Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 130022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Okay.
I tried.
But I wasn’t going to do this with her. Be her target when there was no one else at whom to aim her venom.
“Colette—”
“You need to talk to my son, and he needs to talk to his father.”
Oh hell no.
I wasn’t going to battle for her either.
I opened my mouth again.
But she said, “Remy’s misdeeds are not on his father’s shoulders.”
I closed my mouth because I had no idea what she meant by that.
“Guillaume has been living three years in agony,” she went on. “I’ll not die, knowing my husband shoulders a burden that isn’t his.”
It was truth I spoke when I said, “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
Her gaze pierced mine. “I’m sorry, I’m quite sure you do.”
Okay.
I wasn’t going to play a guessing game with this woman either.
“Perhaps we can agree not to get involved in each other’s marriages,” I suggested.
“I can’t agree to that, considering my son left his beloved wife because he’s mostly his father’s son,” she retorted.
Although she was right about that (in some ways), I felt my brows rise, indicating my bemusement.
“Men need to do these kinds of things,” she continued. “I’m happy you came to realize that.”
“Do…what kind of things?”
“You don’t want me to say it.”
“Actually, since I don’t know what you’re going to say, I do.”
Colette arched a cunning brow. “He moved that woman in with him, didn’t he?”
According to Remy, they hadn’t spoken in three years.
How did she know that?
“How do you know about that?” I asked through stiff lips.
“Remy was a cerebral boy, cultured. He preferred drawing or playing piano to catting about with his friends. But when he did make a friend, he made that friend for life. And some of his friends have parents who are our friends.”
Wonderful.
This meant Remy told Beau or Jason about Myrna, and one of those two idiots told their folks.
“We were divorced,” I reminded her.
“And she was not his before? Or another one, perhaps?”
Oh my God.
“Remy wasn’t cheating on me.”
“That’s what I say to myself, dear.”
Right.
I didn’t live her life, as much as she wanted me to.
I was also done.
I stood and looked down at her. “My husband wasn’t cheating on me, Colette. And our marriage is none of your business. Now, truly, I am sorry about the state of things with you. So please, take this as honest and heartfelt when I say, don’t make this visit ugly. Make it about something else. And really, you need to make it about something else. You have five people who’ve come to visit you who’ll have nothing but memories soon. I’d suggest giving them good ones.”
With that, I started to move in front of her to get to the door.
I could hang with Manon in her room as she finished getting ready, the better to nag her to hurry so we could all get away from that house and this woman.
“He adores you, you know,” Colette noted as I passed.
I didn’t break stride as I said, “I know.”
“I’m not talking about Remy. I’m talking about Guillaume.”
That stopped me and I turned back. “I know that too.”
“So of course, he blames himself. It eats at him like acid.”
“He blames himself for what?”
“For Remy leaving you for another woman.” She fluttered a hand with perfectly peaked nails painted an unblemished buff. “The apple doesn’t fall and all of that.”
“Guillaume thinks…?” I couldn’t finish that.
Because I now knew what Guillaume thought.
He thought Remy had done what Guillaume had always done and that’s why we ended.
And because he loved his son, and me, and our children, our family, it had tortured him that was the example he’d set.
When it wasn’t that.
It was Colette.
And she loved her husband.
So in her way, she’d come out to speak to me so I would go about ending that torture.
“It wasn’t about another woman, Colette,” I said softly.
“All right, dear,” she murmured disbelievingly.
Because this was Remy’s mother, and she should know, firmly, I repeated, “It wasn’t about another woman. He suffered for you with that. So much, he’d never do that to me. We’d been divorced two years before he had another woman.”
The skin beside her eye ticked.
That was all I’d give her on that.
But for her and Guillaume, I said, “I’ll talk with Remy and encourage him to sit down with his dad.”
“I love him, you realize, with my whole heart.” She took a delicate breath and clarified, “Remy.”
I slid my head to one side like I was relieving a muscle on the other, righted it and began to bid her adieu again.
“I know Remy has shared…” She couldn’t say the words. “But I do love him.”
“Colette, let’s not talk about this.”
“You think you know.”
“I do know.”
She turned on her cushion to fully face me. “Guillaume’s family was very close. His parents thought he could do nothing wrong. He was the apple of their eye. The brightest star in their sky. I was very happy he had what I didn’t. Your parents were lovely. I watched. I saw. They cherished you. Do you know the meaning of the word cherish?”