Read Online Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner - Free Book Online

her what I did to you.”
    “Mum—”
    “I mean it, Emmy. Don’t you tell her! Let her think what she wants about him. She has every right to think what she wants.” Mum reached for the bottle. Emmy leaned over her and moved it away from her outstretched hand.
    “Stop it,” Emmy said.
    “Julia has every right to think whatever she wants!” Fresh tears rimmed Mum’s glassy eyes. “Don’t you tell her! I mean it, Emmy!”
    Emmy placed the bottle atop the fridge and used the moments when her back was turned to assess her own reaction to the news of Neville’s death. She felt nothing. Neville, most of the time an unemployed actor, had lived on and off with them for four years, starting when Julia was two. Emmy didn’t like the way he treated Mum andshe didn’t like the way he looked at her when she started to develop a woman’s body. But Julia loved that Neville could sound like an old man or a French painter or an American cowboy. She loved his outlandish stories and crazy songs. He was the kind of father every kid thought she wanted. He never raised his voice to Julia, never corrected her, never made her mind. After he’d disappear for months on end, he’d come back with a fanciful tale of the adventure he had been on, bearing trinkets for Julia and excuses for Mum. He could see that Emmy saw straight through the lies and pretense, so he brought her nothing. He was handsome and talented. He was also an opportunist and a playboy. Emmy celebrated the day he said he was moving out for good, even though Julia and Mum both cried.
    They hadn’t heard so much as a word from him in nearly a year. Julia believed he was somewhere in India on a movie set.
    His death meant nothing to Emmy.
    “Did you hear what I said?” Mom railed. “Don’t you tell her, Emmy.”
    Emmy turned from the fridge. “Someday Julia won’t be satisfied with vague answers about where he is.”
    “Today’s not that day.” Mum held out the juice glass.
    Emmy took the glass and placed it in the sink where the breakfast dishes were still soaking. “I never said Neville was a lying cheat.”
    “You knew I shouldn’t have trusted him. You were just a kid and somehow you knew. God, isn’t that ironic.”
    Emmy opened a cupboard and pulled out a tin of corned beef, a loaf of pumpernickel, and a jar of peaches, as Mum apparently had no plans for their supper. “What’s done is done, Mum.”
    “Why did he tell me his parents were dead? Whatwas the purpose of me thinking that?” Mum crumpled the handkerchief and tossed it onto the table next to the mail. “Why would he do that?”
    “Does it really matter now?” Emmy withdrew six slices of bread, picked off a few flakes of mold, and set them on a plate.
    “It matters to me! Why would he tell me his parents were dead?”
    Emmy could think of a number of reasons why Neville had lied to Mum about his parents, not the least of which was that when he wanted to move in with them; it was a lot easier for Mum to welcome him when she thought he had nowhere else to go. “Because he wanted you to feel sorry for him. Or because he liked lying to see if he could get away with it. He was an actor, Mum. He made his living pretending to be something he wasn’t.” Emmy opened the fridge and pulled out a jar of mustard.
    “Aren’t you Miss Know-It-All,” Mum murmured.
    “You asked me. I’m just answering your question. He lied to you because it suited his ends.”
    “He told me he didn’t have the money to marry me. Did I ever tell you that? What a fool I was. His father is a professor! He probably has all kinds of money. What a daft fool I was. You’d think I’d know better. . . .” Her voice trailed off.
    Emmy opened the tin and the greasy-sweet odor of canned meat permeated the air in the little kitchen. “If you don’t want me to tell Julia right now, I won’t. But if she asks me why he’s taking so long to come back from India, or wherever else she thinks he is, I’m not going to