by Karly Lane
‘I can’t believe she’d do this. How long has it been going on?’
‘A while. At least since your visit home when you announced Cash was pregnant.’
She heard him let out a long, slow expletive and could picture him running a hand through his short hair in a mixture of disbelief and frustration. ‘You’ve kept it quiet that long? Christ, Hads, you didn’t have to go through this alone.’
She didn’t want to hurt him further by telling him that Ollie, Griff and Olivia knew. ‘I wanted to tell everyone, in case something like this happened, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Christmas would have been ruined. Mum and Dad would have been devastated. It just wouldn’t have been fair to everyone.’
‘I can’t believe Harmony would even consider doing something like this. I mean, I wouldn’t have put it past Mitch … but Harmony? I know she can be selfish and self-centred at times, but I never thought she’d stoop this low.’
‘I can’t say it didn’t hurt … it did—does. But I think it is more because it shows how far apart we’ve grown as sisters. And I don’t know how it got this bad.’
‘I don’t think it’s just you,’ he said after a short sigh. ‘Harmony’s been unhappy for a long time and she’s been distancing herself from all of us. I’ve been worried about her for a while. I should have sat her down and made her tell me what was going on. If I had, who knows, maybe she and Mitch might not have got together.’
‘If it hadn’t been her, it would have been someone else. Mitch and I haven’t been much of a couple for a while now. I’m not sure we were ever really right for each other, and since his career took off, we’ve been even less compatible. You saw what it was like at the wedding. It was a circus—I hated what our life was becoming, but I let it go on. I knew I didn’t want to be in the spotlight, dressing up for stupid black-tie events. He thrived in that kind of environment and I avoided it like the plague. It was always going to become an issue eventually.’
‘I really look forward to seeing him again,’ Linc grated.
‘I don’t think that’s going to happen for a while yet.’
‘How the hell do they even think this is gonna work? Surely Harmony doesn’t believe she can just leave her family behind?’
‘I don’t know.’ Hadley suddenly felt sad and weary. ‘It’s all a big ugly mess right now. I’m more worried about Mum and Dad. Linc, you should have seen the looks on their faces.’ She stopped as hot tears pricked her eyes. It killed her to see them so hurt.
‘I’m coming home.’
‘What? You can’t. You only just got back to work.’
‘This is family. I’m booking a flight. I’ll call you back when I have the details.’
He didn’t give her time to reply, disconnecting the call without a goodbye. She’d been worrying for so long about how this would all pan out and it was turning out to be every bit as horrible as she’d imagined.
How was the family going to put all the pieces back together after this? Her heart ached for the damage that had been done and she wished she could go back in time and change everything. If only she hadn’t been so stubborn and listened to what her gut was telling her before the wedding. If she hadn’t gone through with the marriage, then none of this would have happened.
Would she have ended up with Ollie? Would she have finally seen him for who he really was? Or would it have been just like every other time she’d come home for Christmas—a quick visit and back into the next story? Who could say? But why was it that to get to the good things in life you usually had to go through a whole lot of pain first? Whoever made up those rules really needed to rethink things.
The next day felt like a repeat of Christmas, only the opposite. If Christmas had a depressed twin, this would be it. Griffin arrived home after driving to Griffith to pick up Cash, Linc and Mia from the airport, and although the baby brought a smile to Lavinia’s face, an overwhelming sadness hovered beneath that smile.
The phone wasn’t ringing as much as it had yesterday, but there were reports of a camera crew hanging around town. Mitch wasn’t faring quite as well, with a brief glimpse of him on the afternoon news angrily gesturing at photographers camped across the road from his apartment block. Luckily Harmony wasn’t in Sydney, having left as soon as the news had broken.
Hadley noticed her mother was even quieter than before but was suddenly very busy in the kitchen.
‘Can I help with something, Mum?’
‘No, I’ve got it all under control,’ she said, flashing her a distracted smile and making quick work of the remaining potatoes in the sink.
‘You don’t need to go to all this trouble for dinner, Mum.’
‘It’s no trouble. Just a roast.’
Hadley watched her mother with growing suspicion, which only strengthened when she noticed the dining room table had been set. Usually when everyone was home they ate out on the verandah. The dining room was only used for formal events. ‘Why are we eating in here tonight?’
‘Because I think we need to have a family dinner,’ Lavinia said briskly. ‘All the family.’
‘Mum,’ Hadley groaned, ‘can we not do this tonight?’
‘We need to get this out in the open. The way it should have been handled in the first place,’ she added firmly.
There was nothing she could say to that.
‘So Harmony’s coming?’ she asked doubtfully. It was hard to imagine her sister agreeing to a family crisis meeting.
‘She’ll be here,’ Lavinia said briskly.
Hadley knew that tone. Or else. It didn’t matter how old you got, when your mother used that particular tone, you were five years old again and not game to talk back. Hadley saw the strain on her mum’s face and felt an equal mix of anger and guilt. She was furious that her husband and sister had put them all in this position to start with, but she knew she had to take some responsibility for the hurt they were suffering now.
‘I’m sorry, Mum. I know I should have told you.’
‘Hadley, I’m just so—’ she stopped abruptly, and shook her head ‘—disappointed.’ She finished. ‘I’m not even sure who I’m more disappointed in: Harmony or Mitch. And I feel stupid.’
‘Mum, no. Why would you feel like that? This was nothing you could have known about.’
‘I’ve been furious at this other woman Mitch left you for, thinking terrible things and wondering how her parents could have raised a child who would even consider breaking up a marriage … and all this time I was the parent. I was the mother of this woman,’ she said and looked up at Hadley tearfully. ‘Only I’m so confused. I’m devastated for you, and I’m ashamed of Harmony, and yet I know her. I know that deep down she must truly believe she loves Mitch because the Harmony I raised has a good heart. She had such a terrible first marriage and I’ve been praying for her to find a good man, a man she could have a happy marriage with … I’m torn. I’m so incredibly angry at her, and my heart breaks for you, but at the same time, the feelings I had towards the woman who did this, the one I didn’t know, I just can’t feel that towards my own child.’
‘Oh, Mum.’ Hadley hugged her mother tight. This was exactly why she hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell them the whole truth and why she felt so bad now. Maybe part of her had wanted to hang on to knowing how much her parents despised the faceless woman involved in the whole drama. Maybe this was her way of getting a tiny bit of smug satisfaction. But it had come at a cost and there was no pleasure in any of it. Just a whole lot of pain.
The sound of a car outside made Lavinia pull away and quickly wipe at her eyes. ‘I’d better finish getting this ready. Your father’s outside—why don’t you go and freshen up and come out when you’re ready?’
Hadley was hesitant to leave her mother, but she realised her parents probably wanted some time alone with Harmony. She didn’t have to be asked twice—she wasn’t in any great hurry for tonight’s intervention, Callahan style.
‘Do you want me to come over?’ Ollie asked
when she called him from her bedroom.
‘I think Mum and Dad want it to be a closed discussion. But thanks anyway.’
‘No worries. Let me know how it goes.’
‘Will do.’ She hung up and chewed the inside of her lip thoughtfully as she stared at the bedroom door. Just get it over and done with, she told herself firmly. Getting everything out in the open would be a good thing. As she walked down the hallway she could hear the murmur of voices coming from the verandah.
Swallowing over a sudden attack of nerves, she forced one foot in front of the other until she reached a spare chair. Her mother reached out and touched her hand as she passed by, giving her a small, encouraging smile as she took her seat.
Her father looked tired. The lines around his eyes, created by long hours working outdoors and squinting against the sun and wind and dust, seemed more pronounced than ever. Hadley sent a quick look across at her sister. Although her clothes were as fashionably chic as usual, there was a sense of disarray about her. She’d always appeared so confident and poised, but tonight she seemed vulnerable. Her eyes were pink-rimmed from recent tears and her usually immaculate makeup had all but washed away. She looked older and more drained than Hadley had ever seen her before.
Griff was across from Hadley, and Linc was sitting beside him, arms crossed and silent. She couldn’t hold the concerned look she saw in his eyes, not if she wanted to keep her emotions in check and get through this with some shred of dignity.
‘I’m glad you’re all here,’ Lavinia started, sounding far more in control than her saddened expression suggested. ‘You know how important family is to us, and now more than ever I think we need to remember that we are a family. This has been a terrible shock to all of us,’ she said, looking between her two daughters. ‘Hadley, we’ve spoken to Harmony. There were things I felt your father and I had a right to express to her. Now that we’ve had our say, we won’t be speaking any more on the subject. You children and your happiness are the most important things to us. We celebrate all your successes and we feel all your disappointments,’ she said slowly, holding each of her children’s eyes as she swept around the circle, ‘and if you’ve fallen along the way we’ve always been there to make sure you got back up on your feet again. This is no different.’
Hadley felt, more than saw, Griffin shuffle in his seat, clearly wanting to disagree but wisely keeping his mouth shut.
‘Yes,’ their mother conceded quickly, ‘it’s a very complicated issue, and as parents it’s put us in a very difficult and heartbreaking position. But your father and I want you to know that we will always be there for all our children. If any of you need us, we will be here for you. Nothing you can ever do will change that. Having said that, I realise this is going to take a bit of effort to get through, but it’s important that we make that effort. We are family.’
‘How are we going to do that, Mum?’ Griff finally spoke up. ‘How’s it all going to work? Family dinners will have Mitch sitting at the table with Harmony, right across from Hadley. Throwin’ it all in her face.’
‘Sitting across from Hadley and Ollie,’ Harmony pointed out with a sharp glance at her youngest brother.
‘That’s not the point.’
‘It is the point,’ Harmony snapped. ‘Mitch and Hadley didn’t work. They’ve both moved on. Why can’t you just be happy that we’ve all found the right person? You should be over the moon Hadley’s finally with Ollie. He is your best friend, after all.’
The comment seemed to render Griff speechless.
‘None of you wanted Hadley to marry Mitch to begin with, remember?’ Harmony pointed out. ‘So don’t you think it’s a bit hypocritical now to be jumping up and down about it?’ She sat back in her chair calmly.
‘I don’t think it’s the break-up that’s the issue,’ Linc put in, breaking his watchful silence. ‘What we’re having trouble accepting is the way in which it was done.’
Hadley saw her sister shift a little at that, but her jaw tilted forwards ever so slightly, almost as though she were preparing for attack. ‘I’m not perfect, I’ll be the first to admit that, but I dare any of you to stand up and say that you are,’ she said lifting a perfectly shaped eyebrow in challenge.
Outwardly, her sister put on a good show, but Hadley knew she wasn’t as tough as she was making out. Hadley had always hated watching anyone standing alone, and right now her older sister was facing her entire family on her own. Hadley couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.
‘There’s a difference between not being perfect and sleeping with your sister’s husband,’ Griff said in a low growl.
‘Okay,’ Hadley said, stepping in before her siblings’ anger threatened to ignite into all-out war. ‘I get that everyone has a right to vent their feelings about this, and I know that it affects all of us to some degree, but at the end of the day what’s happened is really between Mitch, Harmony and me. Yes, I was incredibly hurt by it and, yes, I felt betrayed by both Harmony and Mitch, but it’s not entirely fair to blame it all on Harmony. Mitch was a willing partner in it all, and clearly, if he felt a need to become involved with someone else, then he wasn’t happy with me. No,’ Hadley said, holding her hand up to stop Griffin arguing. ‘Sitting here and pointing fingers isn’t going to do anything except cause even more stress for everyone. I don’t know how things are going to go if Mitch comes to family gatherings. It’s most likely going to be very weird and uncomfortable, but the honest truth is Mitch and I weren’t happy and we were probably going to break up sooner or later. We’re all just going to have to play it by ear and see how it goes.’
‘So, how serious is it?’ Linc asked Harmony, after a few moments of silence.
Harmony eyed her older brother warily, as if deciding whether he was genuinely interested or if it was another launching pad for an attack. ‘It’s serious. I’m planning on moving down to Sydney in the next few months.’
‘What?’ her parents asked in unison.
‘I’m putting the house on the market. Mitch is going to drive out to help me pack up.’
‘What about the kids? What do they think about that?’ Lavinia asked.
‘The children will finish out the school year here and then we’ll move them down to live with us permanently.’
Hadley felt a surge of betrayal wash through her anew. Mitch had always been so vocal about how much of an inconvenience kids were. He’d often pointed out how lucky they were not to have to worry about finding a babysitter if they wanted a night out together, or to be able sleep in on weekends when their friend were up at the crack of dawn with their children. Clearly he’d had a change of heart somewhere along the line. Although teenagers probably valued sleep even more than he did, so that was no doubt a factor in their favour.
‘So they know all about it?’ Bob asked, frowning.
‘They know.’
‘And how did you explain that?’ Griffin asked dryly.
‘Unlike you, my children actually grasped the complexity of the situation remarkably well,’ Harmony told Griff dismissively. ‘They quite like Mitch and they’re excited about moving to the city.’
They all looked over as Lavinia stood up abruptly.
‘Mum?’ Linc said, half rising from his seat.
‘I need to check on dinner. I’ll be right back,’ she said without looking at anyone and walking briskly to the kitchen door.
‘It’s all been a bit of a shock,’ Bob said gruffly as the rest of them exchanged worried glances.
‘I’ll go and talk to her,’ Harmony said, surprising Hadley. She paused, turning back slightly to face them. ‘I know what I’ve done is hard for everyone to understand. I’m truly sorry for the hurt it’s caused you, Hadley,’ she said, her voice thickening slightly. ‘I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I do hope that one day, when things have settled down, you’ll see that Mitch and I really do love each other and we just want a chance to have a happy life together. I’ll check on Mum and let her know I won’t be staying for dinner
.’
Hadley swallowed hard over the lump in her own throat as she watched her sister head inside. And judging by the sudden silence from the rest of the family, it appeared Harmony’s words had caught them off guard too.
Hadley looked up as her father’s big hand gently covered her own. She gave him a weak smile. A few minutes later they heard the sound of a car starting up and driving away and their mother called them in for dinner.
The meal was a sombre one, but at least everything was now out in the open and there were no more secrets. She only wished she didn’t feel so torn inside each time she looked up and saw the grief in her mother’s eyes.
Twenty-three
While so many things seemed to be falling apart around her, the Dare to Bare Facebook page was not one of them. Calendar sales were going through the roof; they’d already had to do a second run and that wasn’t looking like it would last too long either. The mail orders were a full-time job on their own, and they were now working out of Ollie’s house and Griff’s, both of which were wall-to-wall with boxes of calendars.
‘You know this is crazy, right?’ Olivia said, shaking her head at Hadley after sealing the last envelope containing a calendar and adding it to the stack on the table ready to take to the post office later that afternoon.
‘It’s insane,’ Hadley agreed.
‘We’re going to have to get some help in here. I have to get back to work and you can’t handle all this alone,’ Olivia said, looking at the stacked boxes worriedly.
‘Mum said she’ll give me a hand tomorrow, and I’m sure she can rope in a few volunteers if we’re struggling.’
‘I can’t believe how fast this thing has taken off.’
Hadley was torn between excitement and dismay. Ollie had only done a few radio interviews before the orders for calendars had started pouring in. Over the next few days the local news network was scheduled to do an interview, and Hadley’s freelance pieces were due to come out within the next few weeks.
‘How’s your mum doing?’ Olivia asked. ‘Really doing,’ she added. ‘I know she tells everyone she’s fine, but … well … you know your mother, keep busy and all that.’