Excerpt
A Mother's Love
Chapter 1It was a beautiful early October day, the weather was warm, the leaves were starting to turn in a riot of color, and the wedding had gone perfectly. Halley Holbrook sat in a quiet corner of the peaceful terrace overlooking the exquisite garden of the Connecticut estate she had rented for her daughter Valerie’s wedding. The bridal couple had wanted a daytime wedding, with a morning ceremony, a celebratory lunch, and an afternoon of dancing. By six o’clock, the couple had left and the guests had said their goodbyes and thanks to Halley for a fabulous event, and she took a moment to sit quietly and think about what an unforgettable day it had been.
Valerie was a tall, fine-featured blonde, twenty-seven years old, and she had been dating Seth Parker for almost three years. They had met at the beginning of the pandemic, and had gotten close quickly, sheltering together in place several times. Valerie was an attorney at a firm that specialized in entertainment law, and Seth Parker was one of their major clients, the producer of a string of hit TV series. He was thirty-nine years old, divorced, with no children, and had a massive, successful, all-consuming career, which was convenient for Valerie, since she was in no rush to have children and start a family. She was much more interested in becoming a partner at the law firm where she worked. They had offices in Los Angeles and New York and she had been commuting between the two cities for the past two years, in order to be with Seth. She had just moved to L.A., a month before the wedding. Most of the two hundred and eighty-five guests and wedding party had flown in from there, several of them on private planes.
Valerie’s identical twin sister, Olivia, had moved to Los Angeles at the same time Valerie did. She was an artist and could work anywhere, and she had just signed a contract with a reputable contemporary art gallery in L.A. to represent her. The girls had given up the New York apartment they shared in Tribeca when Valerie was in town, and Olivia had given up her studio in SoHo. They were making a clean break by going to the West Coast together, which was how they had done everything all their lives. They were inseparable, had gone to school together since nursery school, and had gone to Yale because of the excellent fine arts department for Olivia. When Valerie went on to Columbia Law School in New York, Olivia was back in the city working in her studio.
Halley lived in New York on Fifth Avenue in a beautiful big apartment, where she and her daughters had lived for nineteen years, since Halley’s first best-selling novel. The twins had been eight when they moved there from a much smaller, more modest apartment on the Upper West Side, which had been all Halley could afford at the time. Their current apartment still felt like home to the twins. Halley lived there alone now, but the girls visited often, and spent weekends with their mother occasionally. When they did, the three of them always had fun together.
It was going to change Halley’s life dramatically not to have her daughters nearby. One or both of them had always been available for a spontaneous meal, a movie, or an afternoon of shopping when she wasn’t writing. She rarely had a day without one or both of the twins in it. If Valerie was busy, Halley would drop in at Olivia’s studio on her way home, to see what she was working on. Olivia had a great eye for form and color, and real talent. Halley and her daughters were extremely close and called themselves the three musketeers. Now it would all be different, with the girls living in L.A.
Valerie’s fiancé, Seth, didn’t mind having Olivia tag along. He enjoyed having two beautiful women with him, and teased them about it. Valerie was confident and outgoing, with determined opinions and occasionally a sharp tongue. She didn’t hesitate to go after what she wanted, and was outspoken. Olivia was quieter and more retiring, she had a gentler style and her mother often found her to be the kinder, more empathetic, and compassionate of the two. Valerie was a fighter for whatever she set her sights on. Olivia was less sure of herself and could be swayed more easily. She was no match for her twin sister in an argument, and favored the underdog in most things. She was usually more sympathetic to her mother than Valerie, who had a more cut-and-dried, black-and-white view of everything, including their mother. Valerie’s battles with their mother had been fierce in her teens, but had calmed down eventually. Olivia had been the peacemaker.
Olivia was worried about her mother now that she’d be alone in New York. Valerie said she’d be fine and dismissed her twin’s concerns. She was busy setting up the spectacular house Seth had just bought for them in Bel Air. Olivia was renting a small, modest 1930s Spanish-style house with a pool, nearby in Beverly Hills, but Valerie had set up a room for her in their house too, so Olivia could stay with them whenever she wanted. They had shared a room for their entire lives until Valerie got married. Valerie tried to include her twin in everything she did. Olivia was the person Valerie loved most in the world, even more than Seth or their mother. It was the nature of twins, and a relationship like no other, for both of them.
Halley had brought the girls up on her own, in somewhat unusual circumstances. She was twenty-two when they were born, and forty-nine now. She was turning fifty in December, which was a landmark she wasn’t looking forward to. It made her feel old, although she wasn’t, and she looked younger than her age. She was facing an empty nest for the first time. The three of them often took trips together. Now she’d have to wait for them to visit from L.A. She didn’t want to intrude on them, particularly Valerie in her new life. It was all going to be very different. Halley was determined to make the best of it and fill her own life. She had a demanding writing career, which would keep her busy. She worked late into the night, and hadn’t had a man in her life in three years.
Valerie’s wedding had marked the end of a chapter, a big one for Halley. The twins had been the hub of her life and her whole universe for twenty-seven years. She would have to get used to being on her own now, with them living far away. Halley was still a strikingly beautiful woman, with creamy white skin, green eyes, and hair as dark as the twins’ was fair. The girls looked a great deal like her, except for their coloring. Like her own mother, Halley had modeled briefly when she was at Connecticut College and after she graduated. She had done it for the extra money, but writing had been her passion. She poured her heart and soul into what she wrote, which her readers could feel in every word. There was honesty and integrity and raw emotion in her writing. She never hid from the truth and her stories touched her readers deeply.
She had started writing seriously after the twins were born. After five years of struggling with her first novel, her perseverance paid off. Her first book was published when she was twenty-seven, and she had her first bestseller three years later, at thirty. It was a dark, complicated psychological novel that had captivated reviewers and won her a loyal readership from then on. She had a deep compassion for human suffering, and clearly a profound knowledge and understanding of those who created it. There was a hungry audience for what she wrote. She struck a universal chord in her readers. For the past nineteen years, every book she’d written had been on the major bestseller lists. She had a rewarding career, which would fill her time once the twins left.
