Chapter 17
THE NEXT few weeks saw Mia trying to find a way to get along with her twin. She had been in Sydney for almost a month, after organising to take some emergency time off work, and was staying with Eric, sleeping on the fold out couch in his tiny rented flat.
It was a comfortable living situation as Eric and Mia had known each other for much of their adult life, but Mia was coming to the point where she was getting ready to go home. She missed her life and she missed Cayd…
They’d had very little contact since she spoke to him the night before she left Melbourne, exchanging the occasional text stating that they were thinking of each other. It was hard for Mia to stay away. But she knew she had to. She needed to sort her family life out before she could have a life with Cayd. It was the only way she was going to get past all of the anger and resentment she was feeling towards them.
While she hadn’t had cause to meet with Belinda Fleming, she had been doing her best to get along with Natalie. It wasn’t an easy task with Natalie being such a self-absorbed person, but slowly, she was learning to understand her and form some sort of bond.
In a way, Natalie had been right when she thought that finding their birth mother would bring them together. The fact that they had both met Belinda and had an unwelcoming reception from her, gave them their first shared experience, and it was from there that their relationship grew from strained to tolerable. They were far from being friends. But they were at least learning to live with each other’s existence.
Natalie was of a slightly different opinion to Mia. She was delighted that she was getting the chance to get to know her twin, and took the opportunity to spend quality time with her whenever possible. The only thing she wasn’t ok with was the living arrangements between Mia and Eric. She had offered Mia the spare bedroom in the home she shared with her parents, but Mia had refused, feeling uncomfortable amongst people she didn’t really know. Natalie acted as though she understood, but she found the closeness between Mia and Eric a little unnerving and often wondered when Mia would go home.
“Hey, do you remember that time that you, me, Louise, and Josh went on that bushwalk and Josh nearly broke his leg?” Eric asked Mia, one afternoon as they were all sitting together around a picnic table at a nearby park. Mia sat, straddling the wooden bench on one side while Natalie and Eric sat huddled together on the other side, Eric playing with Natalie’s hair as his mind reminisced.
Sydney was warmer than Melbourne toward the end of winter, so with the sun out, it was actually quite a nice day. Mia tilted her head back and let the sunshine wash over her face as she smiled at the memory.
“He thought a piece of bark was a snake and tripped over a rock,” she replied, as she returned her gaze to the couple in front of her. It was getting easier, but it was still a little unnerving looking at her mirror image with her ex-boyfriend.
At first when she’d arrived in Sydney, she’d set eyes on them together and almost turned around and flew right back home. But, knowing that it was time to face all that she was avoiding, she pressed on and since then had spent a decent amount of time with them as well as Natalie’s parents, Sandra and Tom.
When she forced herself to check her reservations at the door and see these people for the individuals they were, she found herself enjoying their company.
For the most part, Natalie was feeling the same way. It was just moments like these – when Mia and Eric spoke about their shared past – that bothered her, as it reminded her that she was the thing that came between them and ruined that happiness. She felt fairly sure that if she’d never made her way down to Melbourne and fallen for Eric, these two would still be together – comfortably content even though their relationship was lacking the passion that each now felt with their true soul mates.
Although, Natalie still wondered if Eric considered her to be his soul mate. Over the past month, they had made love many times, but there had been no special words spoken between them that calmed her mind. And now, seeing him reminisce with Mia… it made her doubt them. She felt jealous.
“You should take me bushwalking sometime, Eric. I haven’t been since I was a kid,” she suggested trying to be part of the conversation.
“He hates bushwalking,” Mia put in distractedly, laughing slightly as she leant down and picked up a tennis ball that had rolled toward them. A happy looking golden retriever came bounding up after it, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as he tracked the ball with his eyes.
Mia laughed and threw it, wiping her hands on her jeans as she watched the dog race after it.
“Why do you hate it?” Natalie asked, hating that Mia knew these things about Eric when she didn’t.
“Oh, I just don’t see the appeal,” he shrugged, not paying a huge amount of attention as he glanced at Mia, then nodded toward the dog who was returning with the ball held proudly in it’s teeth.
Preparing herself to throw the ball again, Mia smiled and glanced at Eric before telling Natalie, “He’s petrified of spiders.”
“Perry,” a man called, from a few metres away, whistling at the dog before it made its way back to Mia’s waiting hand.
“Oh sorry,” Mia called out to the couple the dog ran to. “I should’ve checked that it was ok.”
“It’s fine,” the woman said with a smile. “Perry will just try to go home with you if he decides you’re fun enough.” She leant down and took the ball from his mouth, throwing it in the opposite direction before the man put his arm around her shoulders and they followed behind their dog.
“They seem very happy,” Mia mused, squinting against the sun as she watched them walk away in each other’s arms.
“They look familiar too. I can’t place them though,” Natalie commented, as she reached out and took a piece of pineapple from the container of fruit salad in front of them and popped it into her mouth. “So, I didn’t know you were afraid of spiders,” she said, returning to their conversation when the couple had walked out of sight.
“She’s exaggerating. I’m not scared of all spiders. Just the big hairy ones.”
“And the little ones that hide in the washing, and the tiny money spiders that jump when you go near them,” Mia teased, laughing as she took a piece of fruit as well.
“He killed a spider for me the other day,” Natalie said, feeling defensive all of a sudden.
Mia smiled. “Then you must make him feel very brave,” she said kindly, before rising from her seat, feeling that she was becoming a third wheel. “Well, I’m going to head off. I think you two need some couple time. I’m going to take a walk along the beach and soak up a little sun. I’ll see you both later.”
With that, she got up and walked away, following along the same path the other couple had taken, leaving an oblivious Eric to finish off the fruit salad, while a jealous feeling Natalie began to wish she’d walk all the way back to Melbourne. She had an awful feeling that Mia wanted Eric back, and this nice act was just her way of making them drop their guard around her.
Natalie scowled after her, thinking that Mia obviously didn’t know her at all. She would never drop her guard. She planned to watch her around her boyfriend like a hawk. No one got between her and Eric. No one.
‘Is she here?’ Cayd asked Louise in sign, when he arrived on their doorstep that same day. He hadn’t had more than a handful of simple text messages from Mia since the night he told her about his past. As much as he had promised to give her time, after a month apart, he was going crazy without her - he just needed to see her. Even if it was just for a moment.
Looking over Cayd’s dishevelled appearance, Louise’s heart broke for the man. She wished there was something she could do or say that could fix this problem between them. She knew in her heart that Cayd and Mia belonged together. But she also knew that her friend was hurting and just had to believe that after this trip to Sydney, all of her questions would be answered and she could return home to Cayd and they could repair their relationship – and if they were really lucky, t
hey could continue planning their weddings together.
“She isn’t, I’m sorry,” Louise said and signed in return.
“Do you know when she’ll be back?” he asked, only signing the few words he knew.
“I have no idea. She’s gone to Sydney, Cayd.”
“Excuse me – she what?”
“She went to Sydney – the day after you saw her last. I’m sorry. I thought you knew.”
“No. No, I didn’t know a fucking thing. Shit. Why would she go there? Why would she put herself in that situation?”
“What do you mean? What situation?”
“Those people, Louise! Those awful insidious people who like to weasel their way into a person’s life and pull them apart piece by piece.”
“Are you saying that you think Mia’s in danger?”
“No. She’s not in personal danger. But her mind is. Those people – they mess with your head. They get inside and they twist things.”
“Are you talking about Natalie?”
“No. Not Natalie. Belle. Please tell me she hasn’t gone up there to see her?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to her much either. But I think she will, Cayd. She went up there for answers.”
“Well she won’t find them there. Belle couldn’t tell the truth if it was written on a piece of paper in front of her to read from.” Shaking his head, he ran his hand through his hair. “Why did she go up there again? I thought she was still here. I had no idea she’d gone.”
Shaking his head again, he turned to leave before turning back and asking Louise if she had the address of where she was staying.
“Of course. I’ll just write it down,” she told him, moving into the house with Cayd following as she jotted the address to Eric’s flat onto a piece of paper. “She’s staying with Eric,” she signed quickly, knowing that he wouldn’t be too happy about it.
His head pulled back slightly at the information. “Eric?” he repeated, before letting out a slow calming breath. “Ok. Thanks for this, Louise.”
“It’s no problem. And Cayd, for what it’s worth I don’t think that this or anything else in this world will stop you two from being together. You were made for each other. Anyone can see that.”
“Let’s just hope that Mia does too,” he said, before kissing Louise on the cheek and signing goodbye. He had a flight to book.
Chapter 18
“SHE PROBABLY is trying to get him back. Why else would she come back here and insist on staying with him? I mean, I even spoke to her and offered to pay for a hotel room or something more comfortable while she was here. But she wouldn’t hear a word of it. I just don’t think she’s as open to a relationship with me as you are,” Belle said to Natalie, as she sat beside her on the large white couch in her living room, concentrating on braiding her hair. She was a master of manipulation and exaggeration, and while she knew that she had never reached out to Mia, she also knew that Natalie would never ask her about it. Natalie wanted to keep her to herself.
She’d been spending quite a bit of time with Natalie after tracking her down at the Johnson’s, and apologising for the way she had acted when Natalie and Eric had arrived at her home. She said that she had been caught off guard and had reacted out of character. But she claimed that did want to get to know her daughters and had thought about them every day since she gave them up.
This wasn’t necessary true. Belle had thought of them, yes. But she had never wanted to find them again – at least not until she realised that her very own daughter was engaged to the one and only, Cayd Donnelly. Suddenly, there was a very good reason to make contact with the twin girls she gave away, and unfortunately for Natalie and Mia, she wasn’t doing it out of any sort of motherly pursuit.
Natalie, needing to have some sort of connection to her bloodline on an intrinsic level, was more than happy to overlook their initial confrontation with Belle, in favour of a chance to get to know the woman who gave birth to her. She was also willing to overlook Belle’s request that they keep their meetings ‘just between them’ as she liked feeling special. She liked feeling like she was the chosen twin even though she was keeping the secret from those she loved most in this world.
It was her need to feel special that caused Natalie’s brow to crease at Belle’s words. “I didn’t know you had tried to call Mia,” she stated, feeling slightly hurt that Belle would do that without her.
“Well, I was just trying to get my daughters back together. Don’t you think you could have more fun if it was just the two of you and you didn’t have to worry about her stealing Eric from you? Lord knows she needs someone to protect her from Cayd Donnelly.”
“She doesn’t talk about him much if that helps you,” Natalie offered, turning around to face her as Belle wound a hair elastic around the end of her braid and smoothed a cool hand down the length of it.
“Does she still wear the ring?” she asked.
“Well yes, but…”
“Then he still has her.” Belle sat back and hugged a pillow to her chest as she sighed. “That man loves like no other man loves. I never should have pushed him away. I should never have refused to divorce his father and run away with him. But I loved Howard, and when I fell pregnant during the marriage, Cayd swore the baby was his, and when I still wouldn’t leave, he was so hurt that he took off and left everything behind. I fear that his relationship with Mia is just his way of getting back at me. It’s like he’s trying to show me that if he can’t have me then he’ll have the next best thing.”
Frowning, Natalie shook her head. “I think that’s just horrible. Why would he do that? And how did he know that we were your children?”
“Well…he is a doctor. He has access to anyone’s information,” Belle reasoned with a dismissive wave of her hand, as if it was obvious that Cayd had been trying to get her back after all this time.
Natalie nodded, feeling that a man in Cayd’s position could easily get a hold of the information Belle spoke of. It was just a shame that she didn’t realise that Belle was completely deluded.
“We have to make sure he stays away from her. But how?”
“I have an idea to help. Convince her to be here,” she said, handing Natalie the card to a local restaurant. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
“You’re going to Sydney,” Evelyn, Cayd’s work colleague and friend, stated over the phone as he hurried through the airport terminal to catch his flight.
“I am,” he replied, quickening his pace as his name was called to board.
Evelyn sighed. “Listen Cayd. I like Mia. Really I do. But haven’t we been through this before? I fear her maturity level is always going to keep you running after her.”
“We can’t blame her for the actions of other people, Evelyn.”
“No. But we can certainly hold her accountable for her own actions. She hasn’t been very fair to you lately, has she?”
Pressing his fingers against the bridge of his nose, Cayd paused at the boarding gate. “Evelyn, I have to go. My flight is boarding,” he sighed, exasperated by the conversation.
“I’m just looking out for you, Cayd.”
“I understand that, and I appreciate your concern. But please, understand that this is something I have to do.”
“Oh, I understand perfectly. I was young once too, you know.”
Pressing his lips together, Cayd disconnected the call and powered off his phone before handing over his boarding pass. He didn’t like that Evelyn was suggesting that going after Mia was a fool’s errand. It wasn’t. He loved her, and it was his job to make sure she was safe and sound, away from the clutches of women like Belinda Fleming.
‘Why haven’t you been talking to Cayd?’ Louise signed via Skype to Mia.
‘I’ve been texting him,’ she signed in return, feeling slightly defensive that she was being questioned about this by her best friend.
‘That’s not good enough. He deserves more from you. He’s a good man.’
‘Whose side are y
ou on here?’
‘Mia, you are my best friend. I love you with all my heart, and I will stand by you in every way I can. But part of being your best friend means that I will not let you ruin your relationship over a mistake he made before he met you. You aren’t being fair to him.’
Mia looked away, not wanting to see what Louise was saying to her anymore. Her eyes burned with emotion. She knew she was being unfair to Cayd. But she also knew that if she went back to him without fully dealing with her emotions regarding Natalie and Belinda then everything would be forgotten and she’d never truly move past it. Cayd was her happiness – she could lean on him and trust that he would make everything better for her. But that was exactly what she didn’t want. She didn’t want anything to be ‘made better’. She didn’t want to be protected. She wanted to deal with everything head on.
‘He said he’d give me time,’ she signed finally.
‘He’s tried. But he’s a wreck, Mia. He needs you.’
Pressing her lips together to supress a sob, Mia nodded at her friend. ‘I need him too,’ she admitted. ‘But I also need to do this.’
‘Can’t you find a way to do it together? Why do you have to suffer apart?’
Chapter 19
“HEY, I didn’t expect to see you here. Did you just get back from therapy?” Eric asked, as he approached his ute after work to find Natalie standing against it waiting for him.
“I wanted to ask you a favour,” she said, pulling at her lip with her teeth as she evaded his question, she didn’t want him knowing that she’d given up therapy in favour of visiting with Belinda.
“Oh yeah?”
Reaching out to run her hand down the seam of his heavy cotton work button up, she met his eyes. “I was wondering if you could find something to do by yourself tonight. I want to take Mia out to talk – just the two of us. Do you think you could do that for me?”
Grinning, Eric slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her to him, taking her mouth hungrily. “I could pretty much do anything for you,” he said, liking that Natalie was making such an effort with Mia. He had noticed a small amount of tension with them of late.
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