Page 56 of Exchange of Heart

‘I don’t think even you have a clue about the things you want.’

She thought she had me all figured out, but she’d never understand what it was like to have your life customised by your father, leaving your dreams nothing more than that – a dream. She might want what I have, but she didn’t stop to contemplate that maybe I didn’t want what I have.

My fists tightened, and I jumped from my chair. ‘God, you can be such a bitch sometimes.’ I was mad at my father, not Nora, but I couldn’t help taking my frustration out on the first person I saw.

Her.

Nora abandoned her chair and towered over me in response. ‘And you can be such a jackass.’

‘Maybe this is why you didn’t get the promotion.’ I didn’t mean it, and I knew I’d taken it too far the moment the words left my mouth.

Nora’s face scrunched in a mixture of shock and hatred as she lifted her hand and shoved my shoulder. I took a step back to balance myself, but my foot landed on the edge of the pool and slipped. My toes touched the cool water, and a moment later, my body followed.

‘Nora!’ Luke ran out the backdoor.

By the time I’d swum to the stairs, Mum hurried out with stripey towels in her hands, Ben and Steven close behind.

‘I slipped,’ I insisted as I climbed up.

‘You pushed her,’ Luke yelled at Nora.

‘She told you, she slipped. It wasn’t my fault.’ Nora winced and rubbed the stubble on her cheeks.

Mum placed the towel around my shoulders in a gesture that almost made me sob into her chest like a child, begging her to wrap her arms around me and make everything better. A mother’s touch was such a simple act that could heal even the deepest wounds.

‘I promise he didn’t push me. You must have seen him trying to grab me when I lost my balance.’ I tried to wipe Nora’s long black hair from my face which clung to my skin with strands I couldn’t even see.

Luke wasn’t convinced; I could tell by his narrowed eyes. He held the same expression as Mum did when thirteen-year-old me told her I didn’t break her orange vase despite the splash marks at the bottom of my trousers. Too polite to argue, Luke clenched his jaw and turned away.

‘Nobody told me there’d be a pool party tonight.’ Ben wiggled his body in what I could only assume he meant to be a dance move, following it up with yet another sip of whiskey.

‘Someone take his glass away, please?’ Nora pointed at Ben.

Thank goodness she took his drinking problem seriously.

‘Can we not with the family drama tonight?’ Steven massaged his temples. ‘I promised Julz I’d be home by nine to help settle Gwen after her first night feed.’

‘We get it,’ Ben spat. ‘You’ve got a happy little marriage with a happy little baby.’

‘What’s going on out here?’ my father boomed from the back door.

My stomach plummeted. Great, he was home. Now the real shitshow could begin.

After changing into Mum’s gardening trousers and tennis polo, I stared in the mirror deciding I’d reached my lowest point. Nothing would compare to this moment. A gentle knock rapped the door, and I opened it to my familiar face. Nora didn’t have to dress like a fifty-year-old woman tonight, it wasn’t fair. She got to wear my chinos and a regular T-shirt. She slipped inside with an apologetic smile, but considering I knew that face, I also recognised the hint of amusement.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t know what came over me.’

‘I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have said what I did. It wasn’t true. You’re helping hold that company together. Freddie’s a dickhead.’

‘Thank you,’ she said.

‘I meant what I said, though. You don’t know half of what I want. What this company is doing to me. This lifestyle. It all comes at a price I never wanted to pay.’

‘Let me in, Corey. Tell me what’s going on, because I’m obviously missing something.’

My mouth opened, but the words wouldn’t come out. Nora judged me from the moment she’d met me, and I couldn’t stand the idea of her attitude falling to sympathy. When she fought me on everything, at least she did it with a spicy passion, but the chance of switching back dimmed more each day, and I knew I couldn’t keep it from her much longer.

‘If I don’t do this job, one of my brothers will have to,’ I said.