“Have you been here long?” Mr Carrington asks me, still avoiding conversation with his daughter making me believe that I am going to end up chairing this meeting.
“A couple of years.” I feel no need to expand that Olivia is a recent addition to my home.
“Well, it’s lovely. So, you two, are you married?”
I feel Olivia tense as he glances at her ring finger, which is bare, but I know the tension is down to the fact that the question is one a father really should know the answer to.
“No,” I begin, but my girl’s silence ends when she interrupts.
“No, we’re not married. I don’t believe in marriage and technically I don’t even live here.” There’s a high-pitched squeak to her voice.
I am tempted to correct her about her living arrangements but am more shocked at her claim not to believe in marriage. In her current mood I might be better just shutting up.
“Look, I don’t want to make polite conversation with you at the moment, but I need to know, what happened, with you and Mum and Raymond?”
I notice the last name catching in her throat, so much so that I think she is choking until she gasps. More of a concern now is the way Mr Carrington reacted to that man’s name, Raymond. He looks as though he is in actual physical pain and although he did leave my girlfriend and wasn’t there to protect her from the animals who did such awful things to her, I feel sorry for him because it looks as though he might have suffered at Raymond’s hands too.
“Oh, Livy.” He reaches forward to take a cup of coffee that is shaking in his hands as he prepares to speak again. “We were happy, me and your mum, for a long time.” He smiles. “We were really young when we met and quickly decided to marry. She was different to me, from a different background. My family were close and loving, full of laughter and happy memories, but very down to earth, a bit rough around the edges.”
“I remember,” Olivia says softly as a small smile tugs at her lips. “Auntie Pauline, and Nan and Grandad…” her voice trails off for no reason beyond the overpowering emotions she is clearly struggling with when faced with the memory of a family she lost, that lost her, or did they simply abandon her?
I watch him smile at her, but a sad smile that he took them away from her when he left.
Chapter 42
Olivia
“Will you carry on, about you and Mum?” I’m hoping to get something from this for Jimmy to use.
“Yes. Sorry. She was different, her family were.” He sighs. “She was beautiful. You’re a lot like her.” He smiles which makes me feel sick, his words, not his smile. I don’t want to be like her. “She was brought up to certain standards, expected to be prim and proper, to be God fearing and I was never good enough for them, never. They all but cast her aside when we married,” he reveals, giving me an insight into why my maternal family were never really around. “And when we separated.” He huffs.
“They weren’t happy?” I feel confused that they weren’t happy with that situation either.
“No, I think they were glad to be rid of me, but they were believers in marriage forever and as far as they were concerned your mother had made her bed so should simply have lay in it.”
I nod my understanding, not that I truly understand why your child’s happiness wouldn’t be your main priority.
“Was it the church that caused you to separate?” I know it was a major factor.
“Sort of,” he admits. “We’d been having problems, arguing, although we tried to keep it from you, you and Scott.” He suddenly looks around the room. “Scott?”
“I don’t know. I will explain,” I assure him. “But if you could continue.”
“Okay.” He frowns in confusion. “She turned to Raymond and that bloody church,” he hisses. “And it was downhill from there so I suppose you could say the church ultimately caused our marriage to end. She developed some very odd ways and beliefs.”
I nod, remembering the odd views of almost everyone in that bloody church.
“You stayed around for a while and then you just went, why?”
I watch the colour drain from his face as he swallows hard and I wait. Turning to Mase who is gently stroking the back of my hand I wonder how to somehow make this easier because my dad is clearly struggling.
“Nigel,” Mase interjects. “I promise there is a really good reason for us needing to know this, for Olivia needing to know and we can both see this isn’t easy for you.”
With a sad nod he sits back in his seat and takes a gulp of his coffee before continuing.
Over half an hour has passed and I am still reeling at my father’s words. We all sit in silence, staring between each other and the floor.
“Baby,” Mase finally says, pulling my attention to him fully. “You okay?”
