Chameleon In New York

CHAPTER 15 | family reunion

What had disturbed her the most was the realisation that as much as she wanted to avoid him, she at any given moment of the day knew exactly where he was. Sydney wanted to hate him. She had every right after how he had treated her. But she found that as much as she wanted to, she couldn't. Beyond the harsh façade that he presented to the world, she understood that he came from a place of pain. One that she could empathise with. One that she understood.

Sydney pulled her old, beat up Honda Civic into the driveway and sat staring at the house.

"Jesus Christ!" she scoffed as she banged her head on the steering wheel. "Get a grip Sydney, you're an adult. Act like one." She sat back up again and took a deep breath as she unbuckled her seat belt.

Before she had a chance to get out of the car, Grace was rushing out the front door, a look of relief overcame her as she spotted Sydney. "You were sitting there so long I started to worry," Grace said as she drew closer.

Sydney threw what she hoped was an apologetic smile at her cousin, "Have you seen them yet?"

Grace shook her head, "No, I've only just gotten here myself," she said, "I stayed over at Mason's last night."

They walked, arm-in-arm into the house discussing the previous day. Sydney had left soon after the fireworks and they hadn't yet had a chance to catch up. As they entered the main lounge that opened out to the patio beyond, she could hear her Aunt call out to her. "Sydney dear, is that you?"

Sydney glanced at Grace, who gave her a reassuring smile as they headed through to the patio area.

"There you are dear," Ivy said as Sydney gave both her Aunt and Uncle a hug.

"Sorry, I'm late. I lost track of time working," she lied.

Her eyes darted questioningly around the area as she took a seat. The two extra faces she was expecting to see were conspicuous by their absence.

"Jackson is inside on a call, and your mother is in her room resting," Ivy said.

Ivy poured Sydney and Grace an Iced Tea. "You never told me that Mac McMasters knows that you are a Hutton," Ivy remarked as she handed Sydney the chilled beverage.

"I just assumed you knew."

"I didn't," her Aunt said as she leaned forward and lowered her voice, "I had such a fright yesterday morning I really was at a loss for words."

They could hear a barely repressed snort coming from behind the financial times.

"Victor," cautioned Ivy.

"What was that dear?" Victor said as he poked his head around his newspaper.

"Why? What happened?" asked Grace once her father had returned his focus to reading.

Ivy glanced around to make sure they could not be overheard. "Well, Mason and Mac arrived earlier to help with the preparations. I had Mac pull out the cutlery for me from the buffet dresser in the formal dining room. I wasn't careful with how I had stacked some of the stuff in the cupboard and one of the photo albums spilled as he opened the door. Some of the photos fell out and I found the poor boy trying to pick up the scattered pages and photos."

Sydney was confused. "What's that got to do with him knowing I'm a Hutton?"

"One of the photos he was studying when I walked in was the one you and Grace with the Myers cat. You remember the one," Ivy said.

Sydney nodded, she had loved that cat with a passion and had spent the entire summer teaching DB to walk on a leash and to jump through a hoop on command. She was devastated when she had to go home and leave the cat behind. Much to her dismay, the Myers were quite fond of the animal themselves and didn't want to part with it.