The housekeeper, Rosario, said she’d gone out.
I waited for her in her sitting room upstairs, and as soon as I heard her coming up the stairs, I went out to meet her.
“Matthew, you’re back.”
“I want to talk to you.”
“I’ll ring for some tea,” she said.
I ignored her. “You tried to bribe Lauren.”
A steely resolve set among her features. “I only tried to do what is best for you.”
“No, you tried to do what is best for you.”
“You’re tired from your flight, you’re not seeing clearly.”
“On the contrary, I am seeing things very clearly.” I paused. “Don’t make me choose between her and you.”
“That shouldn’t even be a choice!” my mother declared. “Lauren Lambert is a common slut! That isn’t your child! I spoke to the real father, an absolute dead beat!”
“Don’t talk about Lauren like that! I won’t have it!”
She glared at me. “You are a Waterstone. You will marry well. Carry this family’s name forward.”
“If you cannot accept Lauren, I am walking out this door and you will not see me again.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“You underestimate me, Mother!” I saw my mother’s face react to the news, but I didn’t care.
“Lauren is my future and I intend being with her. If you can’t accept it there will be no place for you in it!”
I went down the stairs and she shouted after me. “What about your father, Matthew? He died for this company, for you! Would you really do this to me, to his memory? After everything we have gone through? You will bring shame to this family!”
I heard her voice as I went into my room, slamming the door behind me. Despite my resolve, I was shaken by her words. I took a few things from my room, packed the most important items,then decided to come back for the rest. I had to get out of there. I looked at what had been my bedroom for most of my life. It had been renovated when I took over at Egal and it looked so impersonal, like a suite at a hotel. No wonder I was so comfortable in hotel rooms. I thought of Lauren’s apartment, the photographs of happy times stuck against the fridge, the framed children’s art, the hand painted clay pots and fraying rugs on the floor.
When I came out the door, my mother stood at the front door, her cheeks wet, and I had to resist the urge to touch them to see if they were real.
“Don’t do this, Matthew, I beg you,” she said. “If not for me, then do it for your father. Please don’t leave.”
“Father wanted me to be happy,” I said. “I’ve never been happy here.”
I pushed past her and opened the front door, and a cold gust of air greeted me in the face.
Chapter 19
Lauren
The first morning I woke up in Colorado, I was completely disoriented. It was the light and the silence. I got up and went into the main house, thrown by all the space and the absence of the hustle and bustle of New York. I’d grown up with the city, was used to the sound of traffic and honking car horns, sirens and people yelling to one another across the street.
Here, it was just, so quiet.
It was weird.
“You’re up!” I turned around and saw John, my father, walking towards me with a big grin.
“You going to have some coffee?” He had a big booming voice to go with his towering six-foot frame.