I Ran So Far Away - Complete

Chapter 32

Once Kate finished with the statements, she passed them over to her mother who skimmed them, stopping to read the salient parts.

"Why would Daddy do that?" Kate asked. I guessed it was a rhetoric question, however Melinda answered her.

"It's the way things used to be," Kate's mother replied with a sigh. "Wealthy men had any number of mistresses or lovers over the years. It was understood – their wives had babies, kept house, entertained and maintained a spotless reputation while the men worked and played hard. In his own twisted way, your father probably considered he was introducing Elliot to what it meant to be a family man..."

"By being unfaithful?!" Kate screeched, disturbing Teddy from my breast.

"Shh," I grumbled, rolling my eyes before reattaching Teddy and trying to get him to lull off again.

"You don't understand. That's the way it was back then. Men took long boozy lunches at places with women of loose morals or visited strip clubs to sign off a big deal. It was expected. All the wives knew and turned a blind eye."

"Not all," I said, considering Grace and Carrick. I couldn't see Carrick doing that or Grace letting him get away with it!

"That doesn't explain my ballet teacher or your friends," Kate retorted. "It's bad enough everyone knows what Dad is like. Now they think Elliot is cut from the same cloth!"

"Go overseas, give it a few months. People will forget," Melinda counseled.

"People don't forget, Mom. They're too polite to mention it to you, but people remember and they talk."

"But you know the truth, Kate. Elliot should never have had so much to drink he put himself in that position, but he didn't willingly cheat on you, and now you have proof," I argued.

"Ethan caught him with his dick in a stripper's mouth."

"Ethan witnessed him being sexually assaulted, you mean?" I said raising my eyebrows in challenge at Kate. If Welch's investigations were true, Elliot did not consent to the sex act performed on him. Kate withered under my stare.

"Does he know yet?"

"Christian is having lunch with him and telling him today."

There was silence as that information sunk in. Kate looked as though she wanted to say something to Melinda, so with Teddy asleep, I checked with Kate if it would be ok to wheel his bassinet into a bedroom so our chatter wouldn't disturb him.

"Use Ethan's," Kate instructed.

I placed Teddy in his bassinet, moving it down the corridor and into Ethan's bedroom; the one that had once been mine. It looked completely different now. I spent a few minutes in there checking the monitor was working on batteries and the receiver synched. Padding back down the corridor, I heard Kate and Melinda speaking, but not what was being said. In any case, they stopped abruptly as I reentered the room.

"Let me sort out lunch," Kate said, moving into the kitchen and dishing up a quiche. She didn't try to hide the box that announced it had come from a local bakery a few blocks over. Decorating the plates with salad, she passed me two to take to the table before coming across with hers, and a bottle of white with two wine glasses.

"I'm not sure what you want, Ana? Help yourself."

I checked out the fridge and settled for a diet soda, joining Melinda and Kate at the table. We ate in silence, Kate and Melinda both drinking heavily before Melinda eventually started in on a discussion about her upcoming trip to Prague.