He had been thrown out while she had hung suspended by her seat belt when the car came to rest upside down.
The most horrible minutes of her life had been seared into her memory.
She was crying, she realized now, yanked back to her mother’s living room with its comfortable furniture and lovely watercolors.
To her dismay, Rosie stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her. The warm, familiar scent of citrus and flowers surrounded her, comforted her, sending more tears spilling out.
“Oh, honey,” her mother murmured. “You have carried this burden by yourself all these years. I’m so, so sorry you didn’t feel like you could share it with me. I wish you had.”
“You loved Dad so much. You were shattered when he died. Completely lost. How could I tell my grieving mother that her husband was possibly having an affair with his secretary?”
“So you carried the burden by yourself for all this time,”Rosie said gently. “Is that the reason for everything else? Why you seemed to completely pull away from me after your father died?”
Emma could not come up with the right answer. It was part of the reason, certainly, but she also had constantly felt as if her mother blamed her for Gary’s death. Whenever she would catch Rosie silently crying while she washed dishes or worked in the garden, Emma’s guilt would eat away at her like acid.
“That time was such a blur, if you want the truth. I was so angry at everything. I was dealing with all the usual teen things that fifteen-year-old girls have to face along with my own recovery after the accident. Hormones, acne, PMS. And I was so angry at Dad, too. I missed him so much, at the same time I wanted to go on yelling and yelling at him.”
“Sounds like a perfectly reasonable reaction. I want to yell at him right now, too. If he were here, he would definitely be hearing some choice words.”
To her shock, Emma felt a giggle welling up amid all the tears. Her mother gave a tiny smile and hugged her again. Emma leaned her cheek against her mother’s and felt some of the massive ball of mingled grief and anger begin to untangle.
“Can you ever forgive me?” she whispered.
Rosie eased away and gave her a stern look. “Oh, honey. There’s absolutely nothing to forgive. You did nothing wrong. Even by keeping the truth from me, I can see you were only trying to protect me.”
“Are you... completely wrecked?”
Her mother appeared to consider this. “Completely? No. I’m devastated, if you want the truth. I thought our marriage was perfect. I thought I was the best possible wife and thatyour father would never have any reason to turn to another woman. It’s going to take some adjusting for me to accept that perhaps we weren’t perfect. ThatIwasn’t perfect. Perhaps all this time I’ve been looking at things through the wrong lens.”
“You mean Rosie-colored glasses?”
It was something her father had often said, a phrase that had become something of a family joke.
Rosie always tried to see the best in people. Emma didn’t know how she would be able to do that in this situation, though.
“What are you going to do about Pam?” she finally asked.
Her mother’s features hardened. “I don’t know. I will have to figure that out. I’m not sure I can work with her, knowing that she was willing to betray me with Gary and then hide it from me for a decade, going on as if nothing ever happened.”
“I can step in to help out at the construction company, if you want me to,” Emma said, then held her breath, wishing she hadn’t said anything. This wasn’t the time, when their emotions were all on edge.
Rosie gave her a look of surprise. “You? But what about the bookstore? Aren’t you happy there? You’ve done such a good job. I’m so thrilled at all the changes.”
“I have enjoyed the challenge of giving the place a refresh. I would be happy there for several more months while we fully implement things.” She caught her breath, again wishing she hadn’t started this now. “But... eventually I would like to have a role at Lucas Construction. It’s the main reason I agreed to come home, if you want the truth.”
“Oh, honey. I had no idea.”
“We can talk about this another time. Just know that if you need my help at the company, I’m ready. We could always hiresomeone else to run the bookstore. Or I could hire Maya and Jenny to be assistant managers and turn many of the responsibilities over to them, which would free up my time to help you.”
“This is a lot to think about. I don’t even know what I’m doing about Pam yet.”
“I know. Not the greatest time to bring it up, but it’s been on my mind a lot since I came back and I... I wanted to let you know. No more secrets, Mom. I promise.”
Her mom hugged her again and this time, Emma felt the years of tension and misunderstanding melt away. As they held each other, a comfortable silence settled between them, filled with unspoken forgiveness and renewed love.
When they finally pulled apart, Rosie’s eyes were glistening with tears, but her smile was warm and genuine.
“No more secrets,” she agreed softly. “We’ve lost so much time, Emma. I don’t want to waste another day.”