Page 78 of Storm in a D Cup

‘No one asked you to do anything of the sort, Julian. And I’ll ask you to chill. No one is touching your precious Joey.’

‘Precious Joey? So what, you’re jealous too, now? Because she’s not your blood but mine and Genie Stacie’s?’

I stared at him, dazed. Of all the things he could have said to make this easier on us all, he’d chosen none of them. Instead, he’d switched into attack mode. Who was this man standing before me? Because I certainly didn’t recognize him. This was not my beloved husband, procrastinator extraordinaire.

‘I don’t recognize you anymore,’ I huffed as I brushed past him, grabbing my car keys on my way out. I knew exactly where Maddy was. Sulking at Angelica’s.

‘Where are you going?’ Julian demanded. ‘I’m talking to you.’

I huffed and stopped. ‘I’m going to getourdaughter.’ Did you hear that nastiness in my voice? So did he. But I couldn’t help it. As much as I wanted everything to go smoothly with Joey, part of me (the biggest) was having trouble accepting this monumental change in our lives. And the fact that Maddy was too made it all the more difficult. How was I supposed to talk some sense into my teenage daughter when I, a grown woman and mother of two who was not your average shrinking violet, was having a hard time accepting all this?

‘Not on your life,’ he snapped, taking the keys out of my hand. ‘If anyone’s going to fetch her, it’ll be me.’

And with that, he marched out the door, slamming it behind him. Ouch. It looked like calm and collected Julian was losing it. With this weight on his shoulders, I didn’t wonder at it. How was he expected to take this news? And how were we, as a couple, expected to survive this?

*

About half an hour later, I heard the roaring of Julian’s Jeep as it rammed up the hill, lifting a cloud of dust in its wake. At seeing how he was driving, I was alarmed that something had happened, contrary to what I’d assured him of. But Maddy was sitting next to him, looking straight ahead, the pair of them stony-faced.

Like in a mirror, they both got out at the same moment, both slammed their doors and marched up the stone steps, Julian bringing up the rear. Their faces were bright red, but neither of them said anything as they brushed past me, avoiding, this time, slamming the front door. But I decided that if Julian was going to take Maddy on, he should be able to do it on his own until the bitter end.

It was only when they were both in the hall that Maddy spun around. ‘You can’t tell me what to do!’ she spat. ‘You’re not my father!’

‘Andthat’swhere you’re wrong!’ he pointed his car keys at her and yelled back. Literally yelled. AtMaddy.He never yelled at anyone, let alone his own family. ‘I am your father, and not that bloody low-life your mother married!’

Ah. Here we go. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he snapped and started taking out his problems on me. ‘Hey,’ I complained. ‘What’s going on?’

‘What’s going on?’ Julian echoed. ‘What’s going on is that I found our daughter and that other princess Angelica in a car with some blokes!’

‘I wasn’t doing anything!’ Maddy insisted. ‘We were just driving around!’

‘You are not allowed to get in people’s cars, especially if we don’t know them,’ I tried to remind her calmly lest she turned on me and then all communications would be severed for the unforeseeable future. ‘That was our first rule.’

‘Rules, rules, rules!’ Maddy shouted. ‘What about you following some of your own advice, yeah? What about the two of you actually talking to each other like you aren’t sworn enemies?’

Julian eyed me briefly, his face still red with anger, before he replied, ‘What goes on between your mother and I does not concern you, Maddy.’

‘Oh, is that what you think?’ she suddenly shrieked as if he’d slapped her across the face. ‘You follow my mom – and us – halfway across the world and open a business with her. You adopt us, marry her and then when this celebrity skank shows up on or doorstep, all of a sudden it’sYes Genie Stacie and No Genie Stacie. And then you tell us that, oh, by the way, you actually had a kid with that flake! And you expect Warren and me to just be chill about it? What the hell’s gonna happen when another ex-girlfriend crawls out of the woodwork, huh? Are we supposed to embrace every woman you slept with? I don’t know what’s going on in my mom’s head, but if I were her, I’d have already dumped your ass!’

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Those were the deep, private Erica’s thoughts. But how could my apparently shallow and self-centered teenage daughter have read me so easily? How did she know the real, politically incorrect me that I’d been suffocating for years? And how shocked was I, more to the point, that she was actually defending me against her idol, Genie Stacie, theItGirl?

‘Maddy, honey, leave your father and me to speak in private, will you?’ was all I could say.

She turned around and looked at me, and I could swear I saw pity in her eyes. But also anger. Sure, it was easy for her, at fifteen years of age, to talk about dumping asses.

I sighed, resigned, exhausted, disgusted. ‘I can’t make all this go away, Julian. I fear it’s going to only get worse, for all of us.’

And that’s when, atop all my other feelings, a thick veil of sadness descended. ‘To be honest, I still don’t… know how I feel right now about us,’ I confessed. ‘I’m not exactly thrilled that Genie Stacie has given you the only thing you ever wanted, but don’t get me wrong. I’m happy that this all worked out for you.’ In a sense.

His eyes went moist as he took my hands. ‘I’m so sorry to do this to you, Erica…’

If he’d only known exactly what he was doing to me. I caressed his cheek, realizing that things would never be the same. Not because of Joey. I loved that sweet girl. But because… because…

‘It’s OK,’ I promised. ‘I’m here for you.’

‘Oh thank God… thank you, Erica. ‘I knew I could rely on you after all.’ He drew me into his arms and kissed me. And yet, there was still so much sadness in my heart. Disappointment at what I’d been through since I was a child, and what was still to come. No one should ever have to fight so hard just to obtain what most people have from the day they’re born, that is, loving parents.

‘And Joey? We’ll take care of Joey, offer her a normal life,’ I assured him. Because I knew that even if I was broken-hearted now, and that it would probably take me years to get over it all, that I wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t want to lose Julian, and I wanted to help Joey. Genie Stacie’s existence was just something I’d have to get over for the greater good.

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