“If you were Robbie, would that set of circumstances make you feel safe and happy? Would knowing that your real father was dead, your real mother was delusional, and your entire childhood was a lie help you sleep more soundly at night? Would that be a kind and generous thing to do to a boy who’s practically a brother to you?”
I was more convinced than I had been when I walked in here that Tilley was Robbie’s mother. But I was also seeing Mom’s point. Which wasn’t fair. I walked in here with my straight-and-narrow moral compass and now things were getting all confused in my mind.
Mom took my hand again. “Sweetheart, your concerns are unfounded. But, even if they weren’t, sometimes we make decisions that feel untruthful, sometimes we keep secrets, because we are trying to protect the people we love. It’s hard and maybe it isn’t right in the black-and-white sense of the word. But sometimes loving someone means letting them just be happy.”
Sometimes I wondered if my mother had been to some sort of secret CIA school where she had learned to be this persuasive.
“Mom, I do not believe you.”
She nodded. “Okay. That’s fine. Don’t believe me. I don’t care. But what do you think Robbie is going to say when you go tell him that Tilley says she’s his mother?”
I hadn’t considered that. Really, I’d never planned on telling Robbie at all. I’d planned on Mom and Elizabeth feeling guilty about thesecret they’d kept and telling him themselves. But if any people would die on a hill, it was those two.
“Mom, I know you know how to work me and everyone else. But I would like for you to know that I think what you two are doing kind of stinks.” I wasn’t allowed to say “sucks.” “And I think Robbie deserves the truth.”
“So do I,” she said evenly, smiling. “And he knows the truth. He has the same two loving parents he has always had. And that’s that.” She paused and said, “Who else was there when Tilley made this crazy confession?”
“Just Daisy.”
“Does she understand that Tilley isn’t quite right all the time?”
I nodded. Maybe my mom was right. Maybe Robbie didn’t need to know if his parents weren’t his real parents. And maybe Drew didn’t need to know that Maisy was actually his child. What good was that going to do? It would distract him from the recruiting sessions he’d worked for years to get. It could potentially even ruin his future.
Maybe the truth wasn’t as important as just letting people be happy. “Mom, you’re infuriating.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know why I would be infuriating to you for getting you off this ridiculous flight of fancy.”
I squinted at her. Tilley had seemed so in touch with reality lately. Maybe that was what was confusing me. Had she said this last year, I wouldn’t have given it another thought. Maybe I was putting too much credence in a few weeks of evidence instead of the entire lifetime I’d had before. Either way, I knew that I had gotten everything I could—which amounted to nothing—out of my mother. It was none of my business. I was going to shut my mouth. For now, I was going to spend the night with a beautiful woman who, to my knowledge, had never lied to me. And I hoped she never had to.
TILLEYUnladylike
Tilley knew she was not a reliable narrator. She was prone to flights of fancy and sinking off into other worlds. And she supposed that was what had made Elizabeth so sure the two of them could keep this secret for so long. Elizabeth would never tell. And, if Tilley did, who would believe her?
What she couldn’t figure out, lying in her bed, having woken up from a deep sleep only to realize what she had done, was why now? Why, when she had been having such a great couple of weeks, had seeing the baby taken her back to the most painful part of her past? She’d held plenty of babies. She’d lived with George and Greer when they were babies, for heaven’s sake. And never once had she slipped back into the most difficult moments of her life, when she couldn’t mother her own baby and, eventually, it had been decided she would live life as his aunt, not his mother.
She knew she needed to talk to her sister, mitigate the damage. But, well, the show must go on. And, for now, she had practice to get to. She knew that, up there onstage, she would be able to forget all about the mess she had just made. Plus, Easter was only three days away. George would be arriving tomorrow. (Cue the thudding heart!)There were hams to bake and pies to make and, come on, who would believe her outburst was even real? Certainly not Mason.
Tilley walked into the bathroom to brush her hair and teeth and freshen her makeup. As she was applying a last dash of mascara, she thought she could just make out a man’s voice coming from downstairs. Her pulse raced uncomfortably. It certainly wasn’t Parker’s voice. And, sure, they left the doors unlocked, but no one ever just walked in.
She grabbed her umbrella, which she doubted would do much good when trying to fend off an attacker, but it was better than nothing, and raced toward the stairs, peeking her head down. She could make out a man’s figure in the entrance hall. “Is anyone home?”
“George?”
He snapped his head up toward the stairs as she made her way down.
“Tilley! Just the woman I was hoping to see!”
Oh, the fluttering heart. George was, as always, dressed in a well-pressed suit with a blue-and-white-striped tie. His face, despite the losses of his past few years, was open and jovial, and, somehow, his receding hairline made him look even more distinguished. He was handsome, the kind of man that exuded power. Tilley found herself drawn to him. She hurried down the stairs, and at the foot of them, she imagined, just for a moment, what would happen if he took her in his arms and kissed her. But, of course, he would never.
Instead, he drew her into a quick, friendly hug. “Are you home alone?”
“I am,” Tilley said. “I’m not sure where the kids are.” She looked down at the diamond Tiffany watch that had been her mother’s. “But I’m actually off to play practice, I’m afraid.” She pointed upstairs. “Everything is ready for you, of course. Let me get you settled—”
“No, no,” he interrupted. “Tell me about this play practice.”
Tilley grinned. “You are looking at Cape Carolina’s newest Dolly Levi.”
George clapped his hands. “Am I now?”
