“Huh?” I spin round to face him. “Me? But I thought… You just said you had to go?”
“Oh, come on,” he grins, looking completely unfazed by what just happened between us. “You didn’t think I’d go back without my girl, did you? How would I sleep without you?”
He winks, then turns to Mum.
“I’ll take some breakfast, thanks, Sam,” he says, patting his stomach. “I’m in a very good mood this morning.”
He grins again, but Mum’s looking over his shoulder at me.
“You’re leaving?” she says, using her own accent instead of the weird, affected one she’s been adopting since I got back. “But you just got here, Lexie. I thought you’d stay for longer. We’ve barely even had a chance to talk.”
“We were talking for hours last night, Mum,” I point out, feeling suddenly guilty. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was actually going to miss me. “And it’s not like you’re never going to see me again, is it?”
“Well, I don’t know that, do I?” she snaps, sounding more like her old self again. “The last time you left, I didn’t even know where you were. For a year, Lexie. A whole year. Imagine not seeing your child for ayear. Not knowing where they are, whether they’re alive or dead, or—”
“You knew perfectly well I was alive, Mum,” I tell her firmly, glancing warily at Jett, who’s pretending to look at his phone. “I messaged you a few times, remember?”
“Oh, ‘a few times’,” Mum says, her voice rising. “And you thought that was good enough, did you? To just message me ‘a few times’ and not even tell me where you were? Do you think that’s how a good daughter treats her mother? Well, do you?”
“Enough, Mum,” I hiss, finally losing my cool. “Don’t try to tell me how ‘good’ daughters behave. We both know you’ve never thought I was ‘good’ enough. At anything, really, let alone being your daughter. Not that you were ever much of a mother to me, mind you. Remember all the times you asked me to stay with friends because your boyfriend — I forget which one — was coming round and you didn’t want him to know you were old enough to have a teenage daughter? Or how you always wanted me to go on a diet so I could win your precious beauty contests? And while I’m on the subject, remember what you did to Jack’s distillery last year? Remember that? Are you really not going to mention it? Are you seriously going to just keep pretending it’s not your fault that I left?”
I’m crying now, tears flowing freely down my cheeks. I had no idea I was going to say all of that. I never have before. I’ve always just bitten my tongue, like the good girl Mum swears I’ve never actually been, and walked away before the anger could burst out of me. But I guess it’s been building up all this time. Building up and getting ready to explode, and now that it has, I feel… kind of empty, really. Like I’ve just kicked something defenseless; which is ridiculous, really, because Mum is anythingbutdefenseless.
All the same, as she stands there staring at me in shock, her bottom lip quivering, I find myself wanting to reach out and comfort her for what I just said. Wanting to apologize, like I usually do when Mum does something wrong. Wanting to tell her I didn’t mean it, when, actually, I think I did.
And, for once in my life, I’m not going to try to take it back.
“Well, if that’s how you feel,” she says at last, folding her arms defensively across her chest. “I won’t try to make you stay. I must say, I’m disappointed in you, though, Alexandra. I know I haven’t been perfect as a mother, but I’ve done my best, and for you to be casting up all of my past ‘crimes’ like this is just… it’s just unkind.”
Her voice wobbles, and she puts one hand on the door frame, as if to steady herself.
“And now to leave me like this, when I’m just out of hospital,” she goes on, warming to her theme. “Well. I just don’t know how you can be so cruel. I don’t know how you can—”
“Okay, that’s enough.”
Mum blinks in surprise as Jett steps in front of me, almost as if he’s trying to shield me from the words that are coming out of her mouth.
“But I—”
“Enough, Sam,” he repeats firmly. “We’ve heard enough. I don’t want to hear any more of this bullshit from you. You don’t get to talk to her like that, you hear me?”
Mum’s mouth opens and closes like a goldfish and she looks from Jett to me, then back again. It would almost be amusing if my heart wasn’t about to leap right out of my chest from sheer adrenalin.
“Lexie—” Mum starts, turning to me, but Jett holds up a hand to stop her.
“Uh-uh,” he tells her, his voice hard. “Don’t even think about it. If you want to have any kind of relationship with your daughter in future, Samantha, you’ll either apologize to her right now for everything you just said, or you’ll turn around and you’ll get the hell out of her house. Your choice.”
Mum just gapes at him, her face white with shock. I don’t think anyone’s ever stood up to her like that. I know for sure that no one’s ever stood up formelike that, and it’s all I can do not to throw my arms around him in gratitude.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“Okay,” Jett says easily, when a few more seconds have passed and Mum’s still standing there speechless. “I can see you need a bit of time to think about that one. Come on, Lexie, let’s go downstairs. I’ll make you a coffee.”
“No,” I tell him firmly, shaking off the hand he offers me. “No, let’s just pack our stuff and go. I want to get out of here. Please, Jett?”
I look up at him pleadingly, and, after a second, he nods, his green eyes fixed on mine.
“Sure, Lady M,” he says, as if we’re discussing something totally innocuous, like what we’re going to have for breakfast. “Let’s do that.”
