Dad yanked off his coat and scarf. “Having Christmas bloody dinner in my house,” he announced belligerently as he swayed on his feet.
“Paul, are you drunk?” Mum glowered at him. “Again?”
“I’ve had a tipple. What are we eating?” He pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Get out!”
“Mumsy.” Juno threw her a pleading look. “Please let him stay.”
“No, I will not. Get out of this house, Paul.”
“This house is mine!” he yelled back, his face suddenly mottled with rage. “Just because you’ve allowed that bitch to twist your mind with her lies doesn’t mean I get to lose everything!”
I tensed at this sudden window into what was between them. “What’s he talking about?” I asked Mum.
Her face bleached of color. “Nothing.” She primly sat back down. “You can stay if you’ll shut up.”
“Shut up?” Dad laughed bitterly. “Why? Hmm?” He turned to us now. “Do you want to know why your mother upended all of our lives?”
“Paul—”
“Because Gemma?—”
“Paul, don’t?—”
“An old flame of mine, bumped into your mother last winter and said, I quote, ‘It’s awfully good of you to forgive Paul for our little affair when we were younger.’”
Betrayal and anger rushed through me. “You didn’t?”
Dad slapped a hand on the table, so hard cutlery bounced. “I didn’t! I dated that witch before I met your mother! Nothing happened after!”
“What about the letter? That letter you always told me meant nothing!” Mum cried.
“Because it did!” Dad pushed back from the table, veins popping in his head, spittle flying from his mouth as he roared, “I wrote that letter before I even met you! When I thought Gemma was a good person!”
“Dad, stop yelling,” I demanded quietly.
“Stop yelling?” he huffed. “Your mother chose to believe that woman’s lies over your father. She threw me out of my own life without a discussion. But yes, let’s mind ourselves not to yell about it.” He pushed his chair hard against the table, making Juno and my mother flinch. Then he glared at Mum. “I’m taking my house back. If you want to leave, you know where the door is.” With that, he stomped upstairs.
Stunned, I turned to Mum. Tears rolled down her cheeks. I pushed my chair back and rounded the table to pull my mother into my arms. “It’s okay,” I soothed as she clung to me.
“It’s not okay.” Juno’s chair scraped with a squeal against the floor as she stood.
She glowered at Mum.
“Juno—”
My sister ignored my warning tone as Mum pulled from my arms to look at her.
“Please do not tell me that you left Dad based on the word of a woman who clearly has ulterior motives?”
Mum tensed in my arms. “Don’t use that tone, Juno Thorne. You have no idea what you’re talking about. This goes way back.”
“Then explain it to me or I will never talk to you again.”
“Juno,” I growled her name in outrage.
“No. I’m done, Sebastian. If I don’t get answers right now, I’m walking out of here and never coming back.”
