Read Online Spark by Jennifer Ryder - Free Book Online Page B

means it. I feel better for it, and by his look of relief, he does too. I don’t want to leave him in a sulky I feel sorry for myself mood.
    “Better?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.
    “Yeah, better.”
    Jon opens the car door. “Hey, I was thinking we could have some friends over to my place for drinks, next Saturday. Is that cool with you?” he asks.
    I smile. “Of course. I’d love that.”
    He winks. “Great. Bye, Eevie.”
    “See ya, then.”

    ****

    When I go home for dinner a few nights later, Mum has cooked up a feast as usual. But she’s not herself. Dark circles sit beneath her eyes, and she hasn’t given her hair the attention she normally would. The boys seem to be handling things okay, but then again, they’re boys. They communicate by grunting, and computer games take up their undivided attention after dinner. Some things will never change.
    Mum and I spend about half an hour washing the endless piles of pots and pans, and finally sit down to a cup of tea. We talk about the boys, mainly, but I can tell there’s something on her mind by the way she twists the serviette in her hand.
    “Mum, what is it?”
    She bows her head, breathing out loudly. “Your father has been cheating on me.”
    A mouthful of tea spurts from my mouth across the table. I cough uncontrollably, until I can breathe again. “What? You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
    “ Language , Genevieve … I promise you. I wouldn’t joke about something like this.”
    “How did you find out? Did … did he tell you? How long …” My head fills with an endless barrage of questions.
    “I was cleaning up some paperwork in the study. You know what a mess that room is, and I came across a receipt for a hotel in Sydney. I normally wouldn’t look twice at something like that, but it was a very expensive hotel, and nowhere near where he normally stays.” My mouth drops open, but words won’t come out.
    “I confronted your father, and he confessed everything. He’s been seeing another woman for years. All those trips to Sydney … I should have known.” A single tear runs down her cheek. She’s probably cried a thousand of them since finding out. She looks empty. My heart tightens in my chest and all I can do is stare in her direction, but I can’t look her in the eye.
    She continues to talk, but I don’t want to absorb her words. If I do, it means I have to process them, and right now, I can’t. I just can’t. This is all too much.
    It kills me to say goodbye this time, leaving Mum, knowing the extent of her latest torture. I manage to hold back the tears in front of the boys.
    Sitting in my car, ready to leave, I don’t know what to do. I can’t run to Jon—surely he’s had enough of my tears. I close my eyes, willing myself not to cry. To be strong. When I open them, any trust and faith I once had in my father is gone. I’ve spent the last couple of years trying to keep this family together, pushing myself past the point of exhaustion, delaying my studies, putting everyone else in this family first, and he was fucking around.
    Un-fucking-believable .
    This can’t be happening. No, I’m not going to think about this. I can’t. I’ve got to stop turning to water at the drop of a hat. Toughen up, Eevie .

    ****

    Everyone arrives at Jon’s place at around six o’clock, each with a bottle of spirits to make cocktails. Jon sees most of these guys regularly, but some I haven’t laid eyes on since finishing school. We make a punch in one of Jon’s salad bowls—we had to improvise.
    Tonight, as hard as it will be, I’m not going to think about Dad. All week I’ve been thinking about how I want to tear him to shreds, really give him a fucking piece of my mind. I am so disgusted with him right now, but I need to hold it together for Jon. Tonight is the first time since we started going out that we’ve been social with friends. I know how important that is to him. In a way, it feels like tonight is a