“Perhaps I should have mentioned,” he says calmly, taking a sip of water. “Beth isn’t actually the mother.”
Forty-Two
Beth
All the noise around the table stops.
Ellen’s lips thin. “Sebastian.Don’t tell me you slept with some poor girl, got her pregnant, and then took her child and went off with the next floozy that looked at you?”
My eyebrows shoot up. Wow. I’ve never been called afloozybefore.
I watch Sebastian’s grip tighten on his fork. “Don’t talk about Beth like that—”
“I’m just saying, dear, you can’t be too careful. You’re making a good salary. That makes you very attractive to young women.”
Blood flushes Seb’s face. “Mum—”
I step in. “It’s okay, Seb. I mean, I guess, in a way, Ellen’s right. I am using you for your money.” I smile at his mother. “I’m not his girlfriend; I’m his nanny. Sebastian’s very busy at work right now, and he needed some help looking after Cami on the weekdays.”
Ellen’s mouth drops open. “Ananny?” She asks, horrified.
Steve puts down his cutlery and finally speaks up. “What happened to the mother?” He asks, his voice low.
Sebastian studies his water glass. “We slept together casually just over a year ago, then lost contact. A few weeks ago, she sent Cami to me, and said that she needed me to look after her. It turns out that she was a drug addict, and was entering rehab.”
There’s a very long silence. Cami gabbles happily, poking her hand in her potatoes, then beams across at me.
“And is there a reason you didn’t tell us all of this off the bat?” Ellen asks at last, her voice acidic.
“Because I knew that you’d look at her differently, once you knew,” Sebastian says levelly. “I wanted you to see her as yourgrandchildbefore you wrote her off as some addict’s illegitimate child.”
“Well, that’s the truth, isn’t it?” Ellen looks at Cami, distaste all over her face. “Good lord. I suppose that means the mother was shooting up whilst she was pregnant! Is the baby addicted to anything? Are there any…” she shudders in delicate horror, “developmental problems?”
Sebastian’s face goes white with anger. “If there were, she wouldn’t be worth any less! How the Hell is her mother’s addiction her fault?!”
“Cami is perfectly healthy,” I step in, smiling as sweetly as I can. “We had her checked out by her paediatrician.”
Cami waves her hands in the air triumphantly, then wipes potato onto Seb’s shirt. He catches her tiny palm and kisses it hard, his jaw tight with anger.
“And why isshehere?” Ellen continues, not even bothering to look at me. “Why on Earth would you need a nanny? Really, you’re going to be one of those parents whohire helpto look after their children?” She scoffs. “Well, I suppose I understand. It’s probably best that you get someone else to look after her. I doubtyoucould do it.”
I frown. I don’t like the tone of that. “Sebastian is more than capable of looking after his baby.”
“If he were, dear, then you wouldn’t be here,” she says dismissively. “I personally think it’s an awful thing to do to a child, foisting them off onto some stranger instead of raising them yourself. Even when your father left, I never put you in a creche or hired a babysitter.”
“No,” Sebastian says coldly, “you just shipped me off to American military camps. Maybe you’d prefer if Beth made my child run drills and do hard labour, instead of cuddling her when she cries and reading her story books? Would that be more acceptable to you?”
Ellen’s face flushes angry red. She leans across the table, almost knocking over her wine glass. “You were sent to those camps because you were behaving like a spoiled, violent brat,” she hisses. “That’s hardlymyfault. You think Iwantedto send my son away?”
“Oh, yes, you seemed heartbroken. You needed to cheer yourself up with a cruise in the Bahamas every time I left.”
“I didn’t have a choice! You were scaring me!”
“I wasscaringyou?” Sebastian repeats, a vein throbbing in his forehead. “I was a five-foot-two twelve-year-old who liked reading about trains and refused to kill spiders. How thehelldidIscareyou?!”
“You were so aggressive! You knocked one of Steve’s teeth out for no reason at all!”
“He was shouting at you! You looked terrified!”