‘No! This ends now. Call it my birthday gift. So who’s going to tell me what went wrong? I know when it happened, but I don’t know why.’
‘Does there have to be a reason?’ Rebecca cried. ‘Why can’t you just accept that we got on as kids and we don’t as adults?’
‘Because I don’t believe that’s the problem,’ Veronica responded, her voice strong but controlled. ‘So what’sreallygoing on?’
A pause before Felicity said, ‘I think we should tell her.’
‘Don’t you dare!’ Rebecca yelled.
‘She has a right to know.’
‘Felicity! I mean it! Don’t even think?—’
‘Stop trying to be the boss of me!’ Felicity yelled back. ‘I listened to you then because you were my big sister and I looked up to you but you were wrong then and you’re still wrong now.’
The pair of them hurled words and insults back and forth, Rebecca clearly trying to stop whatever her sister was about to reveal and Felicity insisting their mum knewthe truth. And then the truth spewed out.
‘Dad was having an affair!’ Felicity shouted. ‘She told me I couldn’t tell you but I thought you had a right to know.’
My stomach plummeted to the floor and my heart shattered for Veronica. Looking at the expressions on the faces of my friends, this was as much of a shock to them as it was to me. I could hear voices, but not raised this time so I couldn’t tell what was being said. Next moment, the door was shoved wide open and Veronica stormed out. She paused in front of us, an expression of confusion flickering across her face. What a sight we must look blocking her path with brightly coloured helium balloons when the bottom had just dropped out of her world.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Paulette murmured.
Veronica shook her head. ‘I need to…’
We parted to clear her route. There’d been further shouting in the conservatory but I’d been too concerned about Veronica to tune into it. Rebecca rushed out and headed towards the door but Laughlin blocked her way.
‘I think your mum needs some time, don’t you? I’ll check on her.’ He passed me his bag of balloons and went after Veronica. Paulette, Milly and I instinctively closed the gap so Rebecca couldn’t follow.
‘Oh, for God’s sake, let me through. I’m not following her.’
We couldn’t exactly keep her trapped so we moved aside.
‘Anyone else feel ridiculous holding these now?’ Milly asked, grimacing at us. ‘Might as well dump them in there.’
Inside the conservatory, Felicity was slumped on one of the chairs, sobbing. Paulette indicated with a nod of her head that we should ditch the balloons while she comforted Felicity. I hoped Laughlin had managed to catch up with Veronica and that he could be of some comfort to her.
It didn’t feel appropriate to decorate the room as planned so Milly and I placed everything at the end of the conservatory and hastened to the bar.
‘Well, that was unexpected,’ Milly said when we sat down with drinks. ‘Poor Veronica.’
‘I can’t even begin to imagine what she’s going through right now.’
The bar was filling up and, as they could well be guests, we decided it was best not to discuss what had just happened. Milly sent a text to Paulette asking her to let us know when Felicity had gone as we’d join her then. Ten minutes later, Paulette texted back to say the coast was clear and she needed wine.
‘How was Felicity?’ Milly asked as we joined Paulette in the conservatory and handed over her drink.
Paulette took a gulp of wine before answering. ‘Devastated. She’s scared her mum won’t ever speak to her again. I’ve assured her Veronica wouldn’t do that, but she might need some time to process the news. She clearly wanted to spill out the full story but I told her it wasn’t fair to Veronica that I hear the details first. I felt bad closing her down like that.’
‘It was the right thing to do,’ I said, and Milly threw in her agreement.
‘Where is she now?’ Milly asked. ‘Is she coming back?’
‘She’s gone back to her room, but she says she won’t be returning for the party. How can she after that? I doubt Rebecca’ll return either. Felicity saw her leaving in her car and told me her family are staying somewhere in town.’
I sighed heavily. ‘What a mess. Do you think Veronica will come back?’
‘Would you?’ Paulette asked.
