Kenna came in carrying her own wineglass, the dishtowel was gone, and she arranged herself elegantly in the sofa across the plaid upholstered coffee table from us (yes, it was an upholstered coffee table with a bench area around the coffee table part, it was huge, and it was fantastic).
“Everyone have what they need?” she inquired.
“Outside of an explanation of why we have to put up with that man, sure,” Davi replied.
Kenna sent her daughter a soft look and said, “Love, if ye feel I’m forcing this too soon, then I’ll meet your father at the door and tell him we’ll have to do this some other time.”
She took a sip of her wine and then addressed the whole room.
“But ye must know, I’ve come to terms with the fact I’ve been mourning my marriage perhaps since it began. What was upsetting me was that I allowed it to go on as long as I did. I should have ended us long ago. When I was younger.”
Davi shifted agitatedly in her chair, and I sensed this was because, if Kenna had done that, their family would not have had what it had all this time. A father and mother who did indeed love each other—it was just messed up by my mother being, well…Helena, along with Bally’s flaws—that mother and father loving their children.
I couldn’t imagine all Davi was feeling. Guilt, for being happy her mum didn’t do that so they could have their family. This mingled with regret for the time Kenna lost. And obviously anger, for her dad fucking all of it up.
“It took time to realize I didnae regret it,” Kenna went on. “I loved your father. He loved me. We made happy memories. We shared the pleasure of raising you two and watching ye grow into smart, capable, responsible, talented, lovely people.”
She took another sip before she carried on.
“I’m actually excited to start a new phase of my life. Your father has agreed to give me the house and my solicitors say the settlement he’s offered will see me very comfortably. Though, I’ve secured a part-time job doing some fundraising for the local SPCA. I start tomorrow.”
Wow, Kenna had been busy.
And by the by, the SPCA was the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, one of the charities I was considering patronizing.
“It goes without saying,” she continued, “ye need to have whatever feelings you have. Those are yours and not mine to dictate. So if this is too soon, when he arrives, I’ll ask him to go away. But the shock of it is over. The decisions made. And I’m looking forward to my future. Though, I will say, I hope that future includes this family adjusting to become something loving and functional again, if different.”
“And how is Dad with your decisions?” Dair asked.
Kenna looked to the fire, her expression a warring mixture of sadness, triumph and contentment, and I understood that.
It was over, and she was smart enough to allow herself to feel sad about it.
But she was now calling the shots, and it was Bally who had to put up with her decisions, that was no small victory, and it was one that was well-deserved.
Last, she’d worked through it and was in a better place, and that brought peace.
“He wishes to attempt a reconciliation.” She turned back to her children. “That will not be happening.”
“So he’s all right with this friendly family thing?” Davi asked.
“He says he’ll take ye both, and me, remaining in his life after what he’s done any way he can have us,” Kenna shared.
I really didn’t want to like Bally.
But he was behaving in a manner it was hard to hold onto that.
Perhaps feeling his discomfiture, Sorcha moved from resting her head on Davi’s leg for pets, to her daddy, where she rested on his leg for pets.
Dair didn’t scrimp in giving them.
The doorbell rang.
And the room descended into a profound quiet that confused me at first, before it hit me.
That was Bally, and he had to ring the doorbell to their home, and that was strange, weird, wrong, right, and sad all at once.
I looked to Dair to see his jaw bulge.
