Page 11 of Memories of Santorini

Bron shook her head as if she was trying to clear it. “Then why did you—” She stopped again.

“Why did I what?”

“Why did you tell Donald you didn’t want Sienna in the wedding?”

It didn’t surprise Angela. It didn’t even raise her blood pressure. “I don’t know why he would’ve told you that. I haven’t talked to him in weeks.”

Bron’s brow furrowed with mystification. “But he said you called, that your feelings were hurt, and you thought Sienna was choosing sides. He said that you could get vindictive if we pissed you off. You could go back to the courts for a better settlement or make trouble about the Atherton house.” She closed her mouth abruptly, realizing she’d said too much.

Angela couldn’t hold back, asking with a sudden hardness, “Did he say this just to you? Or to Sienna as well?”

“To both of us,” the girl whispered. “While we were at the caterers on Friday.” She put a finger to her lips. “Right after I asked Sienna to come to the bridal shop to pick out dresses.”

Donald had found the perfect opening. It didn’t hurt that Sienna was in the wedding. It didn’t hurt that she’d helped choose the wedding menu. But it crushed Angela to realize Sienna had called her almost immediately afterward and turned down the Santorini trip.

She sat straight and stiff. “I didn’t call Donald. I have no problem with Sienna being in the wedding. I have no problem with you marrying Donald. Or having his child.”

She felt sorry for the girl, but there was nothing she could do to save this beautiful, fresh-faced young woman who didn’t deserve what Donald would do to her if she disappointed him. Which she inevitably would.

“I don’t understand,” Bron whispered.

Angela made excuses just as she would have done for Sienna. “Maybe he’s just uncomfortable with what people might say.”

“But you really don’t mind if she’s in the wedding?” Her voice had the pitch of a teenager who needed comfort when the boy she liked asked another girl to the prom.

“I don’t mind at all.”

Donald had told this terrible lie while they were choosing the menu and talking about bridesmaid dresses. But that wasn’t a surprise. He was an asshole.

“I hope it’s not too late to go back to Sienna. You haven’t asked someone else to fill the spot, have you?”

“I wanted to talk to you while Donald—” She cut herself off again.

While Donald was at work and didn’t know what she was doing. Which meant Bron didn’t completely trust him. It also meant she wasn’t working for him anymore, that she was busy getting ready for the baby, the wedding, and fixing up their magnificent Atherton house.

How Angela wished she was that young again, still living with her illusions and her hopes. Before she’d made all her bad decisions.

“You should absolutely have Sienna in your wedding.”

“But what am I going to tell her about you?”

“Just tell her that Donald changed his mind.”

It wouldn’t do any good for Bron to tell Sienna that her father had lied. Sienna wouldn’t believe her. And it certainly wouldn’t solve Angela’s problems with her daughter.

She was the one who’d have to figure out how to fix the damage Donald had done for all these years.

And she’d start right now by paying him a visit.