She closed her eyes, knowing the truth of her grandmother’s words.
“She’s never going to forgive me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Sylvia’s voice was crisp and no-nonsense. “My daughter is a sharp woman. She will understand, if you give her the chance.”
“You should have seen her face. She was devastated.”
“Of course she was. Pam, that two-faced bitch, has spent a decade wiggling her way into Rosie’s good graces, becoming indispensable in the process. I tried to warn Rosie to be careful of her intentions, but my daughter didn’t listen to me when she was a girl and she doesn’t listen to me now that she’s over forty. What is it about the women in our family not listening to their mothers? I hope to God that pattern ends with you and Olive.”
Emma smiled, much to her surprise.
Her smile faded as they approached her mother’s house. The looming confrontation pressed in on her and she wanted desperately to drop her grandmother off, grab Olive and drive away.
She had spent ten years trying to escape. It was past time to face the past, no matter how difficult.
After driving to Sylvia’s cottage, she helped her grandmother into her house, despite the older woman’s insistence she didn’t need a hand. After bidding her grandmother good-night, Emma kissed her cheek and headed for the main house, her nerves frayed and her stomach in knots.
She caught Maya trotting down the front steps.
“Hi, Emma. Your mom already paid me.”
“Oh good. How did it go?”
She couldn’t even use the excuse of having to drive the babysitter home to avoid the conflict, since Maya had driven there herself.
“We had tons of fun. Olive is adorable. She loved playing with filters on my phone. I’ll text you a few of the photos we took.”
“Thanks.”
“She went straight to bed when I told her it was time and she’s been sound asleep for about an hour.”
Emma had screwed up many things in her life. So far, Olive was turning into the very best thing she had ever managed to produce.
After thanking her again, she went slowly inside.
As she feared, Rosie was waiting for her, perched on the edge of the sofa.
Emma took her time taking off her rain jacket, hanging up her bag, removing her shoes, before finally facing her mom.
She gave an exaggerated yawn. “Well, It’s been a long day,and I’ve got to head to the bookstore early tomorrow, so I think I’m going to head straight for bed.”
It was worth a shot, anyway.
Rosie glared at her. “Oh no, you don’t. You can’t run away like that. That’s what you did last time, isn’t it? You ran away because you didn’t want to talk to me about this.”
Emma shifted. “I ran away for a lot of reasons, Mom. This house had become a battleground. We were fighting about everything. I hated your rules and you hated just about everything about me.”
She hadn’t meant to say the last part. The words slipped out, leaving her mother looking devastated.
“I did not hate anything about you. I loved you. You were... my everything.”
“I didn’t want to be your everything. I didn’t deserve it.”
Her mother stared at her, looking scrubbed raw with emotion. “Oh, Emma. I’m so sorry I wasn’t a better mother to you during that time.”
“You were fine. I was a mess.”
“We were both a mess,” Rosie said. “But I was the grown-up. You were a child. I should have been able to put aside my grief to support you. I wanted to but... everything I did with you seemed to be wrong.”