Page 67 of Rendez-Vous in Cannes
‘So your dad is Matthew and your mum is Eliane’ Anna said.
‘I hope the three of you get on when you meet.’ Teddy looked anxious for a moment.
‘I’m sure we will. I intend to ask Eliane about all the embarrassing things you got up to as a child that I can’t ask you,’ Anna said, laughing at the look on Teddy’s face.
It wasn’t all one sided though. As they sat there enjoying coffee and slices of the tarte tropézienne, Teddy surprised Anna by asking a question about her own parents.
‘Did they ever regret not seeing their grandson grow up?’
Anna closed her eyes and bit her lips. Should she sugar coat her parents’ attitude towards her all those years ago? Or tell him the truth about not just their sheer obstinacy over her pregnancy and his birth, but how vindictive, mean and downright cruel they’d been in the way they’d treated her? In the end she opted for a sanitised version; it was too long ago to drag it all back up in depth. Besides, it was a generation away, involving people he’d never known. Would never know.
‘They never acknowledged you in any way,’ Anna said quietly. ‘After you were born, I returned home, finished my education, got a job as an office assistant with a small film company and started to secretly save money so that I could leave home and be independent. A week after my nineteenth birthday, I left home.’ She took a deep breath.
‘After that, contact was limited to the occasional phone call and a Christmas card. They died ten years ago within a month of each other.’ Anna didn’t add they’d treated her as a distant relative after she left home; that she could count on the fingers of one hand her visits to see them in the intervening years; that they had never congratulated her on the success of her career,
‘I’m sorry that my existence caused you such pain,’ Teddy said quietly, reaching out to hold and squeeze her hand. ‘It’s unbelievable that anybody could treat their only child the way they treated you.’
‘But your parents were kind to you?’
Teddy smiled. ‘I couldn’t have asked for better parents. Sorry,’ he rubbed his face in anguish. ‘I didn’t mean that you and Philippe wouldn’t have – if circumstances had been different I’m sure—’
‘I’m glad you feel like that,’ Anna interrupted. ‘I’m not offended, just happy that what I prayed for happened. I wanted you to go to a loving, caring couple who would give you a better life than I could give you at the time.’ Anna hesitated. ‘There is one thing I’d like to know though – why try to get in touch with Philippe now after all these years?’
‘I’ve always known I was adopted and when I was about eighteen, I did mention to Mum and Dad about trying to find my biological parents.’ Teddy swirled the wine around in his glass. ‘Dad was fine about it, said they’d expected me to be curious, but Mum,’ he shrugged. ‘She was clearly worried about me rejecting them, even though she never tried to persuade me not to look. In the end, I decided it would hurt her too much if I started looking, so I didn’t.’
Anna was silent for a second or two. ‘So what changed this year?
‘Dad was diagnosed with diabetes by a new doctor at our local practice who didn’t know I was adopted. This doctor said the disease could run in families so Dad should tell his son to be aware and have regular checks. It made the three of us realise that maybe for medical reasons I should try and get in touch with my biological parents. Just in case there was anything nasty lurking in the genes.’
‘When you talk to Jacques, you’ll be able to ask him. You are going to talk to your uncle, aren’t you?’ Anna asked.
‘Strange having an uncle who is my father’s twin,’ Teddy said. ‘But, yes, I am going to talk to him and to Bernard. It will have to wait though until we come back for a visit. We leave tomorrow for the UK and I have quite a schedule lined up for the next few weeks.’
Teddy finished his wine and placed the glass on the table before looking at Anna seriously.
‘I need to say something. I hope you will meet Mum and Dad sooner rather than later and that’s the thing. Mum is my mum and I’ll never stop thinking or calling her that. Which means—’
‘Teddy, stop right there,’ Anna said. ‘You are her son, she brought you up, she loves you. The fact she didn’t give birth to you is immaterial. There is no way I would want to come between you and her. I’m happy for you to call me Anna – or even join Cindy, in calling me Lolly.’ Anna smiled at her son. ‘I really, truly don’t mind. All I care about is having you, Verity and my granddaughter in my life from now on.’
Epilogue
Four months later
Wandering through the Duty Free zone of Nice airport before boarding the flight to the UK, Daisy smiled happily to herself. So much had happened since the last time she’d been in there, sniffing the perfume before treating herself to a small bottle as a final treat from the Film Festival.
Nat had left with Cindy and the Wickhams the day after the festival finished, while she’d stayed on for another week to see her parents and talk to them about her future. A future that seemed to them to be uncertain to say the least. Her mother had been the one to voice her worries.
‘Finding work as a freelance will take time. Are you sure you’ve got enough money to survive on in the meantime. Dad and I will, of course, help you if you need anything. And are you sure about Nat? You’ve only just met him and I know Poppy likes him but you barely know him. To even be thinking of going to America with him so soon,’ and her mother had shaken her head.
‘Mum, I know it’s not going to be easy but I’ve got lots of contacts and I’ve got enough money put aside to live off for several months. I’m sorry you’ve not had the chance to meet Nat but when you do I know you’re going to love him as much as I do. As soon as I get back next week I’ll bring him down to meet you, okay?’
Her mum and dad had taken to Nat on that visit as Daisy had known they would although her mum admitted to still being worried about her.
‘But I can see the two of you are great together and will work things out between you,’ she’d said.
Two days after Nat had met her parents, Daisy had waved him off at the airport to catch his flight to America. She had so much to organise in the next few weeks that they’d decided however much she wanted to accompany Nat on that first trip it wasn’t possible. For the next few weeks she had to concentrate on clearing her flat out and giving notice, sorting the stuff she needed to take to Poppy’s, updating her contact list and letting editors know she was now freelance and available, pitching ideas to various magazines and newspapers in an effort to get some work lined up and finally, but by no means least, she had to get herself back down to Cannes and Poppy. Her dad came to the rescue there, offering to drive her down, meaning she could take the things she wanted rather than leave them in her parents’ garage.
She and Nat Skyped each other every day — mid evening for Daisy and breakfast time for Nat. When the studio Nat was working with on his script wanted him to stay on longer they were both disappointed that the separation would be longer than they’d anticipated.
