“Mom… What are you doing here?”
Sheila Davenport took a deep breath before saying, “Dylan and I had some business to discuss. How was your holiday?”
Lisa Davenport Collins surveyed her mother carefully as she sat in a chair at the far end of Dylan’s drawing room. “It wasn’t a holiday,” Lisa replied, crisply. “I had a lot of thinking to do…my therapist was indispensable.”
“Oh.” Sheila deftly touched the silk pillow which sat by her side. “I don’t know what is keeping your brother… I’m supposed to meet Alison in an hour.”
“He’s probably busy with something.”
“Well… I should go…”
“That’s it?” Lisa called after her mother. “We’ve barely spoken in weeks and now you’re avoiding me?”
“Don’t you take that tone with me, Lisa. I have plans.”
“Yes, you always have plans. Were your plans so important that you couldn’t be bothered to wish Nicholas a happy birthday?”
“Who told you that?!?”
“Dylan told me. That was cruel, Mom. He’s your son.”
Sheila let out a frustrated sigh. “You children are getting more and more difficult the older you get! I sent Nicholas a gift the next day. It was a bespoke chess set…”
“Nicholas hates chess,” interjected Lisa. “Eli likes chess.”
“See. I can’t do anything right! No matter what I do for you children, it’s never enough.”
Lisa glared at her mother with bewilderment. “You try to control us! Me, Dylan, Nicholas, Eli…it’s what you do.”
“I’ve never…”
“The minute one of us does something to upset you, you ice us out. You’ve done it to all of us! It’s the one thing we four have in common.”
“I do not have to listen to such slanderous lies,” spat Sheila, hotly.
“You didn’t call me once the entire time I was in Arizona. Not once. Everyone else called to check on me, but not you,” snapped Lisa.
“I was giving you space…”
“No, you weren’t, Mom. You were upset with me because I made a decision about my body without consulting my husband!”
“He has a right…”
“No, he doesn’t! No one does. What I do with my body is up to me. I am not Jackson’s property. No one owns me.” Lisa stood up, walked over to her mother, and said, “Mom, I love you, but you have to stop trying to run our lives.”
“I do not try to…”
“You do! Dylan told me how you reacted when Nicholas said he wanted to sell his shares in Davenport Technology.”
“That has nothing to do with you or Dylan. Nicholas’ shares are held in trust. I’m the trustee because he’s too impetuous and irresponsible to manage his own financial affairs.”
“How can he become responsible if you won’t let him try? He’s thirty-six! Dylan, Eli, and I can vote our shares in the company which are held in trust, so why can’t Nicholas?”
Sheila let out an exasperated sigh. “Lisa, this is none of your business. I don’t even know why you’re concerned about Nicholas’ affairs.”
Lisa let her mother’s words sit with her for a moment before saying, “Because no one ever holds you to account. You have so much privilege that no one would deign to tell you when you’re in the wrong. What your adult children do…the mistakes they make…are none of your business.”
“You children will always be my business! Lisa, I think you’re mistaking interference for love. I’m sorry I behaved so badly when you told me about your surgery. I shouldn’t have been so impulsive.”
“I suppose that’s as much of an apology as I’ll ever get from you.”
“You needn’t be so hostile.”
“Then learn to apologize with sincerity!” Lisa grabbed her purse and turned to her mother with mounting annoyance. “Mom, I love you, but you need to take a good, long look in the mirror. There’s a reason why you and Eli don’t talk, why Nicholas refuses to come home, why Dylan keeps you at arm’s length, and why I can’t deal with you right now.”
“Lisa! Where are you going,” Sheila called after her daughter. “Lisa!”
With that, Sheila watched Lisa storm out of Dylan’s house with more hurt and fury than she’d ever seen from her daughter in her entire life.
In our next installment, Charles demands something from Alison…
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