Page 25 of A French Adventure
Olivia glanced at Vivienne. ‘May I ask you something? Did you always know you were adopted? And how did you feel about it?’
‘Mum and Dad never made a secret of the fact that I was adopted. They always said they had chosen me, which made me feel special, and I didn’t question the circumstances. They never said my mother didn’t want me. They simply said it was impossible for her to keep me and she wanted a better life for me than the one she could give me. And they gave me that. I had a happy, stable childhood with loving parents.’
‘So why the need now to find a man who’s never been in your life, and probably doesn’t even know of your existence and who, by the way, might be dead? How are you going to feel if he turns out to be…’ Maxine shook her head in irritation. ‘Oh, I don’t know. Someone you wouldn’t want to be associated with?’
Both Vivienne and Olivia stared at Maxine, startled at the vehemence behind the sharply spoken words.
‘Put like that, I suppose it does seem selfish and silly,’ Vivienne finally said. ‘But this man is a part of me, whatever he turns out to be like. If he is still alive, surely he deserves to know he had a daughter? To meet her? As much as I have the right to know about my heritage.’
Maxine nodded. ‘True. But it is not always good to know the truth. Sometimes the past should be left in peace. Your life, his life, are not part of one of your stories. They are for real. Promise me that you will be careful in case you are lifting the lid on a Pandora’s box that will turn out to be uncontrollable.’
‘I promise to be careful,’ Vivienne said, deciding she needed to change the subject but uncertain as to how to do that. She smothered a sigh of relief when Olivia spoke.
‘I’m taking some flower arrangements to a couple of yachts in Monaco tomorrow and then staying with my parents until Monday. It’s going to be a busy weekend.’
‘I can’t believe my first visit to Monaco is for the Monte Carlo Grand Prix,’ Vivienne said. ‘It’s something I never expected I’d do. Tim is going to be so jealous.’
‘Parking will be impossible, so we’ll go by train early on Sunday morning,’ Maxine said. ‘I’ll organise the tickets.’
‘Thank you. How much money do I need to give you?’
‘Don’t worry about it. You can buy me breakfast at my favourite cafe in Monaco.’
‘Fair enough.’ Vivienne smiled, glad that the atmosphere had lightened a little. She but couldn’t help wondering what exactly had made Maxine so uptight this evening. She hoped it wasn’t anything she’d said or unintentionally done.
18
It was late Thursday afternoon before Olivia drove along the lower Corniche to Monaco, the pink taxi filled with a couple of arrangements and some extra flowers for her mother. Traffic, as she’d expected, was busy and she breathed a sigh of relief when she finally drove into the underground garage and parked. She grabbed her overnight case and one of the flower arrangements and took the lift up to the foyer. Crossing to the concierge desk, currently empty, she placed the basket on the desk but didn’t push the bell for attention. Ruby, the concierge, was probably taking a quick well-earned break. She’d know who the flowers were from as Olivia brought an arrangement every year for Grand Prix weekend. It was something that Aunt Daphne had done and Olivia was happy to carry on the tradition.
As Olivia stepped out of the lift into the hallway of her parents’ apartment, her father opened the door. After enveloping her in one of his trademark hugs, he took her overnight bag from her.
‘I’ve got some flowers to bring up for Maman,’ Olivia said. ‘I’ll fetch them from the car.’ And Olivia went back down to the garage.
When she returned with the flowers, her mother was out on the balcony watching the activity in the pits down below. Olivia placed the arrangement on the table in the sitting room and joined her mother on the balcony.
‘There’s just something in the air during GP week,’ she said leaning on the balcony alongside her mother. ‘Even now when the cars are in the pit garages with the mechanics and the electronic teams and nothing is out on track, there’s a sort of extra energy in the atmosphere giving the place an exciting buzz.’
Felicity nodded in agreement. ‘I miss the old days when we used to host team sponsors here for the three days of the weekend. Nowadays, it’s just friends and friends of friends for race day.’
‘Those race weekends were fun but jolly hard work though,’ Olivia said. ‘Entertaining strangers is harder than feeding friends. You never quite relax in case anything goes wrong. I enjoy the race and Sundays so much more now. And hiring a couple of waiters to circulate with the food means that you can relax knowing that people are being served.’
‘Yes, that certainly helps. I forgot to tell you, we’ve got an invitation from a friend of Papa’s for drinks on one of the yachts tonight,’ her mother said.
‘Do I have to come?’ Olivia questioned. ‘I’ve got a couple of deliveries to do and also the other two arrangements for you.’
‘It’s not until nine o’clock. You can do the arrangements, we’ll have an early supper, and then we can drop off the deliveries on our way.’
Olivia couldn’t face arguing with her mother at the beginning of the weekend, so she shrugged. ‘Okay. I’ll go and make a start on the arrangements now,’ she said before turning to leave.
‘Have you seen Thierry since the party?’ her mother asked.
‘Why would I?’
‘You used to be such friends, go places together. He’d be quite a catch.’
‘Maman, how many times do I have to say it – I’ll find my own husband and if I don’t, that’s my problem, not yours. So stop trying to interfere in my life.’ And Olivia walked back indoors before her mother could respond.
Working on the arrangements in the kitchen, Olivia hoped and prayed her mother would not embarrass either her or Thierry, by trying to push them together on Sunday. There was no way she would admit to anyone, least of all her mother, how happy she was to have Thierry back in her life. She might have had a teenage crush on him years ago, but knowing that he was unlikely to ever reciprocate the feeling, she’d made sure she’d left it behind with the rest of her childish dreams when she left for university. After the row they’d had over his job in Singapore and the ensuing horrible silence that had existed between them afterwards, she’d settle for being friends and keeping her opinions about his work to herself.
