He looked almost, Laura thought fancifully, like a genie but in regular people’s clothes.
She watched as he stopped and planted his feet wide apart and crossed his arms, his face mock-fierce with annoyance, just like Yul Brenner in The King and I. This made him look exactly like a genie.
With curiosity to discover what was annoying him, Laura turned her gaze to where the genie-man was scowling.
And then her entire frame froze.
Lily.
Laura couldn’t believe her eyes and blinked twice to see if it cleared her vision or if perhaps the woman she saw was someone else that looked like Lily but was not and Laura’s mind was simply playing terrible, horrible tricks on her.
But it was Lily. She looked nearly the same, except thinner. She was wearing a pair of very faded Levi’s and an even more faded t-shirt that said “Chicago Cubs” on it. She was running toward the genie-man and smiling that same, strange, quirky but beautiful Lily smile.
Except different.
Laura regarded more closely the woman who had broken her Nathaniel’s heart.
Lily looked pale, slightly drawn and even tired.
The Lily Light she thought she knew so well was gone.
Life, Laura saw, and felt an atypical satisfaction at seeing, had not treated Lily Jacobs very well.
Laura decided immediately to put Lily out of her mind. She would, of course, tell Victor about this but she’d never breathe a word to Nathaniel. Her son had never let onto how shattered he was at Lily’s unexplained departure but Laura, as any mother would, knew.
Lily Jacobs was truly the only person in the world that Laura Roberts hated. Laura knew all about Nathaniel’s past, Victor had told her. That Lily would bring such life and light to him, make him actually laugh (a lot), make him so happy and then tear it away without an explanation or even a good-bye…
Well, she was simply not worth Laura’s regard and she definitely wasn’t worth Laura’s kindness.
Laura started walking again in hopes she’d get away before Lily saw her. She couldn’t abide speaking to her not, she imagined, that Lily would ever approach her if she had a single decent bone in her body.
Then she heard the still familiar voice call, “Tash! Stop dawdling, baby doll.”
Laura’s head came up and then she froze again.
Running toward Lily and the strange genie-man was a little girl.
Nathaniel’s little girl.
Laura knew it immediately. It was stamped all over the child.
The same blue-black hair, the same (even at that distance, Laura could tell, she was Nathaniel’s mother after all) darker than dark eyes, the same bone structure, the same long-legged, long-waisted body, except feminine and in child-like form. Indeed, there was no mistaking it, no denying it; the child was Nathaniel McAllister’s child.
Laura watched in stunned, frozen silence as the little girl ran toward Lily and threw her arms around her mother. Lily bent to kiss the top of her head and was talking to her, smiling down on her. This smile was not tired and drawn. It lit up her face, just like the old Lily.
Laura couldn’t believe it. She didn’t know what to do. She wanted to scream, to run forward and snatch the child from her mother’s arms.
Then Lily straightened from the girl, turning to lead them in the opposite direction and then Lily saw her.
Her pale face, if it could be credited, drained of colour. Her mouth dropped open and she, too, froze.
Moments later, Laura watched, her astonishment deepening, as Lily’s stupor cleared and her face melted into a look of such abandoned happiness, such love that it turned Laura’s stomach.
And Laura looked at Lily with every shred of hatred she had for the woman, turned on her heel and ran.
* * * * *
“My God, Fazire, my God. Did you see the way she looked at me?”
Fazire was levitating. He did this in agitation now, she knew, not just when he was practising or when he wanted to make a point.
He didn’t respond. He couldn’t have, Lily kept talking.
“She saw Tash. She knows. I told you I should have gone to them ages ago. Now it’s too late. Now…”
She stopped talking and started pacing, or more to the point started pacing more frantically.
Lily had been wanting to go to the Roberts’s home for years. Natasha was their grandchild they would want to know she existed. Even if it would be painful after Nate’s death (this, she decided in her fevered imaginings, happened on his motorcycle or in his Maserati, but she didn’t know, never wanted to know).
Something always got in the way. The store, the house, Tash getting sick, Lily having a migraine (they came far more frequently now, stress, the doctor told her), not enough money for the train tickets (there was never enough money), the phones got cut off, laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, the car needing fixed (the car always needed fixed).
She should have written but how do you say that in a letter? It was something you had to do in person.
And Lily was so sick at first, the pregnancy had not gone well and by the time she and Fazire decided to cast their lot in Clevedon, she was practically bedridden. By the end of the pregnancy, she was forcefully bedridden. Then the birth had not been good. It took her a year to recuperate. By that time the debts had mounted, the bills were all overdue and she’d nearly asked her last wish of Fazire. But Maxine had saved the day. Maxine and Grammy Sarah’s beautiful limestone house with its Italian marble window sills and its ten acres.
While Lily was ill, she had time to think. She started wondering why Laura and Victor didn’t contact her. Why they let it be Danielle who told her that Nate had died. Why, when Lily knew that they knew she also lost her parents at the same time, had they not come to her knowing the enormity of her loss? Even not knowing about Tash, Lily was absolutely certain that they knew she loved Nate and she’d need to grieve with them when her vital, handsome dream man was swept away. She didn’t understand and thought, maybe, she had misjudged them. In her darkest moments (of which there were many), she realised they had raised Jeffrey and Danielle, perhaps they were just like their two children by blood.
Then time just flew, as time does, and it became too late.
This was the first time Lily had been to London in eight years. Eight years. They had a dingy hotel room in a not-so-good part of town. It was all they could afford.
It didn’t matter; they only had to sleep in it. The rest of the time Lily was supposed to be showing them all her favourite places in London and that included where she and Nate had taken their walk in Hyde Park.
Lily’s daughter knew all about her father.
Every detail Lily could remember, and that was most of them, were told to Tash in the grandest stories Lily had ever created. And as the years slid by, Lily even made up details just to keep Nate alive in some way for their darling daughter.
“I have to go to her,” Lily fretted.
Fazire looked down his nose at her and crossed his arms. He, personally, did not think much of these Roberts people. Every time they looked at his Lily-child, they did it with hate which was precisely why he consistently tried to talk her out of telling them about Tash and would distract her when she got down to the business of writing or phoning them.
If they knew about Tash, he couldn’t imagine what they’d do.
And obviously today’s events stated he had, as usual, been absolutely correct.
“I do not think that is wise,” he declared.
“I have to, Tash is her grandchild!” Lily cried.
“What are you talking about?”
Tash had come out of the bathroom and was looking at them curiously.
Lily looked at her beautiful daughter who had not a shred of her or Becky, Will or Sarah but was absolutely all Nate.
Tash Jacobs was a bright child, fearfully bright. A genius, her teacher’s said, which was another reason Lily had no money. Anything extra she was setting aside in hopes of getting Tash into a spec
ial school for gifted children.
This, Fazire believed, came from Lily. This, Lily knew, came from Nate. Tash had exactly the same way of cutting to the meat of the matter as Nate had.
On this thought, Lily made her decision.
She smiled at her daughter. “Mummy needs to go see some friends. She’ll be back soon.”
“Lily –” Fazire said in a dire, warning tone.
Lily looked at him with determination. “I’ll be back soon.”
And then before her genie could speak another word, she was off.
* * * * *
“You are… fucking… kidding me.”
Laura did not like it when Victor cursed. However, if there ever was a time to curse, now was that time.
As luck would have it (or not, depending on how you looked at it), Nate had come home with Victor. So Laura thought she might as well tell them both at the same time. Nate had to know anyway and it might as well come from his mother. And by the look of things, Victor would not have imparted the information nearly as thoughtfully as Laura did.
Victor looked like he was about to hit the roof.
Nathaniel, sitting opposite Laura with one ankle resting casually atop the opposite knee, looked like he could happily commit murder.
However he would do it in a very cool, very controlled, manner.
One look at her son and Laura began to feel a creeping concern.
And it all had to do with that joyous look.
Lily had been happy to see her.
That may have been an act, of course. Moments before she’d looked horrified but Laura, well, Laura was beginning to have her doubts.
Why was Lily happy to see her? Especially considering the daughter she’d hid from them all for (Laura counted back, then couldn’t wrap her mind around it and just guessed) eight years was standing right there, the very vision of Nathaniel.
“I’m going to hunt that bitch down and I’m going to wring her white, hillbilly neck,” Victor threatened.
“Victor, calm down,” Laura soothed.
“I will not calm down! That’s my goddamned grandchild!” he shouted so loudly, the windows shook.
“What’s happening?”
Laura closed her eyes in despair, this they did not need. Danielle had taken that moment to walk into the room.
Her daughter had finally moved out, was living with a man that neither Victor nor Laura cared for but who all of them thought suited her. Nevertheless, she came home regularly and seemed to do it with an uncanny sense of when Nathaniel was there.
“Your mother has seen Lily,” Victor informed his daughter and Laura’s eyes flew open.
“Victor!” Laura didn’t think it was wise to bring Danielle into this drama. It wasn’t ever wise to bring Danielle into any drama. She created enough dramas on her own.
“Who?” Danielle had gone to sit on the arm of the chair where Nathaniel was sitting. Her son went momentarily still and then immediately stood and crossed the room. As usual, he made himself perfectly clear without uttering a single word.
“Lily, Lily, Lily!” Victor shouted, incensed. “That girl from backwater Indiana who left Nathaniel.”
Danielle’s eyes rounded and Laura, again with Mother Vision, noted that she looked somehow frightened.
Then the door bell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Danielle jumped up eagerly. Too eagerly.
“No! I’ll bloody well get it,” Victor shouted even though this was completely unnecessary.
Danielle shakily sat back down.
Laura dismissed her daughter, she’d deal with her later, and turned to look up at Nathaniel. He’d schooled his features but Laura saw they were still tight with anger and disbelief.
“You haven’t said a word,” she informed him.
“Nate never says a word,” Danielle mumbled and Laura had just enough time to shoot her daughter a killing look before the explosion came from the front hall.
“You’ve got a fucking nerve!” Everyone heard Victor shout and in moments they all rushed into the hall.
Nathaniel’s legs being longest and he being the swiftest meant he exited the room first. Danielle followed with Laura coming up the rear.
When Laura skidded to a halt in the entryway, she could not believe her eyes.
Victor had Lily in a death grip, both of his big hands wrapped around her upper arms and he held her imprisoned. She was staring up at him in complete shock.
“Victor, let her go!” Laura cried.
Then Lily’s head turned toward Laura’s voice.
And she saw Nathaniel.
And then something happened that Laura would never have guessed.
Lily’s eyes rounded then the expression on her face went funny, her mouth fell slack and every muscle in her body visibly tensed.
And then her lips came back together and she said, or mouthed as no sound came out, “Oh my God.”
Then Laura saw Lily’s face start to melt. It melted like it had when Lily had seen her in the park but this time it wasn’t an abandoned happiness, it started to be absolutely glorious.
But it stopped when Victor gave her a vicious shake and her head snapped back.
“Victor! I said to let her go,” Laura tried again.
He did immediately and she stumbled back and had to throw her arms out to stop herself from careening backwards out the front door. She just managed to catch herself on the door jamb.
“You bitch!” Victor yelled. “You take your silly, hick self out of my goddamned house and you better get yourself a damn fine lawyer because we’re getting that child. You’ve had her for eight years and we’re going to have her for the next eight!”
Lily’s head jerked up and she stared at Victor in shock.
“Wh… what?” she breathed in a barely-there voice.
Laura noted that Nathaniel had crossed his arms on his chest and was watching this drama like it was being staged for his personal amusement.
And he found it lacking.
Lily’s eyes flicked from Victor to Nathaniel and her pale face became bloodless when her eyes locked on Laura’s adopted son.
Then she spied Danielle and something seeped into her face. Something that was simply awful to see.
“You told me he was dead,” she whispered.
“Out!” Victor shouted, stepped forward and shoved her out the door with a hand on her chest. She went back several steps and Victor slammed the door in her face.
“Victor!” Laura screamed and ran to the door. Something was wrong, something was very wrong. She knew it, she sensed it. Her heart was racing and she became panicked. She had to get to Lily.
She clawed at the handle but Victor pulled her away.
“We have to hear what she has to say!” Laura yelled at her husband, yanked her arm free and jerked the door open.
And saw nothing but Lily running away.
Running for her very life.
Chapter Thirteen
Lily
“They’re here,” Jane called.
“Make them wait,” Alistair Hobbs replied.
Lily was looking out the window of Alistair’s conference room and ignoring this exchange between Alistair and his assistant, Jane.
Alistair Hobbs was a friend of a friend of Maxine’s. He was tall, slender and had ginger hair and eyebrows. In a vague way (as usual when it came to these sorts of things), Lily noted he was quite good-looking. Lily had met him at Maxine’s store, seen him in the market several times and they’d chatted. He’d asked her out once but she’d said no.
Lily never went out, ever. She didn’t have the time or the inclination.
Alistair didn’t seem to take offense to this. Regardless of his profession, he was a very nice man.
Maxine took offense to it, she thought Alistair was the bomb.
Now, as Lily was his client, it was a moot point. Alistair couldn’t ask her out again because he was her lawyer.
Or, at least he couldn’t ask her out for awhile.
She couldn’t afford him, of course. She couldn’t afford much of anything. She certainly couldn’t afford to go head-to-head with Nate and the entire Roberts Clan in a custody battle for Tash. Lily had no idea how rich they were but she knew from their homes, cars and clothes they had a lot more money than she did.
Lily, Fazire and Tash had no sooner got home to Somerset when Victor was good at his word and she received a letter, hand-delivered, from their attorneys.
Nate, alive and well, kicking and breathing and apparently angry, was going for full custody although Lily had no idea why Nate should be angry. Lily didn’t get her sister, had she had one, to brush off her unwanted boyfriend by telling him she was dead.
The letter said he wanted full and complete custody.
Nate was going to try and take her daughter from her.
Lily couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe Nate was even alive much less he would do something so vicious and cruel.
Granted, he had a daughter he knew nothing about for the first seven years of her life but that wasn’t Lily’s fault.
It had been only days since that humiliating scene in the Roberts’ entryway with Victor. The living, breathing Nate staring on like… like… she didn’t know what it was like. Like she was a creepy crawly and he was watching Victor scrunch her under his shoe.
Lily couldn’t figure it out, couldn’t manage to put even two of her thoughts together much less the number of thoughts it would take to figure out this mess.
Why?
Why, why, why?
She closed her eyes.
She knew why.
He had been finished with her. Just as he’d finished with his girlfriend Georgia. One second an item and talk of an engagement ring. The next second they were over.
Lily had to admit she was surprised they’d lasted as long as they did. Lily was not exactly in Nate’s league. She was an inexperienced virgin for one. For another she wasn’t beautiful and slim. And another, she was a sheltered Indiana girl and not a droll, cosmopolitan sophisticate.
She must have gotten very boring, very quickly.
Well, obviously she had.
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