She felt like a petulant child who had misbehaved at school and, unfortunately, her husband was treating her like one, too. And she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to wear that dress again, at least not without being reminded of this morning’s abject mortification.
Across the room, Tom paced back and forth, continually running his hands through his hair. Usually possessing a calm exterior, he looked positively unglued these days. His shirt was untucked from his pants, his tie was loose and his face an unattractive shade of tomato. And there was a hell of a lot more gray in his hair.
“I just got off the phone with Matt; he’s furious. What in the hell—I mean—how did this...?”
Madeleine looked at the floor and then returned her gaze to her husband. She was mortified and ashamed that she might have messed things up for them—again. But there was no way for her to have prevented what had happened on the show that morning.
Because of Gemma Moore, she had been made to defend herself—and her decision not to vaccinate her children—on live TV.
She had been in the middle of a run-of-the-mill segment as planned, talking about things to do with kids during the upcoming summer holidays. It had all been so normal and decidedly innocuous: amusing ways to keep the kids entertained before resorting to iPads or other electronics.
And then, when she’d finished her piece, Gemma had wasted no time in having her say.
“Some great ideas there, Madeleine,” she had chirped in pleasantly, with glittering eyes. “Of course, we all know how much thought you put into being a mum, raising your kids, looking out for them...”
Her voice trailed off and, sensing an ambush, Madeleine was hesitant to respond. Despite the fact that Louise, the main presenter, would surely intervene if anything got nasty, she had never felt more on her guard.
Not to mention the mere fact that she was being watched by an audience across the nation made her cheeks flush and she wondered what that looked like on the other side of the camera.
Gemma smiled slightly. “Hmm. Interesting. Really, it is.”
Madeleine opened her mouth to speak, to try to head off a potential issue with something—anything, really—but Gemma beat her to it.
“Considering Madeleine’s parenting choices are actually embroiled in hugely controversial legal proceedings at the moment.” The journalist let her words hang in the air as she met Madeleine’s gaze. Feeling herself freeze in place, she suddenly realized just how hot the studio lights were. She shifted her gaze uncomfortably to the producers, one of whom was shaking her head at Gemma vociferously.
“Now, Gemma, I’m not sure if—” Louise cut in.
“I was just wondering how Madeleine was,” she persisted, all innocence. “It must be a terrible time.”
Now the woman was actually pretending to be concerned, all the while putting her on the spot about the case—live on the air!
But reminding herself she was a professional and she could handle this, Madeleine opened her mouth to speak. “As you said yourself, Gemma, this is an ongoing legal situation and I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss it.”
“It’s provoked a lot of public discussion, though, hasn’t it? Lots of people are angry about you and your husband’s anti-vaccination stance, and how it has affected another family.”
Madeleine knew she really was caught between a rock and a hard place now. She couldn’t discuss the case, but she couldn’t appear unsympathetic, either, not when the eyes of the nation were upon her. And what had she got to lose, given that right from the get-go everyone was so eager to paint her as the villain?
Stuttering a little, she spoke again. “Absolutely. And it goes without saying that my thoughts and prayers are with little Rosie and her mum—”
Louise interjected quickly then, her eyes widening at this wholly unanticipated turn in what up to then had been a typically lighthearted panel discussion. “Yes, I’m sure we’re all very sympathetic to the little girl, but I really don’t think this is the right place to—”
“I would think your thoughts and prayers should be with her, Madeleine, given that she’s still very ill and facing disability due to your irresponsible decision-making,” Gemma persisted, ignoring the presenter.
Madeleine glanced at the ground and felt her head start to spin. “That’s not it,” she replied, spluttering a little, all the while trying to remain calm and collected.
She couldn’t mess this up—for more reasons than one. Discussing the case in anything other than general terms would be disastrous legally, but if she said nothing, she would be ruined personally. “That was a family choice, a personal choice. My husband and I have always had our reasons and—”
Gemma snorted. “Conspiracy theories, you mean,” she muttered.
“But such theories must be a consideration for any parent, mustn’t they?” Louise jumped in gamely, obviously trying to deflect attention away from specifics and speak in more general terms. “There’s been multiple controversies surrounding vaccines that we’ve discussed numerous times on this very program. Like the widely reported side effects of the HPV vaccine and narcolepsy from the swine-flu...”
Madeleine took a breath, grateful that Louise had stepped in not just to protect her honor, but more likely to head off the possibility of another lawsuit aimed at the station.
Mercifully, Gemma seemed to take the bait and chattered at length about the proven life-saving abilities of vaccines and how the so-called Big Bad pharmaceutical companies had eradicated so many diseases and saved lives. She was obviously satisfied to have made her point and got what she wanted in skewering Madeleine live on air and was now carrying on as if nothing at all had happened.
Madeleine, for her part, had said little throughout the remainder of the conversation and indeed the rest of the segment, and while she’d tried to smile and participate in a follow-up discussion about the benefits of coffee over tea, by the end of the show she felt hollowed out and drained.
So much so that she barely heard the producer’s profuse apologies, or Gemma Moore’s cheery goodbye when they all left the studio.
