Victoria closed her eyes and leaned her head against the leather headrest of the limousine. Monday had been a relief. As usual, it was full of incompetence and she’d been tempted to fire two associate editors, but at least she had been out of the house.
She just didn’t know whether she was coming or going at the moment. One minute she was miserable that Holly had remembered the dog and not her, but then she spent hours working with Holly by her side and she felt whole again. But soon after, the girl was locked away in the games room with the children, trying to escape from her once again.
It was obvious what was happening. Holly was caught in a precarious position between feeling gratitude for Victoria rescuing her from France and coming to the realisation that Victoria was the devil in heels. Holly must not want to upset her, especially considering she held power of attorney over her, was responsible for her medical attention, her food, her shelter. Of course Holly was trying to keep the peace.
Now it was up to Victoria to do the same.
It didn’t help that her ludicrous dreams were keeping her awake night after night. Looking Holly in the eye was becoming a challenge. Luckily, she had the excuse of work. She was perfectly happy to lock herself away in her study and give Holly the run on the house. It meant she didn’t have any fodder for new dreams. And it gave Holly a break from the charm offensive she’d been on to try to convince Victoria that everything was fine and well.
The car pulled up to the kerb, and her heart started to sink. Being depressed at arriving home wasn’t a new feeling for her. In the past, it had been thanks to her ex-husband. Now it was a charming, beautiful, and caring young woman whose life she had destroyed. This too shall pass, she reminded herself.
Her driver opened the door, and she stepped out.
“Thank you, Charles.”
“Good night, Miss Hastings.”
She walked up the short flight of steps and unlocked the door.
Hugo stood in the hallway with a bottle of water in his hand and a shocked expression on his face.
She closed the door behind her. “Something wrong, sweetheart?”
He looked at his watch. “It’s five thirty.”
“Yes?” She hung her coat in the closet.
“You’re never home this early.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve been home on time,” she pointed out.
“First time this year,” he argued.
She was about to deny it when she realised that she wasn’t sure. She often worked late, and one week turned into another and suddenly months had flown by. He did look positively stunned to see her there. Maybe it had been that long.
“Well, I’m here now. How are you? How was school?”
“What do you care?” He started to walk towards the stairs.
“Now hold on,” Victoria called after him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He stood on the first step and turned to face her. It was only now that she realised he looked upset. His cheeks glowed, and she wondered if he had been crying.
“You haven’t asked me how school was for…” He paused and laughed. “I can’t even remember when.”
“That’s simply not true.” Now she was sure he was wrong. She made sure to keep up to date with her children’s schooling. No matter the cost to her own work schedule, she was at every parent-teacher meeting.
“School was fine.” He turned on his heel to go up the stairs.
“Hugo, don’t turn your back on me.”
“I don’t feel well. I’m going to sleep, I’ll eat dinner later.” He continued up the stairs and then up the next flight before slamming his bedroom door shut.
She clenched and unclenched her fists. She wanted to march up the stairs and demand to know where her sweet boy had gone. He never spoke to her like that. But she knew that it was no use chasing after him. He needed to cool down and come to her. The realisation didn’t make it any easier.
She heard giggling and leaned over the bannister. Holly and Alexia were down in the guestroom. She stood up straight and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Something bumped into her, and she turned around to see Izzy looking at her with big, sad eyes. Admittedly she had been ignoring the beast since the initial incident with Holly.
“Yes, yes, I see you,” she mumbled.
Izzy whimpered.
“And I’m sorry.” She reached a hand down and scratched at the dog’s ear. “I’m sorry.”
“Mom? Is that you?” Alexia called from downstairs.
“Yes, sweetheart,” she called back.
Alexia launched herself up the stairs and pulled her into a hug. “You’re home early.”
She closed her eyes and held onto her daughter tightly. This was the greeting she had expected, though maybe not deserved.
“Holly and I are going to cook dinner,” Alexia said.
She opened her eyes and saw Holly smiling at her.
“I see, and what feast are we having?”
“Pizza,” Holly said with a mischievous grin.
“Oh, really?” Victoria narrowed her eyes at the blatant teasing.
“Tuna steaks and couscous,” Alexia said.
Victoria felt her stomach rumble at the thought of her favourite meal.
“A little bird tells me you like it,” Holly said. The girl leaned on the bannister rail and winked at her.
“Um. Yes… I do.” She turned to Alexia. “What’s wrong with your brother?”
Alexia shrugged. “I don’t know, he’s been moody since we got home.”
“Did something happen at school?”
“I don’t know, he doesn’t talk to me.”
“Nor me, it seems,” Victoria said.
“I’m sure he’ll come around. We’ll make him some food, hopefully that will cheer him up,” Holly said.
“Maybe so.” She glanced up the stairs, still wondering if she should go after her son.
Alexia took her arm. “Come on, Mom. Come and sit in the kitchen with us.”
She found herself dragged into the kitchen and deposited on a stool at the breakfast bar.
“Isn’t it cool that Holly knows how to cook your favourite meal?”
“It is,” Victoria agreed.
She looked at Holly who was making eye contact with her. She didn’t know if she was imagining it, but it looked like Holly was wearing extra makeup. She was also wearing the low-cut, Donna Karan cowl-neck cashmere top that Victoria had asked to have put in her wardrobe. She always thought the cut would suit the girl. She was right. Now she was struggling to ensure she didn’t look. Her overactive imagination didn’t need to add that to the repertoire.
“Want to be my sous chef?” Holly asked. “Or do you want to watch?”
It sounded awfully suggestive, and Victoria’s eyes flicked to Alexia who was putting on an apron.
“I… have some emails to answer.” She got her phone out of her handbag. It wasn’t a lie. Leaving early did mean a backlog of work would have accumulated.
As she checked her phone she could feel eyes resting heavily on her. It was going to be a long evening.
Holly sat on the sofa in the games room and stared blankly at the television. She normally loved Groundhog Day and would laugh all the way through it. This time the jokes seemed stale and overthought. She turned to watch Alexia who sat in the middle spot of the sofa. The young girl laughed and laughed, tugging on either Holly’s or her brother’s arms to ensure they were catching every second of her favourite film.
“Yeah, I heard it,” Hugo muttered at Alexia’s latest insistent pull on his arm.
Like Holly, he wasn’t enjoying himself. He flopped on the other end of the sofa, his long legs resting on the coffee table. He’d had his phone in his hand and had been glumly scrolling through it since Holly and Alexia came into the room. He hadn’t joined them for dinner, but Victoria had prepared a plate that Alexia had taken up to him.
Holly let out a sigh and turned her head back to the television. She wished relationships were as predictable as they were on film. Alexia had sworn faithfully that Victoria liked her. And yet, over dinner preparation and dinner itself, Victoria steadfastly ignored her. Holly upped the ante a few times with some risqué comments and some blatant flirting. Victoria had looked confused before turning her attention to something else.
In the end, Holly had stopped trying. She feared Victoria would decide she was suffering some latent effects from her accident and would have her admitted to the hospital at once.
After dinner, Victoria had disappeared into her study. Holly was convinced she was avoiding her. Alexia suggested it was more likely she was avoiding Hugo. Now Holly suspected she was avoiding them both.
The movie was paused, and Alexia jumped to her feet. “I’m going to ask Mom if I can have popcorn!”
“Careful,” Hugo warned. “Don’t take advantage just because she’s in a mood.”
“She’s not in a mood, you’re in a mood,” Alexia argued. “And I’m not taking advantage.”
She skipped happily out of the room, seemingly unaware that she was the only person in the house not utterly miserable.
“She’s taking advantage,” Hugo muttered.
“She’s getting a taste for the high life,” Holly replied. “Pizza yesterday, popcorn today.”
“There will be a sugar ban by the end of the week,” he said solemnly.
“Probably,” Holly agreed. She pulled her leg up and tucked it underneath her. She looked at him. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” he mumbled.
“Sure. You just look like someone cancelled your birthday for no reason.”
“It’s stupid.” He focused his attention on his phone, but she could tell he wasn’t looking at anything specific.
“It’s a girl,” she surmised. “Or a guy?”
“Girl,” he corrected. “But it’s stupid.”
“I bet it isn’t.” She reached forward and snagged a satsuma from the coffee table fruit bowl. “There’s a reason why the vast majority of TV is about relationships, because they cause the most trouble in the world. That and war. You’re not starting a war, are you?”
He smirked. “No.”
“Good, I think your mother would have something to say.”
“Don’t tell her anything, I don’t want to bother her,” Hugo said.
“I don’t think she’d consider anything that’s upsetting you as a bother to her. But, I promise that anything you tell me will stay between us,” she said.
Hugo sighed and lowered his phone to his lap.
“There’s this girl, Kristine. Her best friend Penny told me that she’s interested in me—”
“Kristine or Penny?” Holly asked.
“Penny told me that Kristine is interested in me,” he amended. “So, I wrote her a note, but Jimmy Spicer got hold of it and read it out in class. Now everyone thinks I’m an idiot and Kristine won’t even look at me.”
Feeling like an idiot and being ignored by the object of your desire were both phenomena Holly could relate to.
“That must have been horribly embarrassing,” she agreed. She jabbed her thumb into the clementine and started to peel it.
He looked at her. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“Aren’t you going to give me some advice?” he asked.
“I dunno, am I?” She picked out a segment. “Do you want some advice? Or some satsuma?”
He held out his hand, and she placed a segment in his palm.
“That’s normally what people do, give advice, try to fix things,” Hugo said.
“Do you want me to try?” she asked.
He slowly nodded.
She considered the situation for a moment. “See, the biggest problem you have is giving a shit what other people think. And if you tell your mom I just said a curse word I’ll tell her I caught you drinking whisky or something, so don’t even go there.”
He smiled at her and chewed on the piece of satsuma.
“Do you like this Kristine?”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “She’s really pretty and smart.”
“Okay, then you need to cut through all the noise and focus on what you want. Humans, especially teenagers, get bored easily. If nothing is happening in their life, then they will tear down other people. The key is to ignore it and focus on what you want. It’s really hard, especially at school. But you need to think, in ten years do you want to have not embarrassed yourself in front of James Spicer, or do you want to have dated Kristine? Because, sad fact of life, Hugo, James Spicer will be a bully no matter what. If it wasn’t that note, it would have been your hair, your shoes, your accent. Something.”
“But everyone heard the note, everyone knows,” Hugo complained.
Holly shrugged. “So? You like a popular, attractive, clever girl. What’s so terrible about that? You have good taste and you took a chance on getting what you wanted. Okay, now Kristine is probably embarrassed because all the attention is on her and how she’ll react. If she says no, then they’ll say something, if she says yes, then they’ll say something else. She can’t win either.”
“So it’s hopeless,” Hugo said.
“As long as you care about what other people think, yeah, it is pretty hopeless.” She ate a piece of her fruit.
“You’re not good at pep talks,” he told her with a chuckle.
“Hey, I’m recovering from a brain injury. I’m not here to make you feel better.” She winked to let him know she was joking.
He sighed and rested his head against the soft material of the sofa. “I get what you’re saying, I shouldn’t worry so much about what other people think. But those other people are ruining my chances with Kristine.”
“No,” Holly argued, “you’re ruining your chances. Let me guess, you stormed out of class, moped about all day, avoided her as she avoided you… right?”
“Pretty much.”
“Do you have her number? Are you connected on social media somehow?” Holly asked.
Hugo started to look panicked. “Well… yeah.”
“Well, it’s time to rip the Band-Aid off. The longer you leave it, the worse it will get. Contact her now, get it sorted out.”
He sat up, colour rising on his cheeks and the start of a sweat forming on his brow.
“It’s your choice,” she said. “But, you could end this week with a date with Kristine if you wanted to. Or at least a good chance of it. Girls mature faster than boys, and you’re mature for your age. Those other boys are showing how immature they are. You could swoop in and show Kristine how much better you are.”
Hugo looked nervously at his phone. “You… you think?”
“Sure!” Holly sat up. “I’ll help you if you like. What are we thinking? Email? Twitter? How many characters have we got to work with?”
Hugo grabbed his phone and shuffled closer to Holly. “You think this will work?”
“I don’t know, buddy. But if we don’t try, then you’ll be miserable for a long time. At least this way we can get it sorted out and then you can move on.”
“That’s true,” he agreed.
He unlocked his phone and they huddled in the corner of the sofa, composing a message to send. Alexia returned with a mountain of popcorn that she seemed to have no intention of sharing. She took one look at Hugo’s phone and shook her head. She turned the movie back on and scoffed into her popcorn.
Victoria looked up at the knock on the study door. She dreaded whoever it was on the other side. She wasn’t prepared for a second round with Hugo. Holly was acting bizarrely, and Alexia seemed to have become a bottomless pit of sweet treats.
“Come,” she called.
The door opened, and Hugo stood there.
Her heart sank. She wasn’t strong enough to argue with him again.
“Hey, can I come in?” he asked.
“Of course.” She closed her laptop lid.
He closed the study door behind him and sat on the sofa. He fidgeted nervously with his hands, and she was reminded of when he did the same thing as a young boy awaiting a reprimand for being naughty. Not that Hugo was often naughty. That was why his outburst had bothered her. She didn’t know if she could cope with her oldest child completely reversing his personality as he became a teenager.
“I wanted to apologise,” he said.
She blinked in surprise.
“I didn’t mean what I said when you got home. I was in a really bad mood, and then I said some things I shouldn’t have and I’m sorry.”
“Oh.” To say his apology was unexpected was an incredible understatement.
“I just felt stupid,” he continued, “this thing happened at school. About a girl. It just sounded so childish and stupid. But I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
“It’s okay, I understand.” She didn’t understand, not entirely. But she was getting an apology and so forgiveness and understanding were expected of her.
“I won’t do it again,” he promised. He looked down at his hands, clearly worried that it was a promise he wouldn’t be able to keep.
“It’s fine. As long as you talk to me,” she said. “So, there’s a girl?” she fished.
“There is now.” A smile spread across his face. “We’re seeing each other for lunch on Saturday.”
Victoria shifted a little uncomfortably. Her little boy had rudely turned into a grown man without her permission. And had a date.
“It’s Kristine Andersen, you know her parents,” Hugo added, seeing his mother’s growing panic.
She frowned as she tried to recall the name. “Andersen? Oh, George?”
He nodded.
“You said there was a problem at school?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He ran a hand through his thick hair and let out a sigh. “I wrote a note for her and the wrong people got hold of it and read it out. It was really embarrassing. That was why I was upset.”
“That sounds terrible, sweetheart. Do I need to call the school?”
“No, it’s fine. I spoke to Holly about it. She gave me some good advice.”
Victoria swallowed nervously. Holly was giving her son dating advice. Wasn’t that her role? What had Holly said?
“Don’t worry, Mom.” He chuckled. “She gave me good advice. She told me not to worry about the bullies and to rise above them. She told me to use my maturity to speak to Kristine, and we’ve been talking all evening.”
“Good, good.” She couldn’t wipe the frown from her brow.
“Holly’s great,” Hugo said. “I’m glad she’s here with us.”
“I am, too,” she confessed. No matter how muddied the situation became, she was still flying high on the relief that Holly was with her and safe. The girl’s colour had returned to her cheeks, there was a bounce in her step, and it even looked like a couple of pounds were returning to her gaunt frame.
“Don’t… you know, don’t mess it up,” Hugo said softly.
She chuckled. “Oh, it doesn’t matter at this point.”
“What do you mean?”
“It doesn’t matter what I do or say now. I believe Holly’s memories will return and that will seal my fate. Once she remembers how I treated her as my assistant, she won’t be able to get away from me quickly enough.” It felt good to finally say the words, to voice her fears. She was protecting herself by staying away. If she didn’t get attached to Holly, she wouldn’t feel the devastating blow when Holly walked away. For a second time. “She probably already remembers if her behaviour is anything to go by.”
“Then you need to get there first,” he said. He sat forward on the sofa and looked like he meant business. “Tell her.”
She shook her head. “No, I-I can’t do that. It’s ridiculous.”
“It isn’t,” he insisted. “You need to be brave and tell her what you’re worried about. You like her, you must for her to be here. And let’s face it, you could do with a real friend like Holly.”
“Of course I like her. And, yes, she’s a wonderful person and would make a fine friend. But I can’t say anything. She can’t guarantee how she’ll react when her memories return. Even with the best intentions, once the floodgates open…” She shook he head. “It’s ludicrous to think that we could be friends. The past doesn’t forget, Hugo.”
“Maybe not forget, but forgive. You weren’t that bad to her, were you?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I was… me.”
“Pretty bad then,” Hugo joked.
She glared at him, and he laughed lightly.
“I still think you should say something. You can’t hide in here forever,” he said.
“I’m not hiding, I’m working.” She crossed her arms.
“Yeah, you’re coming home earlier than usual to work from home? Doesn’t make any sense. Do you want to know what I think?”
“Not particularly,” she said.
“I think you want to join in and get involved, but you’re afraid. So you come home but then you worry about Holly remembering and getting mad and leaving. You could fix that by just talking to her, Mom.”
“Maybe. But it’s not happening. Holly is here to rest and recover, not to have more stress piled onto her by me.” She lifted her laptop lid to get back to work. “And you’re not to say anything to her either. I’m deadly serious, Hugo.”
She pinned him with a stern stare. He slowly nodded and held up his hands. “It’s not my place to say anything anyway,” he pointed out.
“It isn’t,” she agreed.
“But think about it,” he added. He stood up. “I’m going to bed.”
She looked at her watch and was shocked to see how many hours had passed.
He walked around the desk and placed a soft kiss in her hair. “Night, Mom.”
“Good night, sweetheart.”