partly because she didn’t want to apologise for Darcy, and partly because she knew Dad would have no issue with Darcy being ‘just a delivery man’. Dad was old-fashioned in some ways, but he wasn’t the type to get all ‘you’re not good enough for my daughter’. If Rachel liked him, that would be good enough for Dad. It was this kind of knowledge that made it so hard to reconcile herself to the idea that her dad was an abuser.

Over the past couple of months, she’d forced herself to consider the fact that she might have gone a little bit mad and created this idea that her dad was abusive from nothing. She’d vacillated between believing that yes, of course she’d only imagined it . . . and a little glimmer of fear that she’d been right all along. She’d also been forced to accept that, even after tracking down Fiona Arthur, she would probably never know what Mum’s money was for – if it was even for anything at all. If nothing else, she’d found out that Dad had been married before. Thanks for that little nugget, Mum.