Page 75 of The Life Experiment
‘You’re more than enough,’ Maya cut in, grabbing Joanna’s hand. ‘In every way, you’re more than enough.’
‘Maya’s right,’ Layla added. ‘There’s so much about you to love, Mum. Don’t waste your life acting like there’s not.’
A waterfall of tears threatened to pour from Joanna at her daughters’ words. She turned back to the mirror to hide them, but instead found herself facing her reflection with new eyes.
‘You are a woman who has lived an incredible fifty-four years on this earth,’ Layla said. ‘You have worked, laughed, cried and loved. You single-handedly held this family together when everything fell apart, when it felt like the world would never be the same again.’
‘Exactly,’ Maya said. ‘You’re our hero, Mum. That stomach you say is too big? It grew me and Layla, gave us life, and a bloody good one at that. The arms you think are too wobbly carried us to bed a million times. The lips you think are too thin have given us so many kisses, we have enough love in us to last a lifetime. If that’s not the perfect body, then what is?’
‘Oh, girls,’ Joanna sobbed, leaning her head on Layla’s shoulder.
Together, the Cannon women looked at their collective appearance in the mirror. They saw all the ways they were different and all the ways they were the same. They saw the long line of women who had gone before them, and imagined the ones who were to come, and realised it was time for change.
It started with an apology. Nothing loud, nothing flashy, just a moment to maintain eye contact and apologise to the tired, insecure,afraid little girls that lived inside their chests. They said sorry for hiding. Sorry for becoming so small and quiet that they weren’t sure they existed anymore. Sorry for softening bits of themselves because they were too much for some, only to be told they weren’t enough for others. Shape-shifting, morphing, changing… losing parts of themselves every time.
‘This is it,’ Layla said, pressing a kiss to Joanna’s forehead. ‘We are kind to ourselves from here on out.’
‘Always,’ Maya agreed.
‘Always,’ Joanna whispered.
Always, Layla thought.
34Angus
The contracts lay on the table in front of Angus. The language was complex. Confusing, even, but Angus knew no one was trying to trip him up. Unlike his bad investment history, this was a good choice. He was dealing with a lawyer he knew. The properties were in excellent condition. And in a few moments, they would be his.
As Angus absorbed the enormity of the occasion, his eyes drifted across the wooden table in his lawyer’s office. Decades old with a dark stain, the piece was steeped in history. Angus wondered how many people had sat at it over the years. How many decisions had been made in its presence? How many conversations had happened around it?
‘If you could sign here,’ Morgana said, pointing to the line awaiting Angus’s signature. Parallel to it was Peter’s swooping cursive, sealing his decision to hand two properties to his son.
The gesture, and the trust it implied, brought a lump to Angus’s throat. It had been there ever since Peter agreed to the exchange. Angus knew it wasn’t a decision his father made lightly, especially with Gilly insisting it wasn’t a good idea. Angus knew his parents had argued about it, but the decision had been made in Angus’s favour. That could mean only one thing: Peter had faith in him.
Emboldened by his father’s confidence, Angus added his signature to the page and that was it – the transaction was complete.
‘Congratulations, son,’ Peter said, smiling the kind of smile Angus had long dreamed of earning from him. ‘The next phase of your plan begins.’
Reaching across the table, Angus went to shake his father’s hand, but Peter shook his head. Before the snub could wound Angus, Peter strode around the table and hugged him. Angus blinked in surprise, then held his father tightly.
The men had hugged before, but this one felt different. When the moment ended, Angus ordered himself to remember the way pride was woven into the embrace… and to notice how small his father’s bulk felt when in his arms.
Shifting out of the hug, Angus’s eyebrows dipped as he realised that the change in Peter wasn’t only in his imagination. His father did look smaller. Thinner. Sadder.
‘Is everything okay?’ Angus asked.
‘Okay? Angus, think of what we’ve done today. Everything is brilliant. Come on,’ Peter said, clapping Angus’s shoulder and steering him away from the table. ‘Walk me out.’
After thanking the lawyers, Peter and Angus stepped out of the office. They didn’t stop walking until they reached the streets of Kensington.
‘Do you have any plans tonight?’ Peter asked as they walked side-by-side to where Peter’s driver was parked further down the road.
‘I’m seeing Layla soon.’
‘Celebrating the news?’
Angus nodded because it was easier than admitting that Layla knew nothing of his plans for Hugo’s House.
‘Glad to hear it, son. Moments like this deserve to be commemorated. You’ll regret it if you let them slide by unnoticed.’
