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“And whose decision was it to bring Chas here today?”
“Chas’s. Look, Clarice has been messing me around for months, cancelling visits because Buckley’s been at home doing some nifty shit on his computer instead of playing golf.” Nifty shit? Then it clicked. The NFTs. “And for the past three days, Chas has been calling me in tears because Odette keeps yelling at her, so I figured she needed a break. I told Clarice I’d bring her back for the ceremony. Odette really delayed things by three hours?”
“Yup.”
“Figures.”
Eddie’s tone told me he wasn’t an Odette fan.
“You know Odette?”
“Met her a few times over the years.” He gave a little snort and smiled. “The Farber lawn is the only one I still cut personally. Got sixty guys working for me now, and Grass Masters is franchised across seven states.”
“Congratulations.”
“Made my money the old-fashioned way,” he told me proudly. “I didn’t come from a wealthy family.”
The words left unsaid? Unlike Buckley.
“How did you get Chas out of the hotel?”
“I didn’t. She snuck out of a side door all by herself. My little girl’s clever.”
Chas was on the pony now, trotting around the ring with a huge smile on her face as the handler jogged beside her, and I realised this was the happiest I’d ever seen her. Gone was the Stepford Child. She had smudges of dirt on her jeans, her hair was sticking out in every direction, and when the pony shook its head, she hooted with laughter.
“Does she take regular riding lessons?”
Eddie nodded. “For the past year. Someday, I’d like to get her a horse of her own, but that might have to wait until she goes to college.”
“And what will you tell Buckley?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Maybe he won’t be in the picture? Clarice gets more unhappy with each passing year.”
“That’s not what she says. She never misses an opportunity to tell me how much better her life is than mine.”
Eddie guffawed, but there was nothing funny about having my entire existence constantly belittled.
“She doesn’t handle envy well.”
“Envy?”
He nodded. “She’ll never openly admit it, but she’s always been envious that you had the guts to leave and do your own thing, even when everyone said you were making the wrong decision. Criticism is something else Clarice can’t deal with.”
“She’s been a bitch to me for years.”
“I can’t comment on that. But Clarice is two souls living in the same body—a woman who wants to fit in, and a girl who longs to rebel. Growing up with parents like yours wasn’t easy. You reacted by walking your own path in life, but Clarice took a different approach.”
I guess that made a weird kind of sense. While I’d always run from pressure, she’d shielded herself from criticism by toeing the family line. I was still mad at her for the way she treated me, but now at least I understood. This conversation with Eddie, it was a key. A key to unlocking the secrets of my family and myself. Hell, Clarice and I probably both needed therapy.
“What about Odette?” I asked. “She acted the same way as Clarice.”
“No offence, because I know she’s your sister, but she’s a nasty piece of work. And also your mom’s favourite daughter, so Clarice tiptoes around her.”
“No offence taken.”
How could I be offended when he spoke the truth?
Behind Eddie, Hawk tapped his watch, and my mind jolted back to a much bigger problem than my screwed-up childhood. We had a wedding to attend. A child’s disappearance to explain.
