“You’re saying that every part you informed me about my dad was a lie?”

Her mom flinched. “It’s a must to perceive I used to be making an attempt to guard you. I didn’t suppose you wanted to know the reality. He was lifeless. What did it matter what he was actually like? It was prior to now and it was supposed to remain prior to now.”

She’d solely ever seen her mom positive and assured earlier than. Her mom was a winner. A celebrity. There wasn’t an issue in life that she couldn’t deal with. Or so she’d thought, however now she was seeing one other aspect to her. She noticed uncertainty and vulnerability. She noticed remorse and worry.

Worry.

Cassie watched as Andrew tightened his maintain on her. Noticed him soothe and help her mom by this trauma.

Her father. Her dad.

She couldn’t make sense of it.

It was like studying a novel, anticipating it to be romance and discovering that it was crime fiction.

“I don’t perceive.” She began to shake. First her arms after which her legs. “You informed me so many optimistic tales about my dad.”

“And that’s what they had been. Tales.”

The horror of it clung to her, protecting her pores and skin like a movie of sweat.

“However I believed them.” Perhaps she was the one who was naive. “I believed what you informed me.”

“Why wouldn’t you? It’s what I do, isn’t it? It’s my expertise. Most likely my solely expertise,” her mom mentioned. “I write fiction. And nearly each single factor I informed you about Rob Dunn was fiction. And I do know I ought to really feel responsible for not telling you the reality. However how might I? How do you inform somewhat lady the reality about her daddy, when the reality would hold her awake at evening?” Her mom’s voice broke and her eyes stuffed. “How do you?”

Cassie felt tears on her cheeks too. She brushed them away.

Her dad.

She’d by no means identified him, however she’d all the time felt as if she knew him. She’d conjured him from her creativeness with the assistance of her mom’s tales. She’d created somebody who had been a part of her life. He’d been an actual particular person to her, and now she might really feel him fading. She needed to succeed in out and seize that picture earlier than it vanished ceaselessly.

“So that you’ve informed me the fiction.” Her mouth was dry. Her lips had been dry. “Might you inform me the details? All of them. Unedited.” Perhaps she’d stay to remorse that request, however she knew that she wanted the reality.

Cassie didn’t even notice Adeline had moved till she heard the scrape of a chair and felt her sister’s arm slide around her.

Later, she’d take into consideration the truth that Adeline had moved to consolation her despite the fact that she should have been feeling loads of feelings of her personal, however for now she was simply grateful for her help.

Her mom wiped her eyes and took a sip of water.

“I met Rob in a bar, precisely the way in which I informed you. He was charming. Andrew and I had separated by this level.” She put the glass down, her unsteady hand sloshing a few of it over the sting. “I used to be at a really low level in my life. I used to be weak, and Rob was caring, attentive and good firm. He was precisely what I wanted, or so I believed. He informed me he ran his personal tech enterprise and will stay and work the place he favored, so he’d chosen Corfu. It wasn’t true, however when somebody tells you one thing, you don’t mechanically assume they’re mendacity, do you? You don’t fact-check every part you hear. Or perhaps you do. Perhaps it’s completely different now, with social media, and courting apps, and everybody presenting a false entrance to the world. Who’s to say what’s actual and what isn’t? Perhaps you all the time query what folks inform you, however I didn’t. I believed he was what he mentioned he was. Who he mentioned he was.”

Andrew took her hand. “You don’t need to relive this. I might inform them the remaining.”

“No. I want to do that.” However the way in which she clung to his hand hinted on the scale of the ordeal. “I believed every part he informed me as a result of it didn’t happen to me to not. I believed I used to be worldly and sensible, however I used to be neither. Rob Dunn was a talented con artist. A manipulator and a grasp of invention, higher at taking part in a personality than I ever was at writing one. Had the circumstances been completely different, I might need admired his creativity. He knew precisely what I wanted, and he gave it to me. He’d learn my books. Studied them. He knew how romantic heroes behaved, and he modeled himself on what he learn. He reeled me in like a fish on a line. Nothing was an excessive amount of hassle. He listened. Purchased me considerate presents. Made me snort. He handled me like a very powerful particular person on this planet.”

Cassie sat with out transferring. She might sense the darkness that was coming. It hovered beneath the phrases her mom was talking, an unseen menace. It was like witnessing an approaching storm and ready for it to interrupt.

She felt barely faraway from actuality, as if she was watching this play out from a distance.

The meals lay in entrance of them, forgotten.

“I turned pregnant,” her mom mentioned. “We’d solely been collectively for 2 months. I anticipated him to be horrified, however he was delighted. On the time, I believed it was one other demonstration of his love. Of this glorious romance we had been having fun with.”

“Management.” Adeline spoke softly. “He noticed it as one other approach to management you.”

“Sure, though sadly I didn’t have your notion. It took me some time to see it. I suppose I used to be besotted.” The look she despatched Andrew was mortified and apologetic. “He was charming and attentive. After which Cassie was born and that was when every part modified.”

“As a result of he needed to share you,” Adeline mentioned, and Catherine gave a weary smile.

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