‘I thought about that conversation, after she died. I turned her words over and over in my head to make sense of them, and I knew she was right. And had she lived, I think I would’ve pulled back, let the business run itself a little bit and focused on the family life I had the luxury of having provided for. But when she died, some days I felt as though it was all I had left. I convinced myself that you needed something to fill the void and so I worked myself into the ground making the business even bigger, seizing every opportunity to grow, taking every chance. And it took away my pain most days, gave me a focus. I think I was terrified that if I stopped, the pain would consume me, and I wouldn’t be able to function.’
Jack swigged his Scotch, allowing the liquid to sharpen his senses. ‘So you’re saying Mom didn’t want the business either.’
Kent shook his head. ‘It wasn’t that simple. She wanted the business. She loved designing jewellery, but she was a woman who was content with her lot in life. She was a lot like Nicole.’ He smiled, tentatively. ‘They’re the same Zodiac sign you know.’
‘Kind-hearted then,’ Jack smiled. Both Cynthia and he shared the Aquarius sign, and his mother had often reeled off the good and bad characteristics of an Aquarian. ‘It’s the sign of a progressive thinker, someone who respects the differences between people. I’m still not sure I fit that mould, but Mom and Nicole sure do.’
‘I think you’re underestimating yourself. I’m Aries. Your mother always told me I was a go-getter, someone who led the way.’
‘Very apt.’
‘What else was it?’ He pulled a face as he recalled his wife’s words. ‘Ah … I have a magnetic personality, apparently, and I bring excitement to peoples’ lives.’
Jack shook his head, laughed. ‘She loved her astrology.’
‘She did. It’s the first section she’d find in a newspaper. Never mind the catastrophes of the world or the state of the economy. She’d go straight to the horoscopes, reading them out to me almost daily.’
‘I remember you’d both go to the High Line most weeks,’ said Jack.
‘She loved it there in the elevated park. We’d wait for the sky to change to pink, deepen to purple and then I’d watch her looking up at the stars. A few times we were lucky enough to spot the Winter Circle. Not a constellation but an asterism, she told me. It was a circular pattern consisting of stars that I can’t remember the name of now, but I was more interested in watching her than the sky anyway. Beneath the stars was what Cynthia was about, she looked her most beautiful, her most at peace.’
Jack didn’t miss the catch in his voice. ‘I miss her.’
‘Me too, son.’
‘Can I ask why you packed away all the photographs of us as a family?’ It was candid, but he’d never really understood his father’s reasoning.
‘I didn’t put them away and forget about them, I promise you. I put them all away one day in a fit of rage, angry she was gone, that our lives had been ripped apart. And then I got them out again, positioned them all around the house. The day Nicole was due to come over of course I hid them again, just until I’d talked with her. And when she began working here, of course I couldn’t get the photographs out again. But I always kept one in the office. And you always kept the same one in your room. And Nicole never once went in there. I think she was afraid of encroaching in a teenage boy’s territory, afraid she’d meet the stench of filthy socks and goodness knows what else.’
‘I find it hard to believe she never once went in my room in thirteen years, smelly socks or not.’
Kent shrugged. ‘I wonder if she’d even recognise Cynthia anyway. Perhaps she’d never really looked at the photograph of the woman her son killed. Perhaps it was too painful for her.’
‘She must’ve been through hell,’ said Jack.
‘I’m sure she has.’
The conversation settled until a crackle from the fireplace reminded Jack to speak again. ‘Where is she, anyway?’
‘She went home to her apartment. She said something about cooking supper for Evie tonight.’
Dear God, what was Evie going to make of all this? Nicole’s son was a murderer; Kent Churchill had lied to everyone, all these years.
‘I’m not angry with Nicole,’ he told his father. ‘I can’t be. Somehow she’s detached from my mother. Whether it’s because I’ve always thought natural causes were to blame, I don’t know, but I don’t see her as the mother of a killer. When you first told me, of course I did, but not anymore. Is she angry with you for lying to us all?’
Kent shook his head. ‘No, she’s not angry.’
Jack thought back to the night Nicole had brought Evie into their world. ‘All of this, is this why you reacted so strongly to Nicole helping Evie?’
Kent nodded shamefully. ‘It was wrong of me, I know, but that night I didn’t see a young woman in desperate need of help. In that moment I wasn’t a parent, I was a grieving widower and a man who was scared this person could take away everything I held dear.’
‘Can I ask whether Braydon knowing the whole truth is why you’ve allowed him to stay with the company for so long?’
Kent took a deep breath. ‘Oh, he was good at his job first and foremost, but slowly I began to dislike the man more and more, and then of course I was petrified he’d open his big mouth and blow everything apart with the truth. Lord knows what he’ll do now. I’ve got visions of him exposing the whole story to the press, telling everyone how Kent Churchill fell for the woman whose son killed his first wife.’
‘What will you do about Braydon to ensure he doesn’t take this to the newspapers?’
Kent shook his head. ‘Do you know what? I don’t think I really care if he does. Not now. Not now the truth is out. I always thought this business was what saved me from myself, but really it’s been like a noose around my neck, threatening to tighten and snap me, break my relationship with my own son. I should’ve given it away years ago and focused on you and Cameron.’
