Page 132 of The Fiancée Farce
“No, thank you.” Katherine perched on the edge of the sofa. “Sweet of you to offer.”
Tansy joined her on the couch and waited for Katherine to explain the reason behind her impromptu visit.
Who the hell was Tansy kidding? What with the wedding that had never happened, Katherine was probably concerned about how soon she could accept Scylla’s offer and sell the store.
Hands clasped tightly around the handle of her purse, Katherine shifted, getting comfortable. “I know it’s not my business, but I wanted to check in and see how you were holding up. I wanted to know if you need anything.”
“Need anything?” Tansy repeated. “Like what?”
She wouldn’t say no to a time machine, some way of going back to the minute before Tucker had stood his stupid ass up. Two minutes before, maybe—long enough to warn someone to hog-tie him in a back room somewhere and prevent the humiliation he’d inflicted on her, round deux.
“You know.” Tansy laughed humorlessly. “I’m getting by.”
Katherine looked at her, much too knowingly.
“Tansy—”
“What do you want me to say, Katherine?” She stood, pacing the length of the room. “That I’m sorry for lying to you? Lying to everyone? Humiliating myself, and you by association? Because I am, okay? I’m sorry. Is that what you want to hear?”
Katherine sniffled into her ever-present handkerchief. “You’resorry? Tansy, dear, I scarcely know what to say.”
Yeah, well, that made two of them. It was the one thing they just might have in common.
Katherine gave a shaky sigh. “I just don’t understand where I went wrong. Where I—”
“It’s not about you.” Tansy’s nails bit into her fists, years of pent-up anger, frustration,sadnessescaping her through every outlet they could find. “God. I was sixteen, okay? And I needed you and—”
The words spilled out, confessions only Samina and Gemma had heard. About Ashleigh’s cruelty, Madison’s ambivalence, Tucker’s sweet words and his deception. The photos he’d taken, the photos he’d spread, her shame, how Montlake Prep had covered it all up, and how Tansy had let them because she was too young, too naive, tooscaredto know better. How she’d kept it from Katherine because she wasn’t sure how she’d react. All of it. Why she hated attending family dinners, the reason she’d created a fake girlfriend, her deal with Gemma, how it had started out as a business arrangement but had become real. The words tripped off Tansy’s tongue until it was all out there, the ugly truth, no more secrets, no more lies.
At some point Katherine must’ve left the room, because now she pressed a mug of tea into Tansy’s hands and told her to drink. That it would soothe her nerves. It was probably more of a placebo than anything, but it was the sort of thing her mom would’ve done, and that alone was enough to make her take a sip at Katherine’s urging.
Katherine clasped her hands together atop her lap. “Words cannot do justice to how terribly sorry I am, Tansy. You deserved much more than I gave you.” She sniffled softly and looked away, out the window. “When your father died so soon after we weremarried, only a few short years after my first husband passed, I was heartbroken. I was grieving and I didn’t want to feel much of anything. I drowned my sorrows in too much wine because I was tryingsohard not to think about everything I’d lost that I managed to ignore what I still had—a brand-new daughter.”
Tansy felt a pang of sympathy for Katherine. “I know it was hard, Katherine, but I was grieving, too. You lost a husband, and I lost my dad on the heels of losing my mother. You were all I had and—”
She blinked hard, tired of crying.
“I wasn’t there. You deserved so much better, Tansy. I—I wasn’t entirely oblivious, you know. I saw the way Ashleigh treated you. And I ignored it because... I didn’t know what else to do. And that will forever be my greatest shame.” Katherine dabbed under her eyes with her tissue. “Words cannot do justice to how sorry I am that you didn’t feel like you could talk to me and tell me what Tucker, that—that”—her nostrils flared—“low lifedid to you. I’m sure it’s too little, much too late, but it wasn’t your fault. None of it was your fault.”
Her eyes went glossy, vision blurring. Maybe it was too little, too late, but it didn’t matter. Katherine’s words were a much-needed balm.
“I need you to know how sorry I am that I pushed you to attend dinners, pushed you to the point where you felt like you needed to live a lie. And I need you to know how I’d desperately like to do better,bebetter, if you’ll give me that chance.”
“Katherine—”
“On your terms,” Katherine added swiftly. “At your pace. And if you’d rather have your space, I completely understand and will respect your decision.”
This was all a far cry from the Katherine who had issued ultimatums and strong-armed Tansy into the wedding ofKatherine’sdreams, ignoring pretty much every boundary Tansy had ever established.
She wasn’t about to hold her breath that Katherine would change overnight, but maybe, just maybe, Katherine could turn over a new leaf. If Tansy gave her another chance.
“That’s really big of you, Katherine,” she said. “I think I might like that.”
Katherine rested her hand on Tansy’s and smiled. “I think I’d like that, too.”
As much as she loathed the idea of putting a damper on this emotional moment... “Katherine, I have to ask. What are you planning on doing with the store?”
“The store.” Katherine frowned. “Selling, you mean?”
