Page 90 of In This Together

Rosalie had known that it was true. Hannah wouldn’t have lied. Yet her stomach sank. Her dinner was in danger of making a reappearance. The way he spoke told her it had been more than a one-off. Andhehad ended it. She wasn’t sure what would have been best – that he had ended it, that Andrea had ended it, or that they had mutually decided a onetime mistake should never be repeated.

What she did know was that her heart broke again when she thought it was already broken entirely. She shook her head, willing herself to stay strong.

Hunter stood and walked to his daughter, reaching out to her shoulders.

Rosalie shrugged him off. ‘Don’t touch me.’

He dropped his hands. ‘I know you thought she was your friend, Rosalie, but look how she treated you. You just don’t have the best judgement when it comes to people and I’m sorry you had to find out this way.’

‘Sorry I had to find out in a certain way or sorry I caught you out at all?’ she snapped. ‘How dare you blame this on my judgement of character?Youdid this to me, to Mom, to our family.’

‘And I ended it, Rosalie. What more do you want?’

He shook his head as he walked back to the desk. ‘You know, I blame myself for your ignorance. You’ve been too sheltered from real life.’

‘Excuse me? Are you really trying to say this is okay? That you lying to us is acceptable?’ She paced the floor with anger that made her hands tremble. ‘You’re not even remorseful, are you?’

Hunter sighed, as if Rosalie was taking up precious time he couldn’t be bothered to give.

‘I’m sorry it was Andrea and I’m sorry I’ve hurt you, Rosalie. But you’re a grown woman and it’s about time you stopped being so naïve. Life isn’t all love songs, flowers and chocolates.’

She stopped pacing and confronted him. ‘What exactly is that supposed to mean?’ she yelled, unable to contain her temper.

‘It’s supposed to mean’ – Rosalie turned to see her mother, moving from the doorway into the library to join them – ‘that your father and I have a very nice life. It works for both of us and it has always worked for you.’

‘You knew?’ Rosalie asked, her shock making her words barely more than a whisper.

‘I realised it was Andrea the night of the Presley John commemoration concert. I told your father I didn’t approve and that it would hurt you if you found out. He assured me he would end it.’

Rosalie tried to process what she was being told. ‘I just don’t… I can’t understand this.’

Loretta moved to Hunter’s side and placed a hand on his forearm. ‘Rosalie, your father and I understand that we both have needs that we can’t meet for each other.’

‘Have there… been more women?’ Rosalie asked, terrified of the answer.

‘Yes,’ Hunter said. ‘And men,’ he added, inclining his head toward his wife.

Rosalie stared at her parents, seeing them for the first time in more than thirty years in a completely new light. Naïve indeed. What a fool she had been, always searching for a man like her daddy. Aspiring to have a life like theirs – wealthy, stylish, indulgent, proudly deserved, full of love. The perfect life that ticked every box on her own checklist.

She looked at them now, the picture of a happily married couple, and she had no idea who they were, or who she was.

With nothing left to say, she turned her back on them and their illusion of a perfect home.

22

HANNAH

‘Have a good day! Be good. Be safe,’ Hannah called down the stairs in response to Luke and Jackson heading out for the school bus.

She was finishing off the small amount of make-up she ordinarily wore to work and hoping that Rod would leave the house on time, before Hannah was expected to leave the house to drop TJ to nursery on her way to work.

On the day Andrea fired her, the first thing Hannah should have done was tell Rod. Confess that Andrea had been having an affair with Hunter, that Andrea was pregnant and Hannah was terrified she might get rid of the baby because Hunter had told her to. That she had lost her temper with Rosalie over her stupidity, accused her friend of being racist, which she knew wasn’t true, and taken her anger with Hunter and Andrea out on Rosalie. That she had told Rosalie about the affair and deserved to be fired by Andrea for what she’d done.

But she hadn’t told Rod on the day she was fired and now, days later, she still hadn’t confessed to Rod. Instead, she had been pretending to drop TJ at nursery and go to work. She had been keeping him home from nursery and cancelled the sitter, lying to her children about getting home from work early in the evenings, because she was afraid.

She was afraid that she had let down Rod and her whole family. They needed her salary to make ends meet. Even keeping TJ out of childcare wouldn’t save them enough money for Hannah to stop working.

All her adult life, she had strived to be better than her own mother. To put her family and her kids, especially, ahead of everything else. To prove her father, who had wanted to abandon her for having Luke, that he was wrong, that she could take care of her kids on her own.

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