“One other thing?” He answered her with a raised set of brows. “Can I borrow your truck?”
“Oh babe, that’s one thing I don’t think I can do. You can’t separate a man from his ute. It’s just not done.”
Pushing her lips out, she looked up at him in a pout. “Please,” she sulked, batting her eyelids. “I’ll make it up to you when we get back.” She lifted her leg and lightly brushed her thigh against his crotch.
Groaning and laughing at the same time, Eric conceded defeat. “Fine. Just be careful. Please.”
When Eric and Natalie arrived at the flat, they found Mia sitting at the kitchen table with her head in her hands and her phone lying in front of her. All else was quiet, except for the muffled sobbing of her mouth against her palms.
“Hey, Mi,” Eric called to her quietly as he quickly moved over to her and brought her into his arms.
Natalie stood by and watched them together, her heart gripping tighter in her chest. This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go.
“What’s happened?” she asked, moving over to where they stood holding each other. She placed her hand on Mia’s shoulder, causing her to turn her head and pull away from Eric slightly.
Natalie then took the opportunity to take Mia by the elbow and guide her to the couch, quietly asking Eric if he could make them all tea.
“I’ve made a mess of things,” Mia sobbed, wiping at her eyes.
“What do you mean?” Natalie asked.
“With Cayd. I haven’t spoken to him since I left Melbourne, and now I can’t get in contact with him. I’ve been trying for two hours, and I can’t get through,” she sobbed. “He must hate me.”
“I’m sorry, Mia. That must be really hard for you.”
“I just wanted some time to wrap my head around everything. And I’m worried that I’ve driven him away. What if he doesn’t want me back?”
“You’ll be ok, Mia. You’re a strong woman – stronger than me. You’ll be ok,” Natalie told her as sympathetically as she could.
Eric set down a mug of tea for each of them on the coffee table. “He’s probably just out of range or he has a client or his battery is flat, Mia. I don’t see Cayd as the kind of guy who would let you go,” Eric offered, his eyes sincere as he lifted Mia’s tea up for her to take. “Just be patient. He’ll call you back. And if he doesn’t, I’ll bloody well go and make him.”
For some reason that last comment made Mia laugh through her tears. “You’re probably right. I’m just emotional. I spoke to Louise today and she said he was a mess. So I’ve been going out of my mind trying to contact him. I miss him. I shouldn’t have done this.”
“Well, I for one am glad that you did this, Mia,” Natalie said. “If you hadn’t come up here for a month, I wouldn’t know you like I do. Surely he can understand that, sometimes, family comes first.”
“He does,” Mia put in.
“Good. Then you’ve got nothing to worry about. He’ll call you. Ok? And in the meantime, I was hoping I could take you out tonight. I thought we could have some sister time – if you’re up for it of course.”
“Yeah. Ok. I think that could be nice,” Mia said, glancing over at Eric who looked incredibly happy about their plans. She just wasn’t sure how she and Natalie would go when it’s just the two of them. Up until now, they’d always had someone else with them. A night out together could get very interesting indeed.
When Cayd arrived at the address that Louise had given him, he didn’t waste any time walking up to the door to see if Mia was there. His eyes were eager for her face and his heart just needed her presence.
“Holy shit, mate. You look a wreck,” Eric said, the moment he laid eyes on him.
“Thank you, Eric,” Cayd replied, not really needing Eric to state the obvious. “Is she here? I really need to see her.”
“No. She isn’t sorry. She and Nat went out about twenty minutes ago.”
“Where did they go?”
“I don’t know. You’re welcome to come in and wait though.”
Still not fully comfortable around Eric, Cayd shook his head. “No, I’ll just leave you my hotel details. Can you pass them on?”
“Sure,” Eric agreed, watching as Cayd scrawled the details onto a sheet of notepaper then handed it to him.
“Thank you,” Cayd said, turning to leave before stopping. “Um… how is she, Eric?”
Reaching up, Eric gripped the back of his neck as if there was some sort of tension there. “She’s all right. She misses you though.”
Nodding his head in thanks, Cayd made his way back to his rental car then drove back to the hotel, settling in for yet another waiting game. The words that Evelyn spoke to him before he left ran through his mind and flamed his annoyance. She didn’t understand how much Mia meant to him. He’d chase her around the world if he had to. His life just didn’t work without her in it. Right now, he was barely holding on.
Chapter 20
AFTER SPENDING an hour or two talking during their dinner in a quiet restaurant that overlooked the harbour, Mia began to feel as though her last reservations about Natalie were starting to slip away. They had fallen into easy conversation and she even found herself laughing and joking, despite her earlier upset.
“I don’t think I can eat another bite¸” she said, as she put her fork down and wiped her napkin over her mouth. “I’m going to have to walk up and down the beach sixty times tomorrow to work this all off.”
Natalie smiled across at her as she glanced at her phone for the umpteenth time during their meal.
“Are you expecting a call?” Mia asked finally.
“Not really. We were supposed to meet someone else, but they’re still not here, and I would have thought they’d call…”
“Who are you expecting?”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t think they’re coming,” Natalie replied with a dismissive wave.
“No, Natalie. Answer the question. Who’s supposed to be here?”
“It doesn’t matter – just a friend. Perhaps we’ll meet up some other time.”
Frowning, Mia looked across at her twin and wondered why she was being so damn evasive.
“I’m so sorry, I got caught up,” a voice said from behind Mia, followed by a woman bustling past her to give Natalie a warm greeting.
All of a sudden, Mia’s heart began to thud loudly in her chest, obscuring her hearing as the blood whooshed through her ears.
“Mia, it’s been a while. How are you?” Belle asked breathlessly as she took a seat beside them and smiled like they were long lost friends.
“What is this?” she demanded of Natalie. “What’s going on?”
“We needed to talk to you alone,” Natalie tried to explain. She reached across the table and placed her hand over Mia’s as she saw the urge to run in her twin’s demeanour. “Don’t go. Just hear Belle out, ok?”
Feeling uncomfortable, Mia still fidgeted in her seat, trying to decide whether she should stay or go.
“I wanted to meet my daughters,” Belle told her, laying a gentle hand on her other arm. “I’m so sorry for everything, Mia. I know this has been very hard on you. But, I want you to know that when we met, I had no idea you were my daughter.”
Mia opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t expecting this ambush and it was taking all of her will to keep her butt on the seat instead of following her instinct to run.
“I thought you weren’t interested in getting to know us?” she said finally, pulling her hands away from the two women and folding them in front of her.
“Oh no,” Belle said, smiling magnanimously as she looked between her daughters. “I was just taken aback at first. But, I got in contact with Natalie and we’ve been talking. She’s been telling me a lot about you, and I felt that it was time that we all got to know each other.”
“You need to know that this whole situation makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable, and I’m not happy that I was just ambushed,” Mia said, feeli
ng the need to have her feelings heard for a change.
“I understand that. We both do. But we were worried that you wouldn’t come to meet me if you knew I’d be here. This way… well, it’s a little easier.”
“Ok,” Mia nodded, closing her eyes tightly as she took a deep calming breath.
Natalie and Belle exchanged glances with Natalie seeming to urge Belle to say something, while Mia watched them and waited until the conversation continued.
“Natalie has been talking a lot about you,” Belle repeated. “And I’d stayed away from you because it’s hard for me knowing that you’re engaged to Cayd.” Belle’s hand flew up and she touched her chest lightly as she seemed to war with her emotions.
“Because you slept with him, I know,” stated Mia.
“Is that what he told you? That we ‘slept together’? Oh Mia, it was so much more than that. We were having an affair and he wanted me to leave his father and run away with him.”
Mia shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Doesn’t it?” Belle reached out and placed her hand over Mia’s again and looked deep into her eyes. “I’m afraid for you, Mia. I’m afraid that he’s using you to get back at me somehow. He was so angry with me when I wouldn’t keep the baby.”
Mia snatched her hand away. “What are you talking about? Keep what baby?”
“I fell pregnant, and I was married – to his father. Keeping the baby and leaving would have caused me to lose everything. My parents would have disinherited me if they found out I’d been so careless again. I was always considered a loose canon after I had you two, and marrying Howard was the only thing they were proud of me for. If they found out I’d been having an affair with his son and gotten myself pregnant… well… I’d be ruined and I’m sure Howard would have done the same to Cayd. We would have been penniless.”
Belle picked up a napkin and dabbed lightly at the corners of her eyes as she took a moment to dramatically compose herself.
“He was so angry at me. He told me I’d regret it. He promised me that I’d regret saying no to him but I… I never dreamed he’d do something like this,” she cried, still trying to keep her tears at bay.
Mia’s heart thudded so loudly against her chest as her stomach twisted and soured. She pressed her eyes closed and hoped that Belle wasn’t saying what she thought she was saying.
“But… but I knew. The moment Natalie told me about your ring, I knew exactly what he’d done.”
“No,” Mia gasped, her own eyes brimming with tears. “No.”
“I’m sorry,” Belle whispered as she pulled out a small box and showed Mia the exact same ring that Cayd had given her. “He vowed to get me back. I just never dreamed he’d do it by looking through my medical records then trying to marry my daughter.”
Shaking her head as her mind spun, Mia pushed away from the table. She didn’t want to hear anymore. She needed to stop this conversation so she turned and walked straight out of the restaurant.
Belle took a deep breath and seemed to compose herself before she turned her attention to Natalie.
“You did the right thing,” Natalie told her kindly. “She needed to know.”
“I know,” Belle said quietly. “Now, you’d better go after her before she beats you home and runs straight into Eric’s arms. If you’re there for her, then she won’t need him. Be strong for her.”
Nodding, Natalie got up and went after Mia as Belle sat and watched her plan unfold exactly as she had anticipated.
“Is there anything I can get you ma’am?” the waiter asked, appearing at her side a moment later.
She smiled up at him, not showing a single hint of the emotion she’d displayed moments earlier. “Just the check please. I’ve had such a magnificent time.”
Out in the car park, Natalie ran until she had caught up with the fast walking Mia.
“Mia, wait,” she called out.
“Why did you do that?” Mia demanded.
“Because you needed to know.”
Stopping on the side of the road, Mia turned to face Natalie. “I needed to know? What the fuck was that!? Why did you just ambush me with all that shit? You know how I feel about that woman with Cayd. I don’t want to know her. I never wanted to know her.”
“It wasn’t shit, Mia! It was the truth. Cayd isn’t a good person.”
“And Belle is, is she?”
“She’s our mother,” Natalie stated, as if that was the only information that mattered.
“No. She’s our ‘birth mother’.”
“She cares about us, Mia. She’s just trying to look out for you.”
“She can’t care that much Natalie – she gave us up and didn’t think twice about separating us.”
“She was young. She made mistakes. Haven’t you ever made mistakes Mia?”
“You know what? No. No I haven’t. Everyone else fucks my life up for me. I was fine before all of this. I was fine before you! I never wanted any of this.”
“Well you have it, Mia. And the faster you accept it, the better off we’ll all be. You say you don’t make mistakes – but what the hell is Cayd? Looks like he’s the biggest mistake of your life. So don’t act all high and mighty, Mia. I’m not the one who’s the replacement for our own mother?”
“No, you’re just the replacement for me,” Mia spat back, hitting Natalie with her words, right where it hurt.
Seemingly of it’s own accord, Natalie’s hand raised above her shoulder and whipped across the side of Mia’s face in a loud slap.
Letting out a gasp, Mia covered her face with her hand as the heat where she was struck spread over her skin. Tears burned her eyes. “You’re right, Natalie. I do make mistakes. And coming here and giving you a second chance was the biggest one of all.”
“Fuck you, Mia. You’re so good and righteous and everyone just wants to protect you because you’re so sickeningly lovely. My biggest regret was thinking that finding you could somehow fill the void in my life.”
“You have no one to blame but yourself for the way things have turned out between us. I have done nothing but be kind to you. I could have had you thrown in prison, but I chose to let it go. And then you spent a year throwing a pity party for yourself that ends with you trying to kill yourself to get what you want. And guess what, Natalie? Once again, you got in my life and fucked it up! I was fine without you and I wish… I wish…” Mia’s face twisted in anger as she thrust her finger into the face of her sister. But she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. It was bad enough that she was thinking them.
“Just say it, Mia. You wish that I succeeded – you wish I was dead,” Natalie challenged, glaring at her, daring her to speak the truth.
“No,” Mia whispered as tears broke free from her eyes and tumbled down her cheeks. “I don’t wish that. I just wish I’d never met you.” And with that, she walked away, leaving Natalie trembling with her own hurt and anger behind her.
Chapter 21
“WHAT ARE you doing back here?” Belle demanded, when Natalie walked back into the restaurant, a snivelling mess, as she was about to leave. “Where’s Mia?”
Swallowing hard and shaking her head, Natalie cried, “She hates me!”
Glancing over her shoulder to the rest of the restaurant, Belle took hold of Natalie by the waist and bustled her out of the restaurant so she wouldn’t make a scene. “Calm yourself. You’re in public. What’s going on? Why aren’t you with her, consoling her? We talked about this. You need for her to lean on you. Not Eric. Keep to the plan Natalie or we won’t be able to be the family we want to be.”
Forcing herself to calm down, Natalie looked at Belle beseechingly. “I can’t just go to her. We got into a fight and we said some really mean things.”
“Then you go to her and tell her you’re sorry.”
Natalie’s face crumpled again as she cried in doubt and began to repeat the things she and Mia had said to each other. Stifling an eye roll, Belle placed her arm around Natalie’s s
houlders and using her best motherly voice, she went to work on calming her down so the night wasn’t ruined.
Belle needed Natalie and Mia united, so that Mia would stay away from Cayd – it was the only way she would finally make him pay for not loving her the way she had always loved him.
“Holy shit. What happened? Where’s Natalie,” Eric asked, as Mia burst through the door with tears streaming down her face. Immediately, he was on his feet, drawing her against him and holding her as she cried for the second time that day.
Mia buried her face against his chest - a place that was so familiar to her and had comforted her through the worst parts of her life. As she sobbed, Eric shushed her quietly, assuring her that whatever had happened, they could all work through it.
“I don’t want to work through it. I want to leave. I want to run so far away that no one ever finds me, and I can start this bullshit life of mine again.”
Releasing her to hold her at arm’s length, Eric peered into her eyes with concern. “You don’t mean that, Mi. What about your students? What about Louise and Josh? What about me? We’re your family. Are you just going to leave all of us?”
Moving away from him, she gripped her head, hating the way her thoughts were making it ache as she dropped down onto the kitchen chair, feeling too worn out emotionally to support her weight anymore. In front of her was the piece of paper that had Cayd’s hotel details on it. She reached out for it, running her fingers over his fluid writing, knowing his hand anywhere. Knowing he was here seemed to hurt her even more. She hated feeling like this. She hated that being in love could be so hard.
“And what about Cayd?” Eric said. “Are you going to leave him too?”
Sliding the Cartier ring off her finger, she held it in front of her and studied it as if perhaps the truth might be inside the large stone. “I just don’t know if I can go through any of this anymore. I don’t know what to do. Or who to believe.”
“Tell me what happened tonight,” Eric said, taking a seat next to her.
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