Lily
Lily walked through the heavy doors to enter the plush, elegant offices of Nate’s company.
The last four days had been a tumble of activity and through all of it, Lily could think of only one thing.
Moving heaven and earth to make Tash happy.
Saturday night, they’d all gone out to dinner. Natasha and Nate, it was clear to see, were quickly forming a bond. Lily was somewhat surprised at how easily Nate showed affection to his daughter. It wasn’t lavish or showy. It wasn’t desperate to impress or please. It was genuine and beautiful and Tash responded to it immediately.
This visibly annoyed Fazire but the genie loved Tash enough not to let it show (too much).
One day, they were barely scraping by, Natasha’s entire family made up of a busy mother, a genie-father-esque figure who was more of a playmate, however, Fazire
had
learned over the years to do the laundry, was quite adept at ironing and could make a mean tuna casserole and the outlandish Maxine.
The next day, literally, Tash had a dashing, handsome, rich, obviously caring father
and
doting grandparents.
Horseback riding lessons were hers for the asking. A seven million pound trust fund was waiting for her to turn twenty-one making it so she would never want again. Rooms could be transformed in a weekend as if by magic.
But this was Nate’s magic rather than Fazire’s which perhaps was one of the reasons why Fazire disliked Nate so intensely for Nate, too, could grant wishes, even wishes which hadn’t been expressed.
Tash’s world had doubled, opening up before her with extraordinary beauty. It was, quite simply, a miracle. The wished for, hoped for, longed for, but never expected, miracle.
Natasha was delighted and Lily couldn’t help but be delighted for her.
And Natasha wanted a family, it was clear. She’d heard the stories for years, not only of all the gloriousness that was Nate but Fazire and Lily told her of Sarah, Rebecca, Will and their summers spent floating on inner tubes on the pond, their big holiday extravaganzas and a million and one other things, both big and small, that made families so wonderful.
Tash, quite rightly, wanted that for herself.
Natasha had no idea what was happening with her parents and her confusion would be extraordinary, even devastating (as Nate predicted) if her mother who had relayed so many glowing stories of her beloved Nate, didn’t take him back gleefully and make them the family Tash craved.
And Lily, knowing how precious family was, couldn’t help but want to give that to her.
After dinner, Tash and Lily had walked Nate to the car because Tash made her with a tug on her hand, the three of them walking together, Natasha between them holding both Lily’s and Nate’s hands.
Once there, he’d picked up Tash as if she weighed no more than a feather and at seven, nearly eight and a tall child to boot, considering her parents, she weighed a
lot
more than that.
She kissed him squarely on the mouth and threw her arms around his neck in one of her fierce hugs.
“When are you coming back?” she asked when she partially disengaged, her arms still resting on his broad shoulders.
“Very soon,” he answered with a devastatingly handsome smile to which Tash, just like her mother, immediately reacted.
“Tomorrow?” she tried hopefully making Lily’s Avoid-Nate-at-All-Costs Resolution fade to a memory.
Nate’s eyes slid to Lily, who was trying very hard to control her expression.
“Maybe not tomorrow,” he demurred, “but soon.”
It was then that Tash rubbed her nose against Nate’s. Lily watched in fascination as Nate closed his eyes and something passed over his face, something so intense Lily felt it go through her own body like an electric shock.
“Promise?” Tash demanded on a whisper, her face still close to her father’s.
“I promise.” Nate’s deep voice was nearly a growl and Lily found herself swallowing at the emotion it betrayed.
Something about that growl, that emotion, all Nate’s intensity made Lily’s heart flutter, her chest squeeze and, lastly, it made her very, very curious to its cause.
She was standing with them on the sidewalk by Nate’s driver’s side door. When he put Natasha down, before she knew his intention, his arm shot out, hooked her waist and he pulled her to him.
She made a low noise of surprise which was muffled when his mouth slanted down on hers in a hard, but brief and unfortunately effective kiss.
“I want you here when I come back,” he told her when he’d stopped kissing her, still holding her against his hard body and she realised then he’d cottoned on to the Dodge Nate Plan.
She hesitated, trying not to look at Natasha who she knew was staring up at them gleefully.
Then she mumbled, “We’ll see.”
Apparently, that was good enough for him for he let her go, got in his expensive car and drove away.
“He’s the bomb,” Natasha said, using a term Maxine used frequently and watching her father go.
Lily stood looking at her daughter watching her father’s car disappear and she saw the years stretching before her. Years of Nate bringing Natasha home, dropping her off and then disappearing from her life again for days or weeks, only to come back into her life for brief periods of time. Then again her daughter would be forced to watch him go. And Lily asked herself, could she do that to Tash?
Lily crouched behind her beloved daughter, pulled her back to Lily’s front and she rested her chin against Tash’s shoulder.
“Happy, baby doll?”
Natasha was so happy, she couldn’t speak, she just nodded. It was the first time since Tash had uttered her first words that she’d been speechless.
Lily felt the emotion crawl up her throat, already knowing somewhere deep inside her what she should do but still incapable of allowing herself to do it.
Sunday, her new furniture was not only delivered and assembled but they went up to the top floor to where they’d stowed her belongings (the ones
not
tossed out by Nate) and returned them to her room so Lily didn’t have to do it.
The bed was enormous, she’d never seen a bed so huge. It was a sleigh bed made of heavy, shining oak. A massive wardrobe twice the size of her old one and intricately carved like the scrolls on the bed, stood against the wall. A thin, matching, six drawer, lingerie dresser, another, wider dresser and two beautiful bed stands were added. Gorgeous, delicate, lamps that matched the exquisite ceiling fixture stood on the bedside tables. Gossamer curtains, an even paler blue than the walls, drifted at the window with heavy, slightly-darker, blue drapes hanging outside, all of this on stunning, scrolled, wrought-iron curtain rods. The floor was covered by an intricately patterned, deep-pile, fringed rug that Lily was fairly certain by its sheen was made of silk and likely imported from Turkey (she became certain of this because Fazire told her, Fazire knew a thing or two about rugs from Turkey). Two pictures were affixed to the walls, ivory mattes in black frames with prints of fancifully drawn shoes that, on first sight, even Lily had to admit that she loved, they were so girlie and perfect, she couldn’t help herself. The bed was covered in a fluffy, ivory coverlet trimmed in the blues of the walls and curtains and there were two sets of three standard, downy pillows stacked side-by-side at the head of the bed encased in the varying blues and ivory in front of which stood gigantic European squares in soft cases that had a lovely swirl of all the colours as a pattern.
“It’s bee… you… tee… full,” Natasha breathed as she and her mother stood in the doorway staring at it.
It was more than beautiful, it was the kind of bedroom where dreams came true.
The room, however, was just the beginning.
Monday, she came home from the shop with Maxine who came over for dinner every Monday evening. Maxine knew that Fazire was a genie, Maxine was also addicted to Fazire’s tuna casserole and his equally adept hand at grilling a sausage and making the fluffiest mash potatoes in history. Maxine had also had an excited phone call from Tash and was eager to see Lily’s new bedroom.
Natasha, as was becoming a habit, tore out of the house at their arrival, her black hair streaming behind her, her face awash with joy.
Fazire, as was becoming a habit, stomped out of the house, his black hair a mess as if his hands had torn through it repeatedly and his face awash with fury.
Tash halted two feet away from her mother, lifted her arm and pointed at the street. “Look Mummy.”
Curious, both Maxine and Lily turned to look. Lily saw her Peugeot sitting there forlornly looking like it was begging to be put out of its misery and taken to the scrap yard.
“Isn’t it lush?” Tash asked.
Confused, Lily stared. The Peugeot, even if Lily had enough money to have it valeted, could never be described as “lush”.
“What are you talking about, sweetling?” Maxine asked.
“Can’t you see it? Look! Behind Mummy’s car. Daddy had it delivered today, it’s a present for Mummy. The keys are in the house.”
Lily’s eyes shifted behind her car and she saw a sleek, handsome, shining, sporty, blue Mercedes convertible.
“Dearie me,” Maxine exhaled in an unusual understatement.
Lily felt as if she’d been running for miles flat out then all of a sudden she slammed into a wall. Her breath, quite suddenly, had been knocked right out of her.
“Dearie me, dearie me, dearie me,” Tash sing-songed and danced to the car, threw her arms wide and then she actually hugged it. Just as quickly, she turned back to them and asked, “Isn’t Daddy
the greatest?
”
Lily was saved from answering when she heard the phone ring.
“I shall get that,” Fazire grumbled from behind them.
Lily was still recovering from the car as she followed Tash who was skipping delightedly into the house in front of them.
“What are you going to do? Maxine asked, her voice both concerned and filled with awe.
“I don’t know,” Lily answered and indeed she didn’t. She couldn’t return the car and she had to use it. Natasha had hugged the damned car, for God’s sake.
“It’s for you.” Fazire was walking down the hall, holding the phone between his thumb and forefinger like it was a putrid piece of rubbish. He handed it to her and Lily, still stunned by the car, put it to her ear.
“Hello,” she greeted.
“Lily.” It was Nate and his velvet voice saying her name caused her to shudder.
She didn’t need this right now. She could barely string two thoughts together, she certainly couldn’t go head-to-head with Nate.
“Nate,” she replied.
Conflicting emotions tore through her. She didn’t know whether she should rail at him for he was using her daughter against her, there was no denying that. Or whether she should thank him because the bedroom was fantastic, the mattress firm but comfortable and so much better than her old one it wasn’t comparable, and Lord knew, she needed a car, though a Mercedes was definitely over-the-top. Or lastly, whether she should tell him to call Alistair if he wanted to speak to her and then hang up on him which was what she
should
do, she knew this because Alistair told her more than once, in fact at least a dozen times.
She thought he was calling to ask if she got the furniture, the car, maybe to have a bit of a chat.
She was wrong.
He called her because he was angry. His voice was rumbling with it and she could practically feel it through the phone line.
“Your solicitor told mine that you’ve put the seven million in trust for Natasha.”
She hesitated. Why this would make him angry, she could not fathom.
“Of course,” she muttered.
“
I’ll
take care of Natasha. I’ve already set up a trust for her,” he bit out.
Lily stood in her hall, her lovely fairy lights twinkling up the stairs.
She didn’t see this. Already stunned, she became immobile with shock. Her daughter, just over a week ago, had some clothes in her wardrobe, a decent amount of toys, a selection of expensive bears Maxine had given her and the love of three people.
Now she had two trust funds.
Lily had no chance to voice a reaction even if she’d been able to come up with one for Nate carried on.
“That money was for you,” he clipped.
“I…” she began, she hadn’t known it was for
her
. She couldn’t even believe it was for her. She wouldn’t begin to know what to do with seven million pounds.
“Release it from the fund,” he commanded.
Too astonished to think straight, she replied honestly, “I can’t. It’s impossible to touch until Tash comes of age and then only she can get to it.”
He didn’t hesitate. “I’ll have more transferred tomorrow.”
“No!” she cried instantly, horrified.
He ignored her outburst, “If you give
that
away, I’ll have more transferred.”
“Nate –”
“Do I make myself clear?” he demanded.