Kay says, a few hours after Mom has left and we’ve moved our conversation to the lodge. “Over the years.” “Yeah, playing the victim doesn’t really suit anyone.” I bite down hard on the inside of my bottom lip, trying to fend off the wave of emotion that is coming loose again. “I used to really look up to her, while Nina was always more of a Daddy’s girl. I guess, when it came out, she was at that delicate age where disappointment turns into destructive rage. One she, obviously, still hasn’t recovered from.” I spot the look of puzzlement in Kay’s eyes, but she doesn’t probe. “Dad had a mistress. A full-blown affair with someone from work. It lasted a year and, as Mom likes to remind us, if she hadn’t found out, it might have gone on forever.” Kay’s eyebrows shoot up. “John? Are you kidding me?” “I know. You’d never have pegged him for the sort just by looking at him. A quiet, demure, hard-working man who never wished harm on anyone. Although it put the hours he spent at work into perspective, of course.”
