Page 41 of What Love Can Do
“Yes, hi.” Lilly smiled and looked to Quinn for silent solace.
“Oh, wow! I’ve heard so much about you, but we’ve never actually met. Is it true you’re going to be on the Food Network working with Guy Santoli?”
Lilly nodded, pausing to look at an enclosed case of a selection of wines. “All true. I leave in about two weeks.”
“Well, good luck! I’m totally jealous and so happy to finally meet you. I’ll let Suzanne know you’re here. Give me a minute.”
“No problem,” Lilly said, giving Quinn a satisfied smile.
“Why are we here?” Quinn asked. “You want to get me excommunicated, don’t you?”
“No, I want to get you in-communicated. Quinn, don’t be mad. Suzanne knows you’re coming. We already spoke, yesterday.”
From around the corner, a woman paused in the glass hallway, letting rays of sunlight pour all over her. Quinn’s heart picked up speed. He was about to meet a relative—his aunt, a woman he hadn’t even known existed only recently. “Jesus, Joseph, Mary…she looks like my mam.”
The woman crept closer, her eyes fixated on Quinn. She had a look of absolute elation and relief on her face, as her hands crossed over her heart. “Dear God…you are the spitting image of your father,” she said.
Quinn wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing, considering his father was responsible for leading innocent Maggie Phillips away, but from the smile of astonishment on her face, he gathered it was a good thing. “Are you…my mam’s sissy?”
She reached Quinn, smiled at Lilly, then went back to examining Quinn’s facial features, as though he were a sculpture made of clay. “I am. Suzanne Phillips, I’m so pleased to meet you. Walk this way, please.”
A bit cordial for a family member, thought Quinn, watching the woman turn on a dime and head back down the hallway. He exchanged side glances with Lilly, who suddenly seemed nervous, terrified, and nauseous all rolled into one.
The view of the courtyard was splendid, with white tents set up with Chinese paper lanterns, a busy staff preparing the long tables underneath, and a fairly large staff bustling about, preparing for an outdoor event. As they strolled through the beautiful house, Quinn hoped no one would recognize him, talk shit behind his back, or worse—throw him out. He hadn’t even had the chance to shower, shave, and look presentable.
It wasn’t until they entered a spacious office with an amazing view of the vineyard, did Suzanne close the door, whirl around, tears spilling over lashes, and fall into Quinn’s surprised arms. “Dear, sweet Maggie’s boy,” she said, clinging to his shoulders, shaking and wracked with sobs. “You’ve come home.”
Sixteen
Suzanne finally pulled away and reached for the tissue box on her mahogany desk. Lilly thought she looked like a businessy sixty-year-old Bette Midler. “I loved my sister so very much,” she said, holding Quinn’s hands then reaching out to touch his face. “Your mother was very special to me.”
Quinn’s face warped, as he struggled with what to believe. If she was so special, then why didn’t you guys want her back home? Lilly could almost hear his thoughts. He shook his head, his mouth agape slightly, and for a moment, she thought he would need to sit down.
“I don’t…I don’t understand,” he finally hammered out.
Lilly reached for a leather chair in the corner and brought it towards him. “May I?” she asked Suzanne.
“Yes, of course!” Suzanne pulled forward a chair for herself and another for Lilly, rushed over to the window facing the parking lot and street, and peeked through the blinds. “Of course, of course…” If Lillian didn’t know better, Suzanne almost seemed to be keeping watch, making sure someone didn’t arrive at the exact moment that she was harboring the son of Maggie Phillips and Grant O’Neill right in her very own walls. “I have to go very soon,” she said, taking a seat opposite Quinn and crossing her legs. “We have a big event going on today, and the whole family is due to arrive any moment.”
“It’s okay. We won’t take but a moment. Thing is…” Quinn said, shaking his head. “If you loved her, like you say you did, why did nobody want her back home? She tried several times to get in touch with you.”
Suzanne’s face twisted into a knot. “No, love. My little sister was always stubborn. By God was she stubborn. I just never understood why she would abandon us the way she did.”
“She didn’t abandon you. She simply got married and moved away. I mean, isn’t that a perfectly normal thing to happen?”
“No, dear. She never even called when our mother died several years back. How could a daughter not call, not come home after something like that?”
“But she did!” Quinn assured her. “I have it here. I have her journal that she kept. It was private, and I only found it recently, but it says it right here…” Quinn opened his hand for the journal, while Lilly worked to fish it out of her bag. She plucked it free and handed it to him. While Quinn flipped to the right page, Lilly exchanged sad smiles with Suzanne, grateful that she had agreed to meet Quinn on such short notice and secretly as well. “See, look at it right here.” He began to read—
Well, that’s it then. I called Dad when I heard the news that Mom passed. I told him I wanted to come home and see him and my sisters, and what did he say? ‘We don’t have a daughter named Maggie. You must have the wrong number.’ Click, he hung up on me. Some family, huh?”
Quinn brushed the tears from his eyes. “It was right after I was born, twenty-eight years ago. She goes on to say that that was her last attempt. After that, she didn’t call home anymore, but she did try first, Suzanne. She did. My mother wouldn’t just abandon her loved ones.”
Lilly kept quiet during the whole discussion, feeling like a fly on the wall, but more than ever, she agreed with Quinn. Richard Phillips had made it difficult for Maggie, for whatever reasons he felt were right.
“Goodness, I had no idea,” Suzanne said, palm to her chest. She bent her head and pushed the tissue to her mouth. “But it doesn’t surprise me. My father has always been a lockbox of secrets. And now she’s gone. I’ll never see her again. I can’t believe it.” She dropped her face and began to sob into her hands.
Quinn reached out and hugged her across the chairs. He said nothing, just held Suzanne, and Lilly felt hot tears rising into her eyes as well. She couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to have family so close, yet so far.