by Karly Lane
‘Your father’s in the office. Why don’t you go get him and I’ll put the jug on.’
Hadley smiled gratefully, before turning to head down the long hallway towards the office. Chewing her lip anxiously, she paused outside the doorway before knocking and sticking her head inside the room. ‘Mum said to get you. She’s got the jug on.’ Chicken, a little voice taunted inside her head. She didn’t care, she’d made the first step and now she needed to prepare for the final one.
‘Hadley’s got some news,’ her mother said as Bob came into the kitchen a few moments later. She saw the small look that passed between her parents and felt a sting in her eyes. She’d wanted that. She’d wanted to have that bond married couples had—the one where a single look could say everything that needed saying. She wouldn’t experience that now.
As her mother placed their cups in front of them at the kitchen table, Hadley swallowed nervously and stared down into the murky depths of the coffee, praying for the words to come that she needed.
‘Mum, Dad,’ she started, before looking up reluctantly, ‘there’s something I need to tell you, before you hear it … somewhere else. It’s about Mitch and me.’ She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. ‘He’s left me.’
‘What!’ Bob practically roared.
‘Well, it was kind of mutual. He’s moved out and we’re getting a divorce.’
‘Oh, darling,’ her mother breathed, placing a smooth hand on Hadley’s wrist. ‘Why? What happened?’
Here it was. The why. ‘He was having an affair.’
‘That bastard,’ her father snarled.
‘Now, Robert,’ her mother cautioned, although Hadley could see it was taking an enormous amount of strength to control her own emotions, ‘we need to remain calm. When did all this happen?’
‘We actually broke up not long after I left here last time.’
‘I knew something was wrong. You weren’t yourself at all during that visit and then you left so suddenly—I knew it wasn’t because of work.’ A frown creased between her mother’s brows and she squeezed Hadley’s wrist, comfortingly. ‘I should have made you tell me what was wrong then.’
‘I’d only just found out … I needed some space to deal with it.’ She’d also been dealing with a miscarriage that only Olivia had known about, and then she’d been hit with her husband and sister cheating on her. She’d needed more than a little space. Lately, her life had felt like a bad nineties daytime talk show.
‘I had more faith in Mitch,’ her mother said, with a disappointed shake of her head. ‘I really did.’
‘I suppose it was one of those window-shopped women off TV,’ her father said, narrowing his eyes.
‘I believe the term you’re looking for is photoshopped, dear,’ Lavinia put in gently, but then turned her equally curious gaze upon Hadley for an answer.
Say it.
The house phone rang and her mother gave a long-suffering sigh before getting up to answer it.
Hadley bit back her own frustration. She’d opened her mouth to say what they needed to hear only to now have to wait for her mother to return to the table. So help me God if that’s someone calling about a committee matter that rambles on forever, she’d hang up the phone herself.
‘Oh, Harmony, I’m so glad you called, sweetheart. Guess who has just arrived home for a surprise visit.’
Hadley froze and could feel the blood draining from her face. The room wobbled a little bit but she took a deep breath and fought for some control.
‘Hadley!’ her mother supplied when her sister was obviously at a loss for guessing the mysterious visitor’s identity. ‘Darling? Hello? Are you still there?’
Hadley clenched her jaw as she pictured the other woman’s shock on the end of the line. Then watched as her mother’s face slowly changed from delight to deep concentration. ‘Oh, I see. Well, that’s a shame, but it can’t be helped. All right, you enjoy yourself and take care. Bye, love.’
‘What’s Harmony up to?’ Bob asked as his wife came back to the table.
‘She’s on her way to a girls’ weekend with some friends,’ she said, pulling a small surprised face.
‘That came out of the blue a bit, didn’t it?’ her father said, eyeing his wife.
‘Well, she certainly didn’t mention anything to me about it the other day when I popped in to see her. Still,’ her mother conceded, ‘she’s been doing it really hard lately with the kids being a bit of a handful and on her own too. It can’t be easy for the poor love,’ Lavinia said, with a touch of sadness in her tone. ‘Maybe a bit of a getaway will be good for her.’
Hadley was surprised she couldn’t taste blood in her mouth, she was biting her tongue that hard as she listened to her parents’ exchange. Part of her wanted to scream that she didn’t deserve anything, she was a cheating home-wrecker. But another saner part sent herself a sideways knowing glance that made her hesitate. Deep down she knew that she was reacting more out of wounded pride and betrayal, than genuine heartbreak. The truth was that her sister couldn’t really be a home wrecker if there was never really a home to wreck in the first place.
She hated admitting it, but it was true. Mitch and her both worked jobs that either took them from home for weeks at a time, or had them working weird hours. When Hadley was at home between assignments, Mitch was usually buried in work commitments, and his new TV program meant late nights and early mornings. They’d barely spend any quality time together since their wedding.
After the media frenzy had subsided over the wedding and celebrity guest list, gossip had soon turned to the fact Hadley was rarely seen in public with her new husband at highly promoted social functions or award nights. They seemed to completely ignore the fact that she worked a large part of her time overseas, covering war zones and any other of the gazillion unpleasant things that those kind of places produced, in order to inform the general pubic of what was actually happening in other parts of the world.
It frustrated her that she’d had to work twice as hard as many of her colleagues to get a fraction of the recognition and respect. She knew it was because of how people perceived her. She was short, blonde and female. Early on in her career, she’d figured out this either worked in her favour or worked against her, and over the years she’d managed to wield her circumstances with great expertise. She never intentionally played the dumb blonde card but, occasionally, allowing people to assume that’s what you were, made the satisfaction of seeing their faces fall when you proved you weren’t so much more satisfying.
No, she didn’t blame her sister for her failed marriage. It was probably over before it had even started. She wasn’t even sure why they’d both let it go so far. It was familiar and comfortable, she supposed. They were perfectly suited to each other—both fiercely independent workaholics, who were happy with the arrangement of having someone there when they needed a little down time—time to feel normal again.
She’d first met Mitch out on assignment and they’d become friends only briefly before becoming lovers. Things only started falling apart once Mitch left the field and found his niche in becoming a TV celebrity. He always did love preening for the camera, whereas Hadley’s passion had always been the story. She loved writing, researching and digging around until she found the truth. For her the thrill was never about being in front of the camera, it was being able to bring people the truth about what was really happening in places few people ever went to—or had a desire to go. These were the stories people needed to know about. How would change come around if people weren’t even aware of what was happening to their fellow human beings?
Harmony might not be responsible for breaking up her marriage, but she was completely responsible for being the woman her husband had cheated with. She knew what she was doing—she had to. At some point there had to be a time when the thought ran through her head that this was wrong. Hadley couldn’t have cared less if her sister had felt a need to have a sordid affair with someone, married or not. Hadley wasn’t about to j
udge her, but what she could never forgive was that she chose her husband. They hadn’t been close over the past few years, mainly due to Hadley rarely being home, but they still shared the bond of being sisters. Surely that had to count for something?
‘Sorry about that, darling. Now, where were we?’ Her mother broke into her hectic thoughts once more.
‘That was pretty much it,’ Hadley said, trying for a forced joviality. ‘I think that’s more than enough drama to deal with for one day.’ She pushed away from the table and hoped they didn’t see that her hands were shaking a little. ‘I’m really tired. Do you mind if I go and have a lie down for a little bit? It’s been a long day.’
‘Of course,’ her mother said, concern plucking between her brows. ‘You go and have a rest.’
Hadley didn’t wait for a second invitation; she needed to escape any further questions. Harmony’s unexpected call had shaken her more than she cared to admit. Not once had she called to try to justify her actions to Hadley. Mitch had tried briefly to explain the situation, but Hadley had refused to listen—she’d been too upset and still in shock in the beginning to even try to wrap her head around the reasons. In all honestly, she didn’t care about Mitch’s explanations, the only person she wanted to hear an explanation from was her sister, and Harmony had refused to return her calls.
Part of her felt a childish need to tell her parents exactly what their poor Harmony had actually done—make them open their eyes to how un-perfect she really was. She wanted her sister to feel the scorn of her parents’ disappointment and resentment. Although Hadley couldn’t imagine what that would even look like. She’d never heard her parents say they were disappointed in any of their children before. She just knew, all things considered, that would be the absolute worst thing she could ever imagine, and she really wished it on her big sister right now.
Going away for a girls’ weekend, she thought bitterly. How lovely for her. She pictured her sister sitting in a day spa surrounded by her minions from the P&C or whatever damn committee she was president of nowadays, all reassuring her how wonderfully she was handling the still reasonably fresh scandal of her own husband having had an affair and leaving her for his secretary earlier in the year.
That was the part Hadley couldn’t understand. How could a woman who had been cheated on go ahead and do the same thing to someone else’s husband? She got that maybe Harmony’s pride had been stung and she felt a need to retaliate in kind … but why with a married man? Her own sister’s married man, at that? Why the hell couldn’t she have found some unattached toy boy somewhere?
She hadn’t intended to actually lie down; she’d just needed an excuse to stop the interrogation but, now that she’d sunk onto her bed, she realised just how exhausted she really was. Hadley kicked her shoes off, before curling up on the bed and hugging the pillow to her securely. Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a few minutes, when she opened them again she’d find that somehow the last few months had all been some really bad dream. And when she awoke, her life wouldn’t be the terrible mess it seemed to be at the moment.