~ ~
Cameron jammed his hands into his pockets. He’d been hoping to hold off this little scene for a while longer. But now that Mom and Dad were here, there was no getting around it. Olivia looked as if she’d just swallowed a bowling pin. She kept glancing at him as if searching for some kind of silent command from him on what to do.
He turned to his parents and announced, "She’s my wife."
Olivia’s face turned bright red as Allison and Chuck both whirled back around to blink at her.
"But don’t worry," Cameron went on to explain. "It won’t last long. The marriage was a mistake."
Allison gasped. "Cameron," she whispered in horror, looking worriedly toward Olivia.
Cameron flushed. "Sorry, Livy. You know I didn’t mean it that way. I meant, it was an accident." He glanced at his parents. "We didn’t mean to marry each other."
"An accident," Allison repeated in perplexity. "But how in the world could you accidentally marry someone unless…" Then she realized.
"You were drunk," Chuck finished flatly, disappointment thick in his voice.
Allison pressed a hand to her mouth. When tears immediately filled her lashes, Cameron shoved his hands in his pockets and turned uneasily away. "It’s okay," he assured. "Boston’s going to work out the papers, and we’ll be annulled in no time."
But Allison shook her head, still looking like she was going to fall to her knees and start weeping uncontrollably. "I thought you had recovered," she insisted. "You went to all those AA classes."
"It was just one relapse," Cameron said. He could shrug off anyone else, but seeing his mother hurt by him was more than he could handle. "I haven’t—"
"Don’t," Chuck snapped, glaring. "Don’t you dare lie to your mother.
I don’t care if you’re thirty or eighty. You’re still my son, and I will not let you lie to my wife."
"Look, I’m not like I used to be," Cameron argued. "I promise you I’m better. Alcohol doesn’t rule my life. It doesn’t affect me like it did. I can stop. I have stopped."
"Except you haven’t," Chuck cocked back. "And it obviously does rule your life since it made you marry a perfectly innocent young woman."
Cameron’s jaw set. "We’re going to fix that."
Allison couldn’t take it anymore. She wiped at her eyes and then hoarsely said, "Excuse me. I-I’m sorry, I have to…" She hurried from the room before finishing her sentence.
Cameron cursed under his breath, slumped onto the sofa, and buried his face in his hands.
~ ~
Olivia watched Cameron’s torn father glance after his departed wife and then toward his son. His eyes narrowed slightly when they settled on Cameron. Then he started to turn away as if it were too painful to look at his boy.
When he caught her watching him, he paused, his gaze warming. Instinctively, she knew he didn’t blame her for any of this, and it made her feel a guilty. Yes, Cameron had been drunk that night, but she’d been the one to press their nuptials.
"You’re his mistake, hmm?" Chuck murmured. Then he grinned and winked. "Well, you sure are a pretty mistake."
His smile faded a little as he glanced at the empty doorway through which his wife had fled. Then he nodded quietly to Olivia and hurried after Allison, calling her name.
Olivia looked at Cameron and was about to scold him for letting them down that way. But she saw the misery on every tense muscle in his body and quietly left him alone.
Fourteen
Olivia had been planning on slinking unnoticed up to her room and hiding until the whole family scene played itself out. But as soon as she stepped into the next parlor and started for the steps, she skidded to a stop.
Cameron’s parents stood huddled together, hugging, in her path.
They lifted their faces, and she knew she was trapped. Great. Here came the accusations and dirty names.
But Allison Banks merely sent her a bashful smile as she stepped away from her husband and reached for Olivia’s hand. "Please excuse my behavior," she gushed. "I didn’t mean to walk out without—"
"Don’t worry about it," Olivia cut in. "You don’t have to explain or apologize to me," she added hastily. She should be the one apologizing for trapping their son into an unwanted marriage.
"It’s just that Cameron went through such a hard time after...after…"
"After Sienna killed herself," Olivia finished bluntly.
Both Allison and Chuck lifted their eyebrows, startled. "He told you about that?"