“We need some tea.”
“Tea is not going to help,” Hadley said with a moan.
“Maybe not.But it’s step one of making a plan of what is doable by the many capable members of our families and what isn’t.So that’s what we’ll do.But first… You need to tell your parents about the divorce.”
“No,” Hadley said with a firm twist of her head.“I can’t.”
“Hadley…”
“Just shoot me.It’ll be easier.Better for all of us.”
“Hadley.”
“Mama’s going to freak.You know I’m right.And Dad… Daddy’s going to be so disappointed.”
“Your parents love you.And if they’re disappointed in anyone, it will be Kyle, not you.”
“But I’veliedthem to them for over a year.”
“Yes, well, that will undoubtedly cause some upset, but in time things will settle down.I do wonder though…why didn’t you tell them?Right from the beginning?”
“I don’t know,” Hadley said as she rubbed at her eyes.“I was embarrassed and humiliated.I just kept hoping Kyle and I could work things out, but then…more and more time passed and it was too late.I’d kept the secret too long.”
“It definitely complicates matters,” Mary Elizabeth murmured while filling the teapot.“But your parents are not monsters, Haddie.”
“I know.Iknow.I was just…in such a state of shock at first.I couldn’t believe it when I found out about the affair, and then Kyle mentioned divorce and… Mary Elizabeth, to be honest, I don’t even remember the first six or eight months.Seriously.I can’t tell you what I did, where I went.It’s all a foggy blur.”
“Iknewsomething was going on.You’ve never stayed away so long before.”
“I knew I couldn’t hide it.That you’d all see and know.For the longest time, I’d break down in tears and it was a struggle just to get out of bed.”
“Oh, honey, I hate that you went through all that alone,” Mary Elizabeth said.“You’re not eating, are you?You’re thinner than ever.”
“I couldn’t keep anything down at first.My appetite had just started to come back when I got the news about Nan.”
“Are you sleeping?”
Hadley pressed her forehead into her palms and rubbed her gritty eyes.“Not much this week.The moment I knew Nan was gone and I’d stayed away…it all got worse again.I can’t believe I didn’t visit her.That I let a year go by and didn’t come see her.I hate myself for that.”
“Don’t.It’ll do you no good to beat yourself up about it now.And you said she knew, so that means she understood what you were going through.”
“But I should’ve told her myself.Confessed!I called every week but…I should’vetold her.I wish she’d have said something to me.Let on that she knew.”
“I’m sure she wanted to give you whatever time you needed, hon.”
The gas stove clicked until catching fire and Mary Elizabeth put the teapot on the grate.
“Who knows you’re divorced?Do the kids?”
Hadley felt a fresh tingling of tears and swallowed hard.Crying would get her nowhere, and heaven knew she’d already done more than her share for a lifetime.“Yes.They’re torn.They love us both and were supportive of me in the beginning.”
“What do you mean ‘in the beginning’?”
“They didn’t speak to Kyle when they first found out about the affair, but Kyle has been playing vacation dad and paying for trips all year long, taking the mistress with them so the kids were forced to warm up to her.”
“A fool and his money,” Mary Elizabeth said.
“Well, it worked, because now Abby talks about how happy her dad is, so it’s like the sneaking around and cheating is all okay now and they didn’t destroy a twenty-five-year marriage with their behavior.Did I tell you she was born the year Kyle and I starteddating?She isn’t much older than the kids.”