Page 18 of The Sting of Love
She draws in a breath and reaches for a lock of her hair, allowing the ends to curl around her thumb.
“Sweetie, you know I never liked William. I could have died when he walked out on you at the wedding. I could have killed him for being such an ass. Even the worst of the assholes I know, know not to do that, and then to hear he was fucking around behind your back too… rubs me the wrong way.”
I bite back a smile at her words. Mom and Lurlene are so different from each other. The same as I am from Jade and Varity, my sisters. They are duplicates of Mom, whereas I’m like Lurlene. I took to her more when I was younger and loved her rebellious ways. I liked that she didn’t bend over backwards to conform just because she was being told what to do. I wish I could be like that.
If I’d truly embraced her ways, most of the shit that’s happened to me would never have happened.
“I know. Now this. He’s taken everything from me. Everything and all that I treasure.”
“I know, sweet girl. We’re all worried about you. Your mother called last night too.”
I groan inwardly. Mom is the last person I want to talk to. “What did she want?”
Lurlene chuckles. “Willow, please. She’s worried.”
“I doubt that.”
“For the love of the good Lord, please don’t make my sister hate me. She already thinks I’m a bad influence on you. You should have heard her last night with that fake Valley girl accent.”
I burst out laughing. I could be at my worst, and Lurlene would know exactly what to say to make me laugh.
“Oh my God, what? Is that how you think she sounds?”
“My ears to God, Willow. I felt like I could have been on the set ofClueless.”
I shake my head. I guess she’s not exactly wrong. Mom really goes to town when she’s talking to people. Especially Lurlene.
“If it’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s fake people,” Lurlene adds. “Your mother is that. Such a shame because your father is such a sweet man. He doesn’t allow his status to get to his head.”
I nod, agreeing. When Dad stopped teaching at UCLA and started selling his paintings, he was the same quirky guy everybody always knew. Even when he came into wealth and we moved into the mansion in Bel Air. Mom decided she could suddenly act like the First Lady, but he stayed the same.
Dad certainly did the opposite to what Mom did to me when William walked away. The memory of her cruel words makes the backs of my eyes sting, and a tear runs down my cheek. Lurlene notices and hands me a tissue from the side of the tray.
“Willow, talk to me. I know you have a lot going on,” she says.
“I don’t really want to talk to Mom. Not now. She can go tend to Jade or Varity with their perfect husbands and babies. If she calls again, just tell her I’ll speak to her another time.”
“My God, child, did something else happen between you two? It’s not like you to say such a thing. That’s more my thing. Sometimes I wonder if by some crazy miracle you could be the daughter I never had.” She offers me a kind smile.
“I wish I were. You would never have told me that it was my fault that my husband-to-be left me at the altar, and if I thought the man was cheating, it must have been my fault too.” More tears come, and I feel like a pathetic mess.
Lurlene’s mouth drops wide open, and she shakes her head at me. “Your mother said that?” She gasps, her bright blue eyes wide with shock as it suffuses her face.
“Yeah. She did. William’s a lawyer. Senior partner in his firm, Lurlene. To her, he’s hot shit, and it had to be my fault things didn’t work out. Know what she’ll say when she finds out his secretary is nigh on giving birth and my cheating suspicions are confirmed?My fault.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, that’s real fucked up. At least I know that part. I know it wasn’t my fault. How can it be? Lurlene, I was good to him. I did everything he wanted me to do, and I was everything he wanted me to be. It just wasn’t enough. I wish to God I’d left him when I started to have that suffocated feeling.”
She nods. “Yeah. I know the feeling. I guess that’s why I’ve been married three times. I dare say that husband number one was probably the closest to perfect I’ll ever get. My Eddie. But the Lord called him home too early. Maybe he was more fitting to an angel.”
I remember her with Eddie even though I was really young when they were together. He was Italian and the source of Lurlene’s obsession with Italy. I was fifteen when he died. He was a professional bodyguard and he got shot while he was on a job protecting some high profile clients.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.” She reaches forward and takes my hand into hers. “Don’t be. I was just saying. I think that sometimes you just have to follow your heart.”
“Yeah. I should.”
