‘No!’ shrieks Bobbi.
‘Discussing the bargain you made when she was a baby is whatAfter all I’ve done for herreally means,’ Rose says. ‘You took care of Keera for a reason. It was not unconditional love—’
‘How dare you?’ shrieks Bobbi but Rose holds up a hand.
The power rushing through Rose is not from the Magic Tea.
She is Rose Talisman, a woman who’s survived a childhood in foster care, the collapse of her relationship and the decimation of her career in the full glare of the public eye.
Bobbi doesn’t stand a chance.
‘I’m not doubting that you love Keera,’ she enunciates, ‘but, as the years went by, that love came with conditions and those conditions were that Keera allowed you back into the world from which her birth excluded you.After all I’ve done for yousays there was a bargain and you expect to be paid. Is that a fair thing to do to a child?’
‘It’s not like that,’ says Bobbi and she leans back in her chair. ‘Keera loved performing, dancing, singing.’
‘Lots of children do,’ says Rose gently. ‘But very few of them take it any further. Keera did her first audition for a commercial at the age of, what – nine? That isn’t something a child can arrange.’
‘She loved it,’ says Bobbi. ‘Everyone said she was a natural.’
‘What did she miss by working for a living so young? It sounds like a difficult life where it was hard to put down roots.’
‘We both made sacrifices,’ says Bobbi weakly.
‘You were an adult when you made those sacrifices,’ Rose continues. ‘Keera was only a child who wanted to please you. When you pushed her so hard, you weren’t mothering her, were you? You were giving both of you a career.’
‘It wasn’t like that,’ says Bobbi.
‘Tell me what it was like.’
Bobbi falters. ‘I left Ireland a long time ago and I was doing well in LA and then I got pregnant. I thought I could get back into the business after I had the baby, but I couldn’t. I had Keera to look after and my body had changed and—’
Bobbi pauses.
‘I was doing third-rate shows, barely scraping by and we had nothing, nothing. If I had a straight job, who’d look after Keera? So I sang and kept her with me and then—’ She pauses in her story. ‘One night, she started to sing one of my songs. She had this grown-up voice. She had the talent, I could see it.
‘I made a life for us,’ Bobbi adds defiantly.
‘You looked after her the only way you knew how,’says Rose gently, ‘but there’s been a price to pay for Keera. She didn’t choose this life. You did. Nobody’s forcing Keera to become anything. She has made her own choice.’
There’s silence in the office.
‘So it’s my fault?’ says Bobbi.
‘It’s nobody’s fault,’ explains Rose patiently. ‘You did what you thought was right; you were surviving. Keera is choosing to survive a different way. That’s her right. Self-determination.’
She drinks her tea slowly.
Time to let Bobbi do some thinking on her own.
Chapter Forty-One
The retreaters are at the beach before Rose.
The sun is lower in the sky, and Christos has yet again managed to arrange the wooden sunloungers beautifully, cream beach umbrellas and the blue-and-yellow throws for anyone who gets cool in the evening.
Dianne is sitting quietly on a sunlounger and looks remarkably at peace.
Rose knows the rest of the group want to know what Dianne’s story is, but she thinks that sharing it is up to Dianne herself.
