Michelle Vernal Box Set

by Michelle Vernal

  “Sounds cheerful; what happened to them?”

  “Sharks,” he finished flatly, and Rebecca gave an involuntary shiver. Unfortunately, Monica overheard their conversation and at the mention of the S word, she was off again.

  Once Monica’s sideshow was over, David made a few feeble attempts at instigating conversation, but whatever it was he wasn’t telling her was sitting like a roadblock between them. She couldn’t be bothered with the pretence.

  Without the nervous anticipation that she’d felt as the boat had sped out to sea that morning, the cruise back to the jetty seemed to take forever. Sensing his attentions weren’t being warmly received, David turned his attention to his new friends, Giovanni and Monica, while Rebecca gazed at the endless expanse of blue outside. After an age, the jetty finally came into view. As the boat chugged into position, David—his earlier cockiness gone—asked, “Did you want to go for a drink? Ben’s staying in Christchurch with his mum for a couple of days and Giovanni and Monica are keen to head over to the pub for a quiet one.”

  The Swiss duo nodded at her and, grinning somewhat inanely, made her mind up for her. “Um, no thanks. It’s been a great day, but I’ve got to get back. For the kids. I, uh, told Jennifer I’d pick them up...” Her voice trailed off at the look he was giving her. It was obvious that this time she was the one lying.

  A kerfuffle ensued as everybody gathered up their belongings and shuffled towards the door. Once they slowly began trickling off the boat, Rebecca sought Tina out and gave her a hug goodbye, thanking her for helping her overcome her nerves. Tina’s smile was warm as she returned the hug.

  “You’re welcome. It’s seeing people like you put their fears to one side and go for it that makes my job worthwhile.”

  “Thanks again; it was totally amazing, even if Horatio proved himself to be a bit fickle in his affections.” She managed a small laugh before turning to join the disembarking line.

  “Rebecca!” Tina called after her.

  “Yeah?” She swung back around expectantly.

  “Good luck with the fishing. I know where you’re coming from. It’s so easy to mistake a shark for a dolphin.” They exchanged knowing glances as David, bringing up the rear, looked at them both strangely, deciding wisely not to ask for an explanation.

  Steve had taken up his position by the exit and was shaking hands and exchanging farewells with his passengers. Rebecca’s turn rolled around, and she shook his hand somewhat less effusively than she had earlier that morning, thanking him for a wonderful day. It was a half-truth, she convinced herself while stepping down onto the jetty. Meeting Horatio had been wonderful, and she wasn’t going to let whatever David’s problem with her sister was eclipse that.

  The string of people made their way to the end of the queue that had formed outside the changing rooms stacked along the pier. David shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot, waiting for Rebecca to make her excuses and leave. She was pleased she’d gotten dressed on the boat, as it meant she could beat a hasty retreat instead of having to hang around, waiting for a spare changing room. Clearing her throat, she opened her mouth to say adios amigos, don’t call me I’ll call you, or something along those lines when the words dried upon her tongue. Striding purposefully down the jetty, her designer combat jacket fluttering open in the breeze, was Jennifer.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “REBECCA.” JENNIFER nodded stiffly in her startled sister’s direction before turning malevolent blue eyes on David. “How could you? I hope you are pleased with yourself.”

  Rebecca’s eyes darted between the two of them, and she felt her face grow hot, as though her sister had physically slapped her. It was staring her in the face, plain as day. Bile rose in her throat. Oh, how could she have been so stupid? Then, as if Jennifer had thrown a bucket of icy water over her, Rebecca began to shiver uncontrollably.

  Two hours later, she sat huddled in the front seat of the car with the heater blasting, trying to rid herself of the chill that had permeated all the way through to her bones. Unable to look at her sister and David for fear of retching, she had fled. Driving away in a screech of burning rubber, all she had wanted to do was put as much distance between the three of them in the shortest span of time as she possibly could.

  She’d eventually wound up here, wherever here was. Raising her head from its resting place on the steering wheel, she was almost surprised to find herself parked up on the verge of a shingle road, the twinkling lights over to her right belonging to the township of Little River. Taking a steadying breath, she held her hands out in front of her; the shaking had stopped. She threw a glance up at the darkening sky, knowing she’d have to go back sometime; besides, she was never going to get warm sitting here. With a sigh that reached all the way down to her frozen toes, Rebecca turned the key in the ignition and reversed slowly back up to the main road. She wasn’t ready to confront her sister yet, but there was someone she desperately needed to see.

  PULLING UP OUTSIDE Sea Breezes B&B, she got out of the car, hoping he was there and not propping up the bar in the pub or worse, waiting to catch a flight back to Dublin. She raised her hand to knock, not being game to ring the bell this time but the door swung open before her knuckles even made contact with the wood.

  “Rebecca? I saw you pull up so I thought I’d save you the Mrs Doody interrogation.” Ciaran registered her puffy eyes and running nose. “Hey, are you alright?”

  She didn’t answer, collapsing into the solid warmth of his arms.

  “Come on.” He led her through to the empty guest lounge just off the hallway. She sat down in the dated velveteen armchair he led her to and as he crouched down in front of her to listen, she poured out her sorry tale.

  “I had no idea; Jennifer pulled the wool well and truly over my eyes.” She broke away and rubbed furiously at her temples. “I am so stupid.”

  “You’re not the stupid one, Rebecca,” he soothed. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ll have to go back and face her. She damned well owes me an explanation for all the lies she’s been spinning.” Rebecca delved into her bag and found a packet of tissues. Giving her nose a good blow, she turned to Ciaran with red-rimmed eyes. “Do you know the worst bit?”

  “Tell me.”

  “This time here with Jennifer has been so great.” She hiccupped and apologised, but Ciaran waved her apology away.

  “Carry on.”

  “I felt like I’d finally got to know my sister and I found myself liking her.”

  Ciaran smiled gently at her and encouraged, she carried on. “You see, I’ve always held this ridiculous image of Jen in my head of her being some superwoman, but I discovered she’s fallible just like the rest of us. You know, she’s pretty funny when she wants to be, too, and for the first time in oh, I don’t know how long, I enjoyed being around her.” Pausing, Rebecca wiped at her eyes, smearing the mascara that had already run down her cheeks in twin rivulets across her cheeks. “I thought that I had misjudged her all these years, but now I find out that I was right all along. She is a self-serving, sanctimonious cow.”

  Ciaran reached out and hugged her to him. “Hey, come on. You need to hear what she has to say before you write her off like that. She is your sister, no matter what she’s done. Do you want me to come with you?”

  Rebecca managed a feeble smile. “No. I need to do this by myself. I’ll come back later, alright?” Their eyes locked with the unspoken agreement that they would talk then.

  Pulling up the drive to Cuisine with Carlton’s some thirty minutes later, she barely noticed the brightly lit classroom in the late afternoon gloom because her eyes were fixed on the house in front of her. There were no cars on the drive. Perhaps they were all out? she thought, wrenching the handbrake up, only too happy to grasp at the glimmer of hope that she might be able to delay the inevitable confrontation a little bit longer. Inside, the house was cold and as quiet as it was dark.

  “I’m in here, Rebecca,” her sister’s voice called out into
the darkness from the direction of the lounge, causing her to stumble in fright. Swearing loudly, she fumbled for the light switch. She wanted to be able to see Jennifer’s face when she tried to explain away her affair with David Seagar.

  Looking dishevelled by her usual standard, with tendrils of hair having escaped her ponytail, Rebecca noticed Jennifer had changed into an oversized cardigan and track pants. Might as well get comfortable, she thought bitterly. Jennifer had moulded herself into the armchair; there was nobody here worth impressing, after all. He was probably down at the pub having a right laugh at her expense with Switzerland’s answer to Ken and Barbie. Sitting down heavily on the far end of the couch, Rebecca asked flatly, “Where is everybody?”

  Jennifer’s stomach contracted; she’d never seen Rebecca look like this before. Her softly rounded features had hardened, and the unforgiving glint in her hazel eyes could have kept a hungry tiger at bay. When she opened her mouth to reply, her voice came out in a choked gasp, and Rebecca had to lean forward to hear her.

  “Melissa showed up, wanting to see you, so I asked her if she’d mind taking Hannah with her to pick up Jack.” She twiddled with the oversized cuff of her cardigan. “I told her that you and I needed to talk, so she offered to take them out for an early fish ’n chip supper.” Jennifer attempted a wry smile. “She is in definite brownnose mode.”

  Rebecca’s irritated glare scolded Jennifer like a naughty child. Raising her voice a notch, Jennifer squared up to her little sister. “So you can yell and scream at me all you like, Rebecca.” She held out her wrist and pointed to an oversized lump of silver serving as her watch. “My guess is you’ve got an hour starting from now.”

  The oomph went out of Rebecca then, and she felt her anger deflating, leaving her feeling curiously flat. “I don’t know where to start,” she said evenly, shaking her head. “I just can’t wrap my head around what you’ve done or why you lied to me. I thought I was beginning to get to know you at last.”

  “You do know me and it’s called having an affair. Or, for want of a nicer turn of phrase, committing adultery and I didn’t tell you because I know you, and I knew you wouldn’t come home if I did.” Jennifer spelled out the obvious.

  “I know what it’s called, thank you, and you’re right—I wouldn’t have come home. You don’t deserve help. I just can’t believe that you, that he...Christ, no wonder Mark stayed on in Mooloolaba.” Her hands fluttered up to her face, dragging at the skin on her cheeks as she tried to put her disgust into words. “You and David, though—you’re as bad as each other as far as I’m concerned. You’re both liars.” As she spat this last sentence out, Jennifer straightened in her seat; she’d had enough of being on the back foot.

  “Do you know I was beginning to think you’d grown up at last? But you are still so bloody naïve. Life is not neat and tidy all the time. People make mistakes, and you have no idea what my life has been like these past few years because you haven’t been here.”

  There’d be no tea and sympathy from Rebecca, not this time. “That is so typical of you, trying to turn things around, but this is about you. You are the one who has cheated on your husband. The father of your two beautiful children. And with a man who was low enough to lead me on in what I can only assume was a pathetic bid to make you jealous.” Her top lip curled up in distaste. “What makes me sick, though, is the fact that you let me think you were the injured party. All those things I said about Mark—he didn’t deserve any of it, and you don’t bloody well deserve him!”

  Jennifer interjected with a pleading inflection to her voice as the fight went out of her. “I didn’t lie about our reasons for going over to Mooloolaba. It was make or break time for us. When I got home, I was so glad you were here. You have been amazing and believe it or not, Rebecca, I need you.” She huddled deeper into her cardigan. “Mark’s back tomorrow, but he’s decided to stay in Christchurch for the time being until we can sort things out properly.”

  “What about Jack and Hannah?”

  “He’s coming to see them straight from the airport.”

  “Oh, I see; I suppose there’s strength to be had in numbers. A show of solidarity to tell them that Mummy and Daddy are splitting up, is it?”

  At those words, Jennifer looked stricken, as it hit her all again that the very thing she had fought to stave off for so long was now a reality. She couldn’t meet Rebecca’s eyes, appearing instead to be fascinated with a loose stitch in her cardigan.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what we’re going to say to them.”

  “I take it Mark’s man enough not to want to tell them that it’s all down to their mum?”

  A strangled sob sounded from the armchair. There was no reply, but Rebecca wasn’t ready to back down yet. “Was David worth it? Was he worth this sodding great mess?”

  Jennifer was quiet for a moment before pulling a screwed-up tissue out of the pocket of her cardigan and wiping her nose. “David was a mistake. A great big, good-looking, bloody mistake who happened to look my way at a time when I was at a low ebb. The man comes with enough baggage to sink a ship and while he was busy thrashing around madly for a lifeboat, he grabbed hold of me.” She paused. “What he didn’t realise was that between the two of us, we could have sunk the Titanic.”

  Rebecca rolled her eyes and drawled, “Pu-lease spare me the metaphors. Okay, yes, David is somewhat weighed down by what happened with Maree, but what baggage do you have?” She didn’t give her sister a chance to respond. “Hmm, let me see.” She began ticking points off her fingers. “Could it be the fact that you have two fabulous children who adore you? Oh yes, that must be so hard, Jennifer.” Her voice dripped with honeyed sarcasm. “Let’s not forget that you live in this beautiful home and run an internationally successful business. That’s something that most of us mere mortals would struggle with. Oh, and it must be really, really hard staying so effortlessly slim and gorgeous.”

  Jennifer opened her mouth to speak up in her defence, but she was cut off. Rebecca was on a roll, pointing out all the things that had made her feel inferior for years. “Of course, you had a husband who totally worshipped you too. That was something that obviously meant about as much to you as a piece of toilet paper because you’ve just flushed that relationship away, haven’t you?”

  “Now who’s using the metaphors?”

  Rebecca scowled. “My point is that I rather think it is Mark who’s entitled to say he’s carrying a ton of baggage, not you.”

  Jennifer drew herself up in her seat. “Okay, I think you’ve had more than your say. It’s my turn now. So let me tell you a little something about what you so obviously see as my perfect life, shall I?” Imitating her sister, she began ticking the points off on her fingers. “For starters, how could I not agree that I have two beautiful children? They are the most important thing in this world to me. But, unfortunately, one of them wants nothing to do with me these days because he saw me kissing someone who wasn’t his dad.”

  There was an audible gasp from the couch; it explained so much, Rebecca could barely gather her thoughts before Jennifer dropped the next bombshell.

  “Secondly, have you ever heard the saying home is where the heart is? Well, my heart hasn’t been in this home for quite some time, and neither has Mark’s. I might have been the one who set the ball rolling, but our marriage was a ticking time bomb. I’ve already told you that. As for an internationally successful business, have you had your eyes shut all week? What is with the Memphis Branch of the Xena Warrior Princess Fan Club?”

  A mental picture of the warrior princesses seemed to hang suspended between them, and Rebecca couldn’t help herself. As she smiled, the corners of Jennifer’s mouth twitched too, and the smile grew into a chuckle.

  Rebecca announced she needed a drink, and the two sisters sat in a silent diffusing atmosphere with a glass of wine each until Jennifer brought them back to their previous dispute. “I forgot my last point.”

  Rebecca had the grace to look slightly abashe
d. “Would that be the one about you being effortlessly slim and gorgeous?”

  “Yep. I’ll have you know I am one high-maintenance babe.”

  “Really?”

  “Truly. I have succumbed to the needle.”

  Rebecca inhaled sharply. “What—Botox?”

  Jennifer nodded. “As well as regular facials, hair appointments, oh, and dental whitening.”

  “I don’t believe it!”

  “Without a doubt, the thought of turning forty leaves me cold and I guess I kind of rebelled against it. It’s been me all along who was the walking cliché with my midlife crisis. That’s the price I’m paying for my so-called beauty.” She snorted. “I am terrified of getting old. As for staying effortlessly slim, believe me, sister, there is nothing effortless about it!”

  Rebecca appraised her sister for the first time without her rose-tinted glasses on. “Jen?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I haven’t been much of a sister, have I?”

  Jennifer’s chest rose as she inhaled. “It’s not just down to you, Rebecca. We’ve both been kind of absorbed in our worlds for a long time. I lost sight of you too.”

  “You’re right, I guess, but you should have told me things weren’t right between you and Mark, and you could have told me about David. I would have understood.”

  “No, that’s just it, Rebecca. You wouldn’t have understood. You’ve had me on a pedestal for years.” As Rebecca shook her head in denial, Jennifer held her hand up. “Don’t deny it—you did.” She gave a small shrug. “I didn’t want to be the one to shatter your illusions. It was always my job to pave the way for you. Look how much more of an easy ride you got in your teens than I did with Mum and Dad. Besides, since we’re being so honest I might as well admit it, I liked it. It suited me to be the older, more together sister.”

  A lull descended on the room. Jennifer’s blue eyes were sympathetic, seeing the hurt reflected back in her sister’s hazel pair. Jennifer had an idea of what was on Rebecca’s mind at that moment: She had made some pretty major life decisions of late. She just hoped that finding out what she had been capable of and what David was like didn’t see her shelve her plans and send her running back to Ireland with Ciaran for all the wrong reasons.